Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Butler bullies ice cold Villanova into bad loss
Villanova had a chance to inch closer to its seventh Big East regular-season title in the last eight years Sunday afternoon.
A win would have put the eight-ranked Wildcats three games up on Creighton in the loss column with two to play. More importantly, a victory would have improved Villanova’s winning percentage in the league to 84.6.
The Wildcats would have had to win just one of its last two games against Creighton or Providence to finish with the best winning percentage and secure the regular-season crown and the top seed in the Big East tournament.
All they had to do was beat a sub-.500 Butler team they had beaten by 19 points in December. Bulldog guards Chuck Harris and Jair Bolden didn’t let that happen.
The duo combined for 35 points and spearheaded a defensive effort that held Villanova to its worst shooting day from 3-point range in Jay Wright’s 20 years on the Main Line in a 7361 victory over the eighthranked Wildcats at Hinkle Fieldhouse.
Harris scored 15 of his 20 points in the first half to stake the Bulldogs to a 34-24 lead at the break. Bolden tallied 12 of his 15 points after to break to end any chance that the Wildcats would mount a comeback.
“Their guards just dominated the game,” Wright said. “I know (Bryce) Golden and (Bruce) Nze did a good job, but a lot of it came from their guards and the attention we had to give to them, especially Bolden and Harris.
We just couldn’t control them.”
Harris and Bolden were just as deadly on the defensive end as the Bulldogs forced the Wildcats (15-4 overall, 10-3 Big East) into a 2-for-27 nightmare from deep. That translates to 7.4 percent. The two triples were the fewest the Wildcats made in a game since they had just one in a 7871 victory over St. John’s on Jan. 13, 2018.
No one was immune to the struggles, especially the guards. Justin Moore and Caleb Daniels both went 0–for-6 from beyond the arc and finished with 10 points each. Collin Gillespie was 1-for-5 from there and netted 14 points. Jeremiah Robinson-Earl (16 points, 16 rebounds) and Jermaine Samuels both were 0-for-4 from distance.
“When we were putting the ball in the post we were getting good looks, but guys were doing a good job of staying on their line and staying with their man, making it tough, making us shoot tough twos and making us shoot contested threes,” Gillespie said. “They did a really good job on the defensive end just pressuring the ball and staying with guys off the ball, showing help and making sure they got back.”
It was a physical, inyour-face style of defense the Wildcats have seen before, notably in losses to St. John’s and Creighton.
“Teams that get up in us and are physical, that’s bothered us,” Wright said. “They were in us and physical, and it affected us.”
That’s troubling for a team with as much experience as the Wildcats.
“We do have a veteran team in that we have guys who played before, but Justin
Moore and Jeremiah Robinson-Earl are only sophomores,” Wright said. “We got Cole Swider and
(Brandon) Slater who didn’t play a lot as freshmen. I think that’s part of it. But it’s just concerning to me in
general that teams that are real physical with us, give us trouble.”
Villanova did not match
Butler’s physicality on the defensive end, either. The Wildcats could not get a stop in the last five minutes of the first half when the Bulldogs (9-13, 8-11) went on a 14-4 run to take that 10-point lead into the intermission.
Each time Villanova made a run in the second half, it could not get the defensive stops it needed to keep the momentum going. The Wildcats went on a 9-0 run early in the second half to trim the deficit to 42-35. The Bulldogs responded by scoring on their next five possessions to push the spread back to 15, at 5439. Butler answered an 11-3 Villanova run with an 11-4 burst.
“We put some good possessions together to get it back to five, got it back to seven and then broke down,” Wright said. “… It’s just not being on top of our game to be able to make those adjustments and execute them. … We were just a step behind. We’re just not there yet where we can do the things that we want to do. We just have to keep working on it and keep getting better.”
• • • It was Villanova’s fourth loss at Hinkle in its last five trips to Indianapolis. … Robinson-Earl recorded his fourth doubledouble of the season. The 16 rebounds were one shy of matching his career high … Villanova scored 44 points in the paint, but only had six assists on 24 field goals. … The Wildcats will honor Gillespie, Samuels, Dhamir CosbyRoundtree and Kevin Hoehn when they host Creighton on senior night Wednesday at the Pavilion (8:30 p.m., FS1). Villanova will close out the regularseason on the road Saturday at Providence.