Villanova put on late-night show against Creighton

Thanks to television, you had to be a die-hard Villanova fan or a college basketball junkie in general to have seen Villanova’s 85-71 victory over Creighton Saturday night at the Century-Link Arena in Omaha, Neb.

In case you missed it, and many did because of the 10 p.m. tip, you failed to see Villanova’s best shooting performance of the season. Yes, even better than the 63-percent effort in Thursday’s 9564 destruction of No. 6 Xavier at the Pavilion.

The Wildcats shot 68 percent overall (34-for50) and that included a 6-for-18 showing from 3-point land. Villanova was nearly perfect from inside the arc. The Wildcats connected on 28 of 32 two-point tries. That’s 87.5 percent for the mathematically challenged.

Swingman Josh Hart shot 10-for-14 (8-for-10 inside the arc) and led the Wildcats with 25 points. Center Daniel Ochefu was 9-for-10 and finished with 19 points. Hart was the only player on the team with two misses from inside the 3-point line.

That’s an amazing number, especially on the road, but not a complete surprise. The Wildcats are shooting 63 percent from inside the arc (267-for-463).

So if the Wildcats are shooting so well from two-point land, why are they on a pace to shatter the program record for 3-point attempts (837) in a season in the regular season? It is who they are. Jay Wright gives his players, especially his guards, the freedom to take what they believe are good shots and the 3-pointer is a big part of that offensive repertoire.

As well as they shot from inside the arc against the Blue Jays, the Wildcats still needed those six triples to extend their winning streak to four games.

Still, it was an impressive performance by the Wildcats, too bad it came past a lot of people’s bedtime, thanks to TV.