Wildcats pick up a win over La Salle
RADNOR >> Justin Moore doesn’t know anything about the Big 5.
He grew up in Maryland and went to DeMatha, so he wasn’t weaned on the City Series in the same way as Villanova teammates Collin Gillespie, Dahmir CosbyRoundtree or Eric Dixon, who were raised in the area.
Villanova coach Jay Wright tried to give Moore a tutorial, as he does with every incoming freshman not from the area.
“I knew La Salle was in it and St. Joe’s,” Moore said. “I just found out (Sunday) when coach told us about it.
“I actually told him (Saturday) night, but I didn’t think he was listening,” Wright said. “I could tell he wasn’t really sure so I did it again, today. That’s freshmen.”
Moore may not know much about the history of the Big 5, but he surely knows how to deliver when the No. 22 Wildcats need him most.
Moore scored 15 of his career-high 25 points in the first half to pull Villanova out of an early offensive funk and pace the Wildcats to an 83-72 victory over La Salle Sunday night at the Finneran Pavilion.
Saddiq Bey added 19 points and 10 rebounds, and Gillespie pitched in with 14 points and three assists to kick start a week that features three Big 5 games. The Wildcats (5-2, 1-0 Big
5) host defending City Series champ Penn, the team that ended Villanova’s 25game Big 5 winning streak last season, on Wednesday night, and then visit Saint Joseph’s Saturday.
The early going, it was all La Salle (4-3, 0-3). The Explorers jumped out to a 13-7 lead on consecutive 3-pointers by David Beatty 40 seconds apart. That turned out to be the high water mark for the visitors.
With Moore leading the way, Villanova flexed its Big East muscles and quickly took control. The Wildcats went on a 14-0 run to turn a 14-10 deficit into a
24-14 lead. The Explorers trimmed the deficit to 2620 before Villanova went on a 12-0 tear to blow the game open.
Villanova outscored La
Salle, 34-14, over the final 13 minutes to take a 48-28 lead into the locker room at halftime.
Moore did a lot of that damage. He had to. With La Salle concentrating its defense on stopping Gillespie, Villanova needed someone to pick up the offensive slack, and Moore did that. He made an impact as soon as he came into the game, scoring eight of his points early to give the Wildcats time to find an offensive rhythm.
“The last three games I think Collin scored Villanova’s first three points,”
La Salle coach Ashley Howard said. “So shame on us if we let him come out here and do that to us for a fourth straight game. He’s their only pure point guard that’s in the rotation, and we wanted to try to disrupt them by limiting his touches. But a kid like Justin Moore, who’s a big-time talent, he stepped up and all those guys make plays when we got extended.”
La Salle did not go quietly into the night, as Moore and the other freshmen who were playing in their first Big 5 game found out. The Explorers battled back behind the play of Ed Croswell (14 points, 10 rebounds), Beatty (12 points) and Saul Phiri (nine points). They cut the deficit to single digits before the Wildcats made free throws to bump the final spread to 11.
“You have to play every minute,” Wright said. “You have to do that in every game, especially in a Big 5 game. They learned that.”