Star’s putback helps Villanova survive scare from Seton Hall
Villanova had the closer this year.
The best player on the floor, the potential National Player of the Year and the Big East Player of the Year, Josh Hart, made sure the Wildcats didn’t lose to Seton Hall for a third straight time in the Big East Tournament.
A year ago, Isaiah Whitehead carried the underdog Pirates past Villanova to a stunning Big East crown, but it was Hart on Friday who made sure the Pirates wouldn’t get the chance to repeat as conference champions.
Hart’s offensive rebound and follow, ironically off a Kris Jenkins miss with 9.6 seconds left, was the game-winner, leading the topseeded Wildcats past the dogged No. 5 Pirates, 55-53, in a semifinal classic at the sold-out Garden.
“It had the feel of a championship game,” said Hart, who posted gamehighs of 19 points and 10 rebounds, and scored eight points over the final 5:15. “It felt like last year.” Except for the ending. After the Hart basket, Angel Delgado, named as one of five finalists for the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award for the country’s top center earlier in the day, missed a point blank layup on the other end as time expired, and fell to the floor in dejection, shedding tears as he lay on the court.
“It never happened in my life,” Delgado said. “This is the first time I’m feeling like this. That’s it, gotta live with it.”
In a classy display, Hart joined Delgado’s teammates to console him.
“We felt this feeling last year,” Hart told him. “In the NCAA Tournament, don’t have this feeling again.”
Villanova will go for its second Big East Tournament title in three years Saturday against the No. 6 Creighton, who defeated Xavier 75-72. Seton Hall (21-11), meanwhile, will enter the big dance very differently than it did a year ago, coming off the school’s first Big East crown in 23 years. It got a tough draw in underrated Gonzaga, and didn’t have the same in- tensity coming off the conference tournament run, falling in lopsided fashion. That shouldn’t be an issue this time.
“This definitely will give us fuel,” Khadeen Carrington said.
The junior’s traditional 3-point play with 1:43 left gave Seton Hall a one-point lead, but the Pirates were unable to build onto that advantage before Hart’s basket. Delgado (eight points, eight rebounds), whose double-double streak was snapped at 13, was called for a travel and Carrington missed a contested jumper, costly empty possessions.
“I feel like I didn’t give my team enough tonight,” said a somber Carrington, who shot 4-of-13 from the field and scored 11 points. “I had a chance to seal it, and I missed.”
The third meeting between the two rivals was nothing like the previous two, won by secondranked Villanova (30-3) by a combined 52 points. It was a defensive battle befitting the old Big East, points at a premium, hard contact let go, every drive and pass contested. A made basket felt like a run. It was reminiscent to last year’s title game Seton Hall getting off to a quick start and Villanova responding — only the end was full of heartbroken Pirates.
The potent Wildcats were held to a season-low 20 first-half points, made just 5-of-19 3-point attempts, and were hammered in the paint, out-scored 32-16. Carrington called it Seton Hall’s best defensive perfor- mance of the season, every Pirate in sync with one another, everyone giving maximum effort. Hart said the Pirates “out-toughed us.”
“It shows how good we can be if we play defense like that all the time,” Carrington said. “Tonight everybody played their best defense of the season.
“It gives us a lot of belief. It’s on us, though. It just depends how hard we play. We can’t go into the tournament and not play that hard.”