Cats claw dogs
Villanova continues recent mastery of Huskies
PHILADELPHIA — New rotations, no Justin Moore, even a buzzer-beating, halfcourt shot.
None of it mattered. Once again, UConn struggled shooting, particularly in the first half, and often appeared disjointed on both ends of the floor, making Eric Dixon look like the second coming of Charles Barkley.
Once again, the Huskies lost to Villanova. The 85-74 loss before 19,786 at the Wells Fargo Center on Saturday was the Huskies’ fifth straight to the Wildcats, dating back to 2018.
“I don’t think any particular team in our league is in our head,” UConn coach Dan Hurley. “I don’t think there’s any team we think we can’t beat. When you play at UConn, there’s no brand that you play against that’s too big for you. We just didn’t play well enough to win.”
At times, this one looked a lot more like the first couple of those L’s to ’Nova — at the end of Kevin Ollie’s reign and the beginning of Hurley’s — than the prior two. UConn shot 36 percent from the floor in the opening half — and that included a buzzer-beating, halfcourt prayer by R.J. Cole that cut the Huskies’ deficit to 11 (40-29).
“You’ve got to discount the halfcourt shot,” Hurley said. “We had 26 points at halftime.”
Credit the 17th-ranked Huskies for rallying back and playing better over the final 20 minutes — at least offensively. After falling behind by 23 (67-44) UConn chipped away and appeared to be within seven (77-70) after Cole hit a corner 3pointer with just inside two minutes to play.
Alas, Andre Jackson was called for an offensive foul on the play and the basket was waved off. That kind of
day for UConn (15-6, 6-4).
It was UConn’s first double-digit loss of the season, and first since a 70-59 loss at Providence on Feb. 10, 2021.
“Tough loss,” Hurley summed up. “Obviously, we just didn’t play to our identity from a defensive standpoint. And credit Villanova — they played great. Their passing, their efficiency ... I thought we were soft on the backboard. Didn’t look like the elite defensive team that we expect to be. Obviously, it’s hard to win on the road. And you’re not gonna win on the road if you don’t pack your defense.”
All this with Moore, 12th-ranked Villanova’s second-leading scorer at 15.1 ppg, sidelined by an ankle injury, and leading scorer Collin Gillespie sidelined for a good portion of the latter half with a right ankle injury.
Dixon, a 6-foot-8, 255pound sophomore who entered the game averaging 9.1 points and 6.5 rebounds per game, picked up the slack with career highs of 24 and 12, respectively. Gillespie finished with 19 for the Wildcats (17-6, 10-3 Big East), Caleb Daniels added 16 and Brandon Slater 11.
Really, UConn couldn’t have picked a tougher opponent coming on the heels of 59-55, upset home loss to Creighton on Tuesday. Villanova’s unique style and veteran savvy is a tough combination for a team that might be down on its confidence a bit.
“Yeah, I mean, from an offensive standpoint it was,” Hurley concurred. “Obviously, we left opportunities in the first half ... Overall, offensively, if you had told me we would have scored 74, I would have said we’d have probably won the game today.”
UConn must get over it in a hurry, however. A threegame week kicks off on Tuesday with No. 24 Marquette visiting Hartford. The Huskies then travel to play No. 21 Xavier on Friday before facing St. John’s on Super Bowl Sunday at Madison Square Garden.
“We have three games this week, so there’s no point in us hanging our heads,” Cole reasoned. “It’s new opportunities for us to get three wins in this league.”
Early foul trouble (two apiece on Adama Sanogo and Isaiah Whaley) hurt the Huskies in the opening half, and Villanova (namely Dixon) took advantage. ’Nova outscored UConn 20-6 in the paint the opening half in running up as much as a 14-point lead.
“The outcome had nothing to do with the officiating,” Hurley said, “but I just couldn’t believe both of those guys getting real touchy fouls there. I thought it certainly had an impact.”
Cole’s halfcourt buzzerbeater gave the Huskies some hope entering halftime.
“I was hoping it would give the team a little bit of life,” the grad point guard said. “We went down a little bit in the first half. Going in the locker room, we just had to come out with a little bit of edge.”
The Huskies did score the first four points of the latter half, but Villanova (17-6, 10-3) soon countered with a 10-0 run. The lead quickly ballooned to 23.
UConn’s second-half comeback bid was highlighted by freshman Jordan Hawkins knocking down 3 of 4 3-pointers for nine points.
“If there’s anything that I’ll walk away from and not be devastating tonight at 3 a.m., it was that we got Hawk going a little bit,” Hurley said.
Cole finished with a game-high 25 points and Sanogo added 14 (all in the second half ), as did Tyrese Martin. Aside from Hawkins, no one else did much.
“Some guys continue to struggle offensively,” Hurley noted. “It’s affected our defense, and we got away from our identity as a defensive-minded team (Saturday).”
Hurley specifically mentioned Jackson and Martin not playing with enough force on the wing, as well as usual stalwart Isaiah Whaley and Cole, who lost Gillespie a couple of times defensively.
“Can’t make those types of mistakes,” Hurley mused.