Quinerly helps ’Nova top UConn

NEW YORK – Jahvon Quinerly had waited all season to prove he could post solid stats instead of just alarming Instagram captions. He got his chance with an inadvertent whack on a Villanova teammate at practice.

Quinerly’s elbow put a knot on Collin Gillespie’s head during a drill that sidelined the starter and opened a spot in the rotation.

Quinerly had been benched, committed a social media fail and hardly played like a five-star recruit when he did get a chance for the Wildcats. Against UConn, Quinerly suddenly was a factor in ending a rare Villanova losing streak.

He had the steal of the game and scored 10 points in critical minutes, and the national champion Villanova Wildcats avoided their first three-game losing streak in nearly six years with an 81-58 win over Connecticut on Saturday at Madison Square Garden.

Quinerly, a star recruit who originally committed to Arizona, has had a baffling freshman season. He struggled to get off the bench and missed a game with an injury. Quinerly played only seconds against Penn and was benched against Kansas days after writing an Instagram post criticizing his own program. He turned social media outbursts into highlight-reel bursts against the Huskies (9-4).

Quinerly, who played 24 minutes, shot an airball and threw a pass straight into UConn’s hands in the first half that might have earned him a spot on the bench had Gillespie not been out. He hit a 3 in the first half and had the game’s spotlight “drive of the game” with a midcourt steal during a 19-0 run that he fed to Phil Booth for an easy basket.

Eric Paschall scored 21 points and Booth had 18 for Villanova. The Wildcats (9-4) had been reeling with consecutive losses at college basketball’s most renowned venues; against Penn at Philly’s Palestra and to No. 1 Kansas at Allen Fieldhouse. The Huskies seemed primed to make it three straight holding a 36-35 lead at the Garden, where the Wildcats celebrated the last two Big East Tournament titles.