Quinerly, ‘Nova tops UConn 81-58

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.

“You feel you can do more all the time,” he said.

Quinerly 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.

“He showed that he’s been working at what we do even though he hasn’t been playing,” coach Jay Wright said.

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 highlightreel bursts against the Huskies (9- 4).

Quinerly quickly deleted an Instagram post that said “Was my 2nd choice for a reason” after the Penn loss.

But social media users noticed and Quinerly later apologized on, yes, social media.

“It was a big mistake on my end,” he said of the caption.

Wright turned the mistake into a teaching moment.

“I told him, I know that’s frustration. I know it’s not you,” Wright said. “I knew he felt terrible.”

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.

He seemed at ease with the pressure off — when a corner 3 rattled around the rim before it trickled out, Quinerly smiled at the ohso close attempt.