Mask and all, Robinson-Earl leads rout of St. Joe’s
Jeremiah Robinson-Earl became the first Villanova player to wear a mask in a game this season. Only this face covering had nothing to do with the coronavirus.
The 6-9 sophomore forward sported a clear plastic mask to protect a broken nose suffered in Wednesday’s Big East victory over Butler.
Early on, the face covering appeared to bother him as he kept adjusting it during breaks in the action. Eventually, though, Robinson-Earl settled in to lead the Wildcats to a 88-68 victory over Saint Joseph’s Saturday night at the Finneran Pavilion.
Robinson-Earl poured in a game-high 25 points, three shy of a career-high, grabbed seven rebounds and handed out a career-best six assists as the Wildcats won the Holy War by double digits for the seventh straight year and extended their winning streak over the Hawks to nine. St. Joe’s last victory in the series was a 74-58 triumph on Dec. 17, 2011.
Robinson-Earl shot 8-for14 overall, 2-for-5 from 3-point range and 7-for-10 from the freethrow line. Justin Moore finished with 18 points, seven assists and six rebounds. Caleb Daniels contributed 17 points and five rebounds, while Jermaine Samuels tallied 12 points, eight rebounds and three assists for the Wildcats (7-1).
Villanova’s defense was good,
too. The Wildcats held Ryan Daily, the Hawks leading scorer, to 11 points. The Archbishop Carroll All-Delco was coming off a 30-point effort against Drexel and entered the game averaging 20 points per game. Daly had 32 points against the Wildcats last season.
Taylor Funk and Jordan Hall paced SJU (0-4) with 17 points apiece.
Robinson-Earl, though, was the story. Although he shot just 3-for-8 from the field and missed two free throws, Robinson-Earl put up a teamhigh 11 points in the first half, handed out a team-high four assists and pulled down four rebounds. The Wildcats opened up a 41-33 lead at the break.
It looked like it was going to be a blowout early as Villanova jumped out to a 14-5 lead, but as head coach Billy
Lange said, the Hawks came to compete and win. They did the former in the first 20 minutes. SJU went on a 10-0 run to erase that nine-point deficit and take its first lead of the game. Funk had a pair of 3-pointers in that stretch.
It was a back-and-forth battle from that point until the Wildcats closed the half on an 11-5 run to take the eightpoint edge into the locker room. Samuels had five points in that outburst, and Robinson-Earl pitched in four.
The Wildcats continued to work inside to start the second half, and Robinson-Earl was a big part of that attack. He had seven points and an assist as the Wildcats extended their lead to 53-43 at the first media timeout.
From that point, the Wildcats pulled away as St. Joe’s tired. Lange called a timeout after the Wildcats went up by 15 the first time; the Hawks responded by cutting the deficit to 10.
But that run was temporary. Villanova scored 10 of the next 12 points to open up a 72
52 advantage and force Lange to burn another timeout. The Hawks, who committed 15 turnovers and shot just nine free throws to Villanova’s 18, ran out of timeouts with more than eight minutes to play. NOTES » The Wildcats are 16-4 against the Hawks under Wright … Villanova gets back in action Wednesday night against Marquette in Milwaukee. After that, the Wildcats are off until they visit Xavier Jan. 2 … Tip-off times for Villa
nova’s first four games in January have been announced. The Xavier game starts at 2 p.m. The game at DePaul on Jan. 5 is a 7 p.m. start, while the games against Marquette (Jan. 8) and Connecticut (Jan. 15) are scheduled to begin at 9 p.m. All will be broadcast on FS1 … The Hawks are back on the road Monday night, visiting No. 10 Tennessee. It’ll be the third ranked team St. Joe’s has faced in five outings this year.