Villanova gets ‘sped up,’ turned over amid Baylor’s comeback
As Villanova and Baylor headed to the bench for the under four-minute time out in the second half Saturday, the television cameras panned the Villanova sideline and caught injured guard Collin Gillespie looking forlorn, which is rare.
Gillespie made the trip to Indianapolis with fellow injured senior Dhamir CosbyRoundtree. Usually, Gillespie is the picture of stoicism on the sideline, rarely showing emotion. Not on this occasion, however. His disappointment was clearly evident.
The fifth-seeded Wildcats trailed top-seeded Baylor by seven points and you could tell by the look on Gillespie’s face that he knew regardless of how well Villanova played defensively or home much time was left, the Wildcats’ NCAA Tournament run, and season, was over.
It came to an end in a torrent of turnovers in the second half. Villanova, the team that led the nation in fewest turnovers per game (8.8), was no match for Baylor’s suffocating defense.
The Wildcats coughed it up nine times in the second half and 16 times in all. Baylor turned those miscues into 13 points down the stretch to rally from a seven-point halftime deficit and pull away for a 62-51 victory in the South Regional semifinal at Hinkle Fieldhouse.
“They really got into our guards and prevented us from initiating offense,” Villanova coach Jay Wright said. “They just contested every pass, every
cut. It took us out of running offense and we had to try to just kind of drive the ball and try to get some post-ups, but we didn’t do a good job of that.”
At one point, Baylor forced five straight turnovers and six on seven possessions. Villanova never recovered. The Bears (252) outscored the Wildcats, 21-10, in the final 10:26 to break a 41-all tie and advance to Monday’s regional final against the winner between third-seeded Arkansas and No. 15 Oral Roberts.
“We got sped up a little bit,” said senior forward Jermaine Samuels, who led the Wildcats with 16 points. “Their defense went to another level. During those
times you’ve got to be solid with the ball. And we just didn’t do a good job of staying solid with it, and they got out in transition.”
It was defense that allowed the Wildcats (18-7) to take a 30-23 lead into the locker room at halftime. Baylor came into the game leading the country in 3-point field goal percentage (41.5) but the Wildcats took that part of the game away from the Bears.
Villanova frustrated Baylor into 2-for-12 shooting from deep in the first half and 3-for-19 in the game. With its 3-point game nonexistent, Baylor decided to attack the rim in the second half. The Bears scored 28 of their 39 second-half points in the paint.
“They played really four guards in the second half, which opened up the floor a little bit more,” Wright
said. “When they had the two bigs in, there wasn’t as much space, but going to four guards and then creating that space, it did allow them to get to the rim, I thought. And we didn’t do as good a job in the second half, obviously, of containing them. But partly it was because they had us spread out with four guards.”
Adam Flager had 11 of his team-high 16 points in the second half. Davion Mitchell tallied 10 of his 14 points after the break.
“I thought we did a really good job defensively,” Wright said. “I think just our half-court offense, it wasn’t that bad. It’s just the turnovers. The turnovers killed us. We gave them too many easy baskets on that run. Then we came down with empty possessions. I think that was the difference in the game.”