Samuels gives his all for Villanova, elbows and all

The play was typical Jermaine Samuels and vintage Villanova.

The ball was heading out of bounds, right in front of the Villanova bench after a missed 3-pointer by Bryan Antoine. Samuels could have let the ball go out of bounds and no one outside of the Villanova program would have blamed him.

There was 2:07 left in the game and the Wildcats had a 19-point lead in what would become an 8060 victory over Delaware in the opening round of the

NCAA tournament at PPG Paints Arena Friday. Inside the program, though, there are no shortcuts and Samuels knew that.

“That’s not what we do here at Villanova,” Samuels said. “We’re going to play a full 40 (minutes).”

So Samuels saved the ball, of course, which led to a pair of free throws by Justin Moore that gave the second-seeded Wildcats (27-7) a 78-57 lead. But there was a price to pay for Samuel’s hustle and assistant coach Dwayne Anderson paid it.

After saving the ball, Samuels crashed into Anderson as the assistant coach tried to catch the 6-7 fifth-year forward as he came hurdling toward the sideline. Samuels caught Anderson with an elbow to the face which resulted in a bloody nose.

“I knew the ball was coming out of bounds, and I was trying to jump out of his way, but he was trying to catch me,” Samuels said. “And I guess he moved his head toward my elbow. I was trying to move out of the way, but it was an accident. And just shows how much he loves us by trying to catch me, but sorry it happened.”

Anderson could not be reached for comment but he reportedly called it “an old-school, Big East elbow,” in the locker room after the game, according to a Villanova spokesperson.

According to head coach Jay Wright, Anderson “would have gotten really mad at Jermaine if he didn’t go after that loose ball.” Looking back on Anderson’s playing career, Wright added Anderson, “got hurt worse than that and never even came out of a game. Now he’s a coach and leaves the bench when he gets hit like that. But he got it pretty good. We stopped and saw him. He got it good across the nose.”