No. 18 Villanova hits 17 3s, in blowout of Seton Hall

PHILADELPHIA >> Villanova hit the bottom in early December. The Wildcats had dropped four games — as many as they had lost each of the last two seasons — and they were confronted with troubling questions.

Coach Jay Wright was stumped as the Wildcats tumbled out of the Top 25.

“This is the reality,” he said of the early season malaise. “How long is this going to take?”

Not long at all.

Phil Booth and Eric Paschall turned into a twoperson show for the No. 18 Wildcats, powering the team out of its early funk. Booth and Paschall combined to outscore Seton Hall in the first half and the Wildcats thumped the Pirates 80-52 on Sunday for their eighth consecutive victory.

“The way Booth and Paschall are playing, you give them that many opportunities, they’re going to get you,” Seton Hall coach Kevin Willard said.

Booth hit seven 3-pointers and scored 25 points. Paschall finished with 17 points, going over 1,000 for his career. They combined for 10 of Villanova’s 17 3s and made 15 of the team’s 28 baskets.

Booth and Paschall have picked up the scoring slack for a program that needed to find chemistry after it lost four players to the NBA draft. Now it looks as if it’s rolling toward another conference crown under Wright.

“I think we’re starting to trust each other more,” Booth said.

Against the Pirates, Paschall and Booth combined for six 3s and 26 points in the first half. The duo outscored Seton Hall 26-20 and the Wildcats led by 10 at the break. Booth missed a 3, the offensive rebound got kicked out to him and he nailed a 3 from the top of the arc to make it 30-20.

The national champions still have some kinks to work out to become a deep threat in March — namely, finding a third scorer — but again should be a low single-digit seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Saddiq Bey was the only other scorer in double digits (10 points), which is a surprise for any team that held a 35-point lead. The Wildcats (16-4, 7-0 Big East) know they’ll need more than senior stars Paschall and Booth to win big games in March.

“I worry about that,” Wright said. “Not that they’re not good enough to carry us. I just don’t want to wear them out.”