Villanova handled business in emphatic fashion Wednesday night, earning a 20-point win over DePaul. The victory moved the ‘Cats to 20-6 on the season, their eighth straight 20-win season.
Both teams started cold, combining to go 2-of-10 to start the game and scoring nine points over the first four minutes. Collin Gillespie and Jeremiah Robinson-Earl got the ‘Cats going a bit with threes sandwiched around a Saddiq Bey turnover, and those threes would prove to be a sign of things to come.
The Wildcats would proceed to unleash a barrage of three-pointers, finishing the first half with 10 on 13 attempts. Despite a few defensive miscues from ‘Nova, DePaul managed only 26 first-half points, getting outscored by Villanova on three-pointers alone.
When you add in the best half of the season for Dhamir Cosby-Roundtree, who had seven points and five rebounds, and ‘Nova went into the half with a comfortable 46-26 lead.
The second half brought more of the same. The ‘Cats unleashed another 13 threes, this time connecting on eight. DePaul would never threaten, and ‘Nova cruised to a 91-71 win.
Clearly, the three-point shooting is the story of the game. ‘Nova shot a ridiculous 69.2 percent from deep and you’re not going to lose a whole lot of games in which you make 18 shots from long-range. Still, there were other things to like. The defense, while not perfect, was better. The rebounding was much better than the last time against DePaul. ‘Nova assisted on 22 of 33 made baskets. And the ‘Cats got solid contributions from the bench.
As Jay Wright said in his postgame interview, it’s not the time to over-evaluate things after a solid win like this one, but we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention the 17 turnovers. Now, a handful of those came late with the Blue Demons pressing and ‘Nova just trying to get the clock to zeros as quickly as possible, and DePaul has been good forcing miscues, so we’re not going to go crazy here. But 17 is too many, and the inbounding/press break needs work.
Bey led the way with 22 points, seven assists, three rebounds and two steals. Gillespie and Justin Moore chipped in 17 apiece, with Gillespie adding six rebounds and three assists and Moore adding three rebounds and three assists. That trio was a combined 14-of-20 from deep. Robinson-Earl had seven points and four rebounds and Jermaine Samuels added five points, six rebounds, three assists, and three steals.
Cosby-Roundtree had his best game of the season, finishing with 11 points on 4-of-4 from the field and 3-of-3 from the line. He also had seven rebounds and two assists. He added a nice bucket after putting the ball on the floor in the post and also a dunk off a hard roll out of the pick and roll, something I think Villanova should look for more of. Cole Swider added eight points, while Brandon Slater had six. Bryan Antoine had an assist in three minutes of action.
It was a solid overall effort from the ‘Cats. It was great to get contributions from eight different players, and it’s great to see ‘Nova starting to heat up shooting the ball.
Eight straight 20-win seasons is nothing to scoff at. Now the ‘Cats will look to finish strong as they try to make a move for the Big East title and to build some momentum heading into tournament time. The next step comes via a trip to Xavier to take on the Musketeers on Saturday.
