Wednesday was a sweet night on the Main Line. Villanova avenged a 20-point loss to Creighton with a 34-point drubbing of the Bluejays. In the process, Jay Wright claimed his 500th win at Villanova.

“I can’t wait to get 501,” Wright said laughing. “It’s just a tribute to being at Villanova. Just look at the history, every coach that has been here as won. It’s the best place to coach college basketball and it’s because you get great players here and we’ve had a lot of great players. Any coach that has 500 wins anywhere they had a lot of great players and we certainly have.”

The teams played pretty even through the first 10 minutes of the game, with ‘Nova leading by as many as four and Creighton leading by as many as two. But the last 10 minutes of the half was all ‘Nova.

After Ryan Nembhard hit a jumper to cut the ‘Nova lead to one, the ‘Cats would rip off five straight points to build the lead to six. An Alex O’Connell 3 would halt that Villanova mini-run, but the ‘Cats got right back to work on another one, this one 11-0, to open a 14-point lead. All told, the ‘Cats would close the half on a 13-2 push and an 18-5 run over the final 10:22 to take a 36-22 lead into the break.

The ‘Cats were much better on the glass and in the paint in the first half than they were in the first meeting against Creighton, something that went a long way in building the lead. ‘Nova also forced 10 Creighton turnovers while committing just three.

Another interesting note from the first half was that Collin Gillespie only played eight minutes due to foul trouble. As a result, Jordan Longino played 12 minutes and Bryan Antoine played 13. That both were able to play that many first-half minutes, and that Villanova was able to build a 14-point lead with that kind of minutes breakdown, is very encouraging.

“I think that’s showing the growth of our team, I think that’s showing the young guys are starting to step up and understand what we’re doing,” Wright said of the strong end of the first half and navigating more than half the period without Gillespie. “When we go on those stretches (without Gillespie) earlier we really looked disjointed. It also means part of Justin Moore’s leadership, realizing Collin’s out and taking over. When the two of them are in there, they play off each other really well but when he goes out Justin knows ‘I gotta step up here.’”

The second half was largely academic. ‘Nova scored the first 10 points of the period, the first seven all courtesy of Moore, to open a 24-point lead. Creighton wouldn’t get within 20 the rest of the way while the Wildcats would lead by as many as 35 before taking the 75-41 win.

Moore was fantastic, leading the way with 22 points while adding four rebounds, two assists, a steal and a block and playing impressive defense. Moore was largely responsible for Hawkins, who was held scoreless after dropping 19 on ‘Nova in the last meeting.

“Justin Moore was incredible,” Wright said. “He played the whole first half with Collin in foul trouble, he guarded Hawkins, he had 22 points, he was unbelievable. He was just a great leader tonight, I’m really proud of him.”

Jermaine Samuels had 18 points and seven rebounds. Gillespie added 11 points and five assists while Brandon Slater had 10 points and four rebounds. Eric Dixon chipped in nine points and six rebounds while Bryan Antoine had three points, three rebounds and two assists. Jordan Longino had two points, three rebounds, an assist and two steals. Chris Arcidiacono had two rebounds and an assist while Trey Patterson and Nnanna Njoku each grabbed a rebound.

Villanova completely flipped the script from the last meeting between the teams. After getting dominated inside on December 17, it was the Wildcats who got the better of the inside play on Wednesday. ‘Nova won the battle on the boards 35-26 and second-chance points 13-6. The ‘Cats won points in the paint 28-20 and shot 52.9% from 2-point range. After having just four assists in the first meeting between the teams, the Wildcats assisted on 16 of 26 made baskets on Wednesday.

It was an excellent response from the Wildcats after what happened in the game in Omaha and was also a great way to build on the two preceding wins over Xavier and Seton Hall. The win moves Villanova into a tie with Providence for the best record in the Big East at 3-1.

The ‘Cats will look to keep things rolling on Saturday when they head to Chicago to take on DePaul.