Villanova had a chance to all but lock up a NCAA Tournament bid Wednesday night. Instead, it was Seton Hall which played like its season was on the line (it was), as the Pirates earned a 66-56 win that puts 'Nova squarely back on the bubble (and with a fairly unenviable path to the Big Dance).
“A lot of credit goes to Seton Hall," Kyle Neptune said. "I thought they came out and played extremely hard. Sha (Holloway) had them ready, they played really, really hard, they did what they needed to do. They were really good defensively, they were good on the offensive glass, they made some timely shots. Lot of credit goes to those guys.”
Things started well enough for the Wildcats, who hit their first two three-point attempts and took an early 10-4 lead. The first four minutes went nearly perfectly for 'Nova, as the 'Cats had forced 60% of Hall's shot to come from three and limited the Pirates to a single offensive rebound.
The 'Cats pushed the lead to seven with just over 14 minutes to go in the half before a 6-0 Hall run tightened things up again. They were able to maintain a lead throughout much of the rest of the half until a disastrous final three minutes essentially decided the game.
An Al-Amir Dawes three gave Seton Hall its first lead (23-22) with 2:59 to play and would be the start of a 10-0 Hall run that allowed the Pirates to take control of the game, which they would never relinquish. Villanova made just 1-of-12 shots during the stretch. A Hakim Hart layup with 32 seconds left broke the run and cut the deficit to six heading into halftime.
Seton Hall built the lead to 12 early in the second half before a 6-0 'Nova run cut it in half. But the Pirates answered right back with a 7-0 push to take their biggest lead of the game at 13 with with 9:10 to play. But 'Nova wasn't going to go quietly. A Brendan Hausen four-point play capped a 7-0 'Nova run, which became part of a larger 11-2 spurt the pulled the 'Cats within four with just over five minutes left.
However, Villanova would miss two golden opportunities to close the gap further. With 4:28 to play, Hausen missed a good look at a three that would have cut the deficit to three. With 2:02 remaining, another chance to pull within three was missed when Armstrong failed to convert a layup. From there, the Pirates would ice the game from the free throw line, walking away with the 10-point win.
It's not hard to identify the culprit in the loss. It was the offense.
We mentioned the 1-12 stretch late in the first half, and 'Nova suffered through multiple 4+ minute droughts Wednesday night. The 'Cats shot just 35% overall and 33% from three. They were a dismal 10-27 (37%) on two-point attempts and an even worst 8-22 (36%) on layups.
Adding to the frustration is the fact that the rest of the game largely played out in a way that Villanova would have preferred. The keys heading into the game were to make Seton Hall win the game from the outside, keep points in the paint close and keep the Pirates off the offensive glass.
Well, Seton Hall took 45% of its shots from beyond the arc, and the number was higher than that for much of the game (four of Hall's final five field goals were two-pointers). To the Pirates' credit, they hit 39% of those long range attempts despite entering the game shooting just 31% from deep. Still, the game plan was sound and was executed well.
“I thought they made some tough shots,: Neptune said. "They did some really good things. But they made some tough ones.”
The Wildcats actually earned a healthy advantage in points in the paint (20-12).
And while 'Nova ultimately got pounded on the boards 39-29 and gave up 12 offensive rebounds, the 'Cats only allowed Seton Hall to convert those 12 extra chances into eight points, a more than manageable number. 'Nova managed five second chance points of its own.
“I thought they got us in some rotations so we weren’t matched at times," Neptune said of the rebounding disparity. "They got some guys that just go after the ball. Sometimes you just gotta give the other team some credit. They went and got some balls, they made some tough shots, they contested shots hard. They made it tough for us. They just did a really good job.”
If you knew beforehand that Hall would take nearly half its shots from three, would have only 12 points in the paint and would have only eight second chance points it would have been safe to surmise that Villanova won the game. But the offensive struggles were just too much to overcome.
There's a chance that the last three minutes of the first half and the inability to convert at close range (plus the bad losses to Penn, St,. Joe's and Drexel, the close loss to Kansas State and the blown lead game against Butler) haunt the 'Cats for the next seven months. 'Nova now faces what is essentially a must-win game on Saturday against No. 10 Creighton, an unenviable position to be in and one which the 'Cats could have avoided with a win on Wednesday.
