Cats back to .500 after 77-56 win over Boston College

Villanova avoided the slow starts that have plagued it through much of the early season, starting the game 6-12 from the field and 4-8 from three while building an 11-point lead just over nine minutes into the game. The Wildcats got a huge spark early from Mark Armstrong, who scored the team’s first seven points.

“I thought we were much more focused coming into the start of the game,” Kyle Neptune said. “Our starts have been a concern at times, and we talk about throwing the first punch and setting the tone, I thought we did that initially.”

The ‘Cats did hit a bit of a lull for about five minutes after taking that 11-point lead, with the offense going cold and the defense loosening. Boston College took advantage, using an 11-3 run to pull back within three with just over five minutes remaining. But ‘Nova would respond, with back-to-back threes from Armstrong and Brendan Hausen pushing the lead back to nine. The ‘Cats would build the lead as high as 13 before a deep three at the buzzer cut the advantage to 10 heading into halftime.

Cam Whitmore once again led the team in scoring in the first half with 13, while Armstrong added 10. Freshmen accounted for 26 of Villanova’s 40 first-half points.

The ‘Cats were also able to avoid a slow start in the second half, scoring seven of the period’s first 10 points and extending the lead to 15 with 13:19 to play.

Boston College was able to get within 10 with 9:34 to go, but Villanova answered with a 9-0 run to build the lead back to 19. The ‘Cats would extend that run to 17-3 to take a 24-point lead with 4:45 left. Boston College wouldn’t threaten again as Villanova cruised to the 21-point win.

A few things stand out from Saturday’s win. First and foremost is the defense. While there were a few breakdowns, it was overall very good, with ‘Nova limiting Boston College to 39% overall and 31% from three. Villanova also defended without fouling, with BC taking just nine trips to the line. In addition, for the second game in a row Villanova was able to force a good amount of turnovers and, more importantly, convert those miscues into points. After forcing 14 turnovers on Wednesday against Penn and turning them into 23 points, the ‘Cats again forced 14 turnovers Saturday and scored 15 points off those giveaways.

“We’ve got a young team and even our older guys are in different roles, and we just have to learn how to play defense at a Villanova basketball level and we knew that at the start of the year it would be a challenge and I think to our guys’ credit our habits have continued to improve and so our defense has continued to improve,” Neptune said.

On the other side of the ball, ‘Nova once again took care of the ball. After six turnovers on Wednesday, ‘Nova had just seven on Saturday. Villanova also shot the ball well from three, hitting 48%. If there was one area of concern, it was the two-point shooting. ‘Nova was just 11-27 from two-point range, including 7-18 on layups. On night’s where the three-point shooting isn’t as good or against more explosive opponents, that will come back to haunt you. It very well just may have been an anomaly, but the ’Cats will need to find ways to convert those easier opportunities.

Despite the two-point struggles, Villanova still scored on 50.8% of its possessions, aided largely by those turnovers.

Whitmore led the way with 19 points on 5-10 shooting, including 3-6 from three. He added seven rebounds and a steal. He again grabbed attention with his athleticism, highlighted by a steal and dunk and a near-dunk on which he drew a foul. But another play stuck out even more.

Whitmore was dribbling on the left wing and gave his defender a move. He read how the defender reacted to the move, then gave it to him again and settled into a step-back three based on how the defender reacted to the first move. The result was a clean look and one of Whitmore’s three threes. The maturity, patience and basketball IQ displayed by the sequence was impressive, particularly for a player playing his third collegiate game.

Fellow freshman Mark Armstrong had a strong game as well, scoring 13 points to go with seven rebounds, three assists and two steals. All those numbers represent career highs.

Caleb Daniels (12) and Eric Dixon (12) rounded out the double figure scorers for the ‘Cats. Brendan Hausen had nine and Brandon Slater had eight.

Overall, a strong performance from the ‘Cats and a nice extension of the way they’ve been playing since Whitmore’s return.

The ‘Cats will get a bit of break ahead of next Saturday’s game against St. Joe’s.