Well, it didn’t take long for Villanova to get in the spirit of March Madness. Kicking off Big East Tournament play against St. John’s Thursday night, the ‘Cats stumbled out of the gates and found themselves reeling before erasing a 17-point deficit to eek out a 66-65 win to advance to the semifinals.

“They were really good and we just toughed it out.” Jay Wright said. “Our upperclassman down the stretch, Collin making some big plays, Slate was great, Caleb hit some big shots. Just proud of these guys.”

The first half was a complete mess. The Wildcats couldn’t buy a bucket offensively, missing their first four shots and not hitting their first field goal until nearly three minutes into the game. It wouldn’t get better. Villanova missed its first six attempts from 3 before Caleb Daniels finally knocked one down with 13:15 to go in the first half. At various points in the half the ‘Cats were shooting 2-13, 3-16 and 3-20 and 1-11 from 3.

Fortunately, the ‘Cats did manage to hit four of their final eight 3s to close the half. While St. John’s was dominant in the paint (10-0 points in paint), the Johnnies were struggling from 3 and hit just 1-9 for the half. That allowed ‘Nova to gain a 12-point advantage from deep. As a result, despite shooting just 23.3% overall and committing eight turnovers, Villanova found itself down just seven and the break.

Daniels was huge for the ‘Cats in the first half. As everyone struggled to put the ball in the basket, Daniels hit 3-5 from 3 and grabbed five rebounds to help keep the ‘Cats afloat and within striking distance.

The second half didn’t start much better. St. John’s scored the first seven points of the second half to push the lead to 14, and the ‘Cats were in legitimate trouble. The lead blossomed to 17 with 15:38 to go as the Johnnies pushed the run to 14-4. But then the ‘Cats got to work.

‘Nova ripped off a 10-0 run to get back in the game and pushed that to a 18-2 run to get within one. St. John’s scored on back-to-back possessions, sandwiched around a bucket from Eric Dixon, to hold a three-point lead, but the ‘Cats then scored four straight points, taking their first lead of the game at the 8:11 mark on a pair of Daniels free throws.

A Stef Smith 3 put St. John’s back in front, but Daniels immediately answered with a 3 of his own to put the ‘Cats back up with 7:26 to go. The ‘Cats would maintain that lead for the next five minutes, leading by as many as four.

But the Johnnies weren’t going to fold, and a Smith layup and foul put St. John’s back up one with just over two minutes to play. The teams traded stops for two minutes, with the ‘Cats getting a huge stop with 27 seconds to go, still trailing by one. Jermaine Samuels missed a layup with four seconds left but got the offensive rebound before the ball found Brandon Slater, who drew a foul with 2.8 seconds left. Slater coolly knocked down the first free throw to tie the game, then calmly knocked down the second after a St. John’s timeout to give the ‘Cats a one-point lead. A prayer from half court wasn’t answered for St. John’s and the ‘Cats completed the comeback and escaped with a one-point win.

“We work on free throws every day in practice so when I step up to the line my teammates and my coaches just tell me we do this every single day so they give me that confidence and I was able to knock it down,” Slater said of his clutch free throw shooting.

Villanova shot much better in the second half, hitting 50% overall and 40% from 3. The ‘Cats also cleaned up the turnovers a bit, committing just five in the second half, and were able to build an 11-3 advantage in points off turnovers in the period. Villanova was also more effective down low, scoring 18 points in the paint in the second half after being held scoreless in the first.

Villanova deserves a ton of credit for continuing to battle. Between the way shots weren’t falling and being down 17 points, the ‘Cats easily could have folded. Instead, they got to work, patiently whittled away at the deficit and pulled off a pretty epic comeback. Per the Big East, the 17-point hole was the largest deficit overcome by the Wildcats in a Big East Tournament game since realignment.

“We practice situations like this all the time,” Daniels said. “And to be honest, we have a love for each other, so we know we’re gonna fight for each other. Every possession, one possession at a time, one stop at a time and we’re just gonna gut it out each and every game.”

“Throughout the game we figure out what we need to do better but mainly it’s just us keeping a great attitude and just taking possession by possession,” Daniels added. “We know we can’t get it all back in one possession so we just keep a great attitude, keep it going one by one, one stop at a time.”

Daniels was fantastic Thursday night, hitting 5-9 from 3 for 19 points to go with seven rebounds. He also started for Jermaine Samuels, who missed the start of the game dealing with back spasms.

Speaking of Samuels, he was eventually able to gut it out, playing just over seven first-half minutes and then playing nearly the whole second half (18:56). His presence was huge for the ‘Cats, as he had seven points, six rebounds (four offensive) and two steals in the second half alone. He was a team-high +13 in the second half.

It was a great effort from the ‘Cats that helped ‘Nova Nation avoid an unpleasant stretch through Selection Sunday and into next week’s NCAA Tournament. Instead, ‘Nova and its fans can enjoy the comeback and look forward to another opportunity to play on Friday. A Big East Tournament title is still in play, as is the opportunity to improve/secure seeding for the NCAA Tournament.

The ‘Cats will take on the winner of No. 6 Seton Hall and No. 3 UConn Friday night at 9 p.m. At the time of publishing, UConn was leading 45-31.