It was a disappointing afternoon for Villanova at Providence on Saturday. After a disastrous start, Villanova mounted a furious comeback before ultimately falling short in a 54-52 loss to the Friars.
The first half was a complete disaster. The Wildcats missed nine of their first 10 shots and fell behind 11-2. It would get worse from there. At the under-8 timeout, ‘Nova was shooting 3-20. At the under-4 timeout, the ‘Cats were shooting 4-24. As a result, Providence continued to extend the lead, with ‘Nova facing deficits of 11-2, 16-5, 21-7, 31-12, and 38-18. When the first-half buzzer sounded, ‘Nova trailed 38-21. Villanova shot just 4-17 on 2-point attempts in the period.
“I was just really disappointed in the way we started,” Jay Wright said.
As if all that wasn’t bad enough, ‘Nova also lost Justin Moore to an ankle injury in the first half. Wright said Moore will likely have an MRI Saturday night or Sunday morning to determine the severity of the injury.
This left Villanova entering the second half facing a 17-point deficit and without its starting backcourt.
Naturally, the Wildcats proceeded to stage a furious comeback. With Chris Arcidiacono starting the half at point guard, ‘Nova scored the first 11 points of the period to pull within six at 38-32. There was still plenty of work to be done, but the ‘Cats sent an early message and put themselves in position to have a chance.
“I thought Chris Arch did an incredible job,” Wright said. “He was really good, he got us under control and brought energy to us defensively. I thought he was outstanding.”
“Archie gave us a spark in the second half,” Collin Gillespie said. I thought he did a really good job and really brought the energy.”
Providence responded with a 6-0 run to push the lead back to 12 as the Wildcats suffered a nearly seven-minute scoring drought. Jermaine Samuels broke the drought with 10:28 to play, and the ‘Cats would get back to work whittling away at the Providence lead.
With 5:40 to go, ‘Nova got within five. At the 4:00 mark, the Providence lead was down to four. 19 seconds later, ‘Nova trimmed another point off the lead to get within three.
With just over three minutes to go, it appeared that Jermaine Samuels had tied the game with a 3, but the shot was ruled a 2, keeping the Providence lead at one. With two and a half minutes to go, Samuels again scored for the ‘Cats, giving them their first lead since 2-0 and setting up a tense final two minutes.
A pair of Jermaine Samuels’ free throws with 16 seconds left tied the game at 52. On the ensuing possession, Villanova forced a miss from Jared Bynum but allowed David Duke to get his hands on the rebound and tip it in to give the Friars a lead with just 2.8 seconds to go.
Villanova drew up an excellent final play and executed it to near-perfection, with Eric Dixon throwing a long pass to Jeremiah Robinson-Earl on the right wing. Robinson-Earl hauled in the pass, used a dribble to get in rhythm and had an incredibly open look at a 3 to win the game. Robinson-Earl misfired, and Jermaine Samuels tipped in the miss, but it had come after the buzzer, leaving the ‘Nova comeback effort just short in a 54-52 loss.
The play wasn’t the one that was originally called by Wright, and because of the change, they ended up with a play that they haven’t worked on a ton. “We called timeout and they saw how we lined up so we changed it,” Wright said. “That play particularly no (we hadn’t worked on it much), we had a play set, they called timeout, so we changed it.”
There’s a lot to digest from this game.
The first-half performance was just brutal. Not only could the ‘Cats not put the ball in the basket, but they did a poor job preventing Providence from doing so. The Friars shot 61.5% in the first half. After doing a great job against Providence’s duo of David Duke and Nate Watson in the first meeting between the teams, on Saturday that pair combined for 27 first-half points.
On the other hand, you have to be impressed with the comeback. Without both of their starting guards, Villanova erased a 17-point deficit and took a lead. They were a put-back tip-in away from having the last shot in a tie game, and even after giving up the tip got a great look for the win. The resiliency and mental toughness to put the first half behind them, put the injury to Moore behind them, and keep plugging away is admirable.
Villanova had its chances. In addition to the failure to grab that last defensive rebound and the resulting tip-in and the failure to connect on a good look to win the game, Villanova had a ton of close-range shots that just wouldn’t go down and it also shot a dismal, uncharacteristic 7-14 from the free throw line in the second half.
“We definitely had our chances,” Wright said. “We had free throws, we had shots at the rim, it just wasn’t meant to be. That’s sports sometimes. But you gotta respect the effort.”
At the end of the day, it was disappointing to not come away with the win, especially with everything they overcame to get back in the game and some of the missed opportunities and how the final play went down. But the comeback and resiliency give the ‘Cats something to build on heading into postseason play. Perhaps more importantly, the ‘Cats got a taste of life without Collin Gillespie, providing valuable insights as they prepare for the Big East and NCAA tournaments.
“We got a chance to play a game without Collin and see how teams are gonna play us, some of the things we’re gonna have to contend with and some of the adjustments we’re gonna have to make,” Wright said. “We’ve had one day of practice and had some ideas but now we played a good defensive team and we got some new ideas now of how people will play us.”
Villanova will kick off Big East tournament play on Thursday afternoon.
