What. A. Game.
Villanova and UConn put on a show Friday night, producing a classic Big East Tournament game under the bright lights of Madison Square Garden in front of an absolutely electric crowd. When the dust settled, it was Villanova advancing to the title game with a 63-60 win.
“Friday night, Madison Square Garden, semifinals, Villanova-Connecticut, if you grew up in the northeast it’s a basketball junkie’s dream,” Jay Wright said. “There’s no atmosphere like this anywhere in the world for basketball. The juice in there, you could feel it when you come out there, the electricity, it’s incredible. We’re so blessed to be a part of it. Awesome atmosphere.”
We could write a novel going over the blow-by-blow of this game, so we’ll try to distill it down to the key moments and stats.
The first half can be summed up well by this stat: six ties and 13 lead changes. UConn’s largest lead was four while Villanova’s largest lead was five. UConn led for 7:59 while ‘Nova led for 8:23. It was that close and came with the requisite intensity.
Villanova was powered by the 3-pointer in the first half. The ‘Cats launched 19 attempts from deep and just eight from inside the arc. They hit eight of those 19 attempts (42.1%) and were +9 from deep. Meanwhile, UConn dominated inside. The Huskies outscored ‘Nova 16-4 in the paint and outrebounded the ‘Cats 19-11. It all shook out to a 33-32 Villanova lead at the half.
One other interesting note from the first half: Collin Gillespie and Justin Moore combined for just two points on 1-6 shooting. The Huskies were intent to take them away from ‘Nova, and Jermaine Samuels and Brandon Slater stepped up in a big way. Samuels had 12 points (4-8 FG, 3-5 3PT) and five rebounds while Slater added 10 points (3-6 FG, 2-5 3PT).
The second half played out quite similar, at least in terms of how close the game remained and the intensity. Villanova was able to open an eight-point lead with 10:22 to go on an Eric Dixon 3. Of course, that lead wouldn’t last. Again, rather than go through the entire back-and-forth over the final 10 minutes, we want to highlight two key plays.
The first is a huge shot by Jordan Longino. With 6:15 to go, the ‘Cats were clinging to a five-point advantage when they found themselves bogged down in an offensive possession. The ball found Longino, who tried to attack the basket. He was cut off and found himself stuck with the shot clock winding down. The freshman pivoted away from the defender and hit a beautiful fadeaway jumper as the shot clock expired to push the lead back to seven.
Not only was the shot huge in terms of the points and maintaining momentum, but it was incredibly deflating for UConn, who had just played stellar defense for 28 seconds but still watched the ball go through the hoop.
“I thought it was a huge play, besides Slate’s block, we got stuck at the end of the shot clock, they denied everybody, Jordan went and drove it, he got stuck,” Wright said. “Pivoted and shot and hit a fadeaway at the end of the shot clock. That was huge. He’s a gutsy kid for a freshman.”
Wright happened to mention the second play we want to highlight in his quote on Longino’s play. About a minute-and-a-half later, with ‘Nova up seven, a scramble for the ball occurred. Eric Dixon got credit for a steal, but the ball remained loose and as Dixon went to the floor and tried to get it to a teammate it eventually made it into the hands of Andre Jackson, who got the ball ahead to a streaking Tyrese Martin for what looked like a sure dunk. Instead, Brandon Slater came flying to the rim to challenge the dunk and came away with a clean block. Not only did he stop the dunk, but the ball stayed in play and was tracked down by Justin Moore.
The momentum swings during this sequence were insane. At first it looked like ‘Nova had a big steal and a chance to push the lead to nine. Then there was the deflation of not only losing that opportunity, but also having it flip into an opportunity for UConn to cut the lead to five in easy, and emphatic, fashion. Instead, it was Slater who delivered the highlight and restored the momentum to Villanova.
“Try to go make a play,” Slater said. “I saw him go up and I thought I could contest it and then when I got up it just so happened that I got lucky and I got the block.”
A huge offensive rebound by Jermaine Samuels with 26 seconds left and the ‘Cats up three helped them close it out. Samuels hit both from the line to go up five. Jackson hit a 3 for UConn at the other end with 10 seconds to go to pull within two. After a somewhat adventurous inbounds situation, Gillespie eventually got the ball into the frontcourt, where he was fouled with three seconds left. He hit one of two from the line and Martin failed to get a halfcourt heave off before the buzzer, leaving the ‘Cats with a three-point win.
Villanova did a much better job inside in the second half. After getting dominated in points in the paint in the first half, the ‘Cats won that category 16-10 in the second half. They hit 10-16 2-point attempts.
Samuels, who was still dealing with the back spasm issue that held him out of the starting lineup on Thursday, was fantastic for the ‘Cats. He finished with a game-high 21 points to go with 12 rebounds. Wright revealed after the game that Samuels was unable to go through walkthrough prior to the game. “He couldn’t stand long enough to go through walkthrough,” Wright said. “I’m amazed at him. He’s a tough kid. Great competitor.”
Slater finished with 15 points and four rebounds, along with that huge block.
No other Wildcat reached double figures, but each had their contributions. Gillespie had 10 assists and just one turnover. Justin Moore had six points, four rebounds and three assists. Dixon had that big 3 that opened Villanova’s largest lead of the game. Longino had five points, including that incredibly important shot clock-beating jumper. Caleb Daniels had six points and three rebounds and finished a team-high +11.
Wright deserves some credit as well. He did a great job noticing what UConn was doing defensively and putting his players in position to counter it. Gillespie, in particular, did a great job executing those counters and Samuels and Slater delivered as the opportunities were being diverted to them. Wright also did an excellent job managing the flow of the game, getting timeouts called in great spots and helping maintain the momentum in an incredibly back-and-forth game.
Wright was masterful, the players executed, and the result was an excellent win against a good team and the opportunity to play for a Big East Tournament championship. The ‘Cats will battle Creighton Saturday night at 6:30 for the tournament crown.
