Villanova is headed back to the Elite 8 for the third time in the last six tournaments after a hard-fought 63-55 win over Michigan Thursday night.

It was a back-and-forth first half. Michigan jumped out to a quick 5-1 lead, but a 7-2 ‘Nova run gave the ‘Cats their first lead at 8-7 with 15:02 to play. After the teams traded a few baskets, back-to-back 3s from Collin Gillespie and Justin Moore pushed the ‘Nova lead to 18-11, it’s largest of the game. However, the ‘Cats would miss seven straight shots and suffer through a five-minute drought. Michigan took advantage, using an 11-2 push to take a 22-20 lead.

The ’Cats would respond, scoring 11 of the final 17 points of the period to take a 31-28 lead into the break.

After struggling early on the glass, falling behind 6-2 with four Michigan offensive rebounds, ‘Nova did much better the rest of the half with the battle on the boards ending 17-17. The difference in the first half was the 3-point line, where ‘Nova was +6, and the free throw line, where the ‘Cats hit 4-5 while Michigan was just 1-6.

Villanova controlled the second half, with Michigan never able to get closer than three. Several times ‘Nova pushed the lead to nine and had multiple opportunities to extend the lead to double digits but failed to do so, and it felt like it could come back to bite the ‘Cats. But it never did, as they had an answer every time Michigan started to knock on the door.

The ‘Cats took turns making the big play to squash any Michigan momentum. Moore hit a big 3, Caleb Daniels had an old fashioned three-point play, and a Jermaine Samuels layup followed by a Gillespie 3 quelled another potential push from the Wolverines. Samuels iced the game down the stretch, going 4-4 from the free throw line in the last 15 seconds to send ‘Nova to an eight-point win.

‘Nova limited Michigan to 34% shooting overall and 33% from 3. The ‘Cats held their own on the boards (41-38 Michigan) and had an 11-7 advantage in points in the paint. They were +9 from 3 and +3 from the free throw line.

Samuels was fantastic, scoring a game-high 22 points to go with seven rebounds, two steals and two blocks. Moore added 15 points, four rebounds and four assists. Gillespie had 12 points, six rebounds and two assists.

“It was awesome,” Jay Wright said of Samuels’ performance. “I was really proud of his effort on the defensive end. We asked a lot of him on the defensive end guarding Dickinson a lot, but then on the offensive end we were trying to move Dickinson around, which it sounds good unless you're the guy that's got to do it. If you're the guy that's got to do it, you're running around setting screens, cutting to make him follow you. That was a gutty effort, man.”

Daniels had an incredible impact on the game. He finished with eight points, nine rebounds, three assists, a steal and a block (thought he should have been credited with two blocks). In addition to the balanced effort, Daniels made incredibly timely plays, from buckets to rebounds to defensive plays. Not surprisingly, he finished a team-high +15.

Eric Dixon chipped in six points and seven rebounds.

‘Nova limited Hunter Dickinson to 15 points on 6-16 shooting. Eli Brooks (14 pts) was the only other Wolverine to reach double figures.

“They have great timing offensively,” Wright said when discussing the defensive gameplan and the success in slowing Dickinson. “Hunter Dickinson is used to getting the ball at certain spots at specific times on his cut. Our ball pressure was taking that timing off a little bit, so when he was catching it, he was catching it a little bit off his spot, and we were trying to hold our ground. You saw a couple times he backed us down, it was automatic. We were trying to hold our ground, so instead of taking a five-foot jump hook, it was an eight, ten foot jump hook. Sometimes he had to make a quick move and was moving a little quicker than he normally did. That's what we were trying to do.”

It was a great all-around team effort from the ‘Cats, who did a great job making Dickinson uncomfortable and offsetting a significant size advantage for the Wolverines. They also did a good job containing Michigan’s experienced backcourt. While Brooks scored 14 points, it took him 14 shots to do so. As we mentioned, ‘Nova also did a good job rebounding as a team. The Wildcats once again displayed impressive physicality, toughness and composure.

‘Nova will await the winner of 1-seed Arizona against 5-seed Houston. The ‘Cats will battle one of those programs on Saturday for a spot in the Final Four.