Villanova traveled to Madison Square Garden Tuesday night to face old Big East foe Syracuse and walked away with a 67-53 win to improve to 7-2 on the season.

“Great college basketball atmosphere,” Jay Wright said. “It was so cool. I hope our guys really enjoyed that. I could feel it from the time we walked out on the court.”

It was a strange first half. Both teams came out firing, with Syracuse taking a 12-11 lead at the first media timeout. Both teams were scorching the nets and the game was moving at an incredible pace. That didn’t last long.

The teams quickly came back to earth. After scoring those combined 23 points over the first four minutes, the teams combined to score just 32 points over the final 15 minutes of the half. Villanova shot just 9-37 (24.3%) overall and 5-28 (17.9%) from 3. The Wildcats were able to offset some of the poor shooting with a strong rebounding performance, taking a 28-19 advantage on the glass and a 13-4 lead in offensive rebounds which they converted into an 8-2 lead in second-chance points. “I thought in the first half it kept us in the game,” Wright said about the offensive rebounding. “We really struggled with their zone.”

When the dust settled, Syracuse had a 29-26 lead.

Villanova stabilized somewhat in the second half, finally getting comfortable with the Syracuse zone. The shooting was still a bit below Villanova standards but was much closer to average as the ‘Cats hit 40% overall and 36.4% from 3. Just as importantly, Villanova’s defense was excellent in the second half as the ‘Cats held Syracuse to 32.1% shooting overall and just 14.3% from 3.

In addition, the Wildcats continued their dominant performance on the glass, outrebounding the Orange 29-17. That advantage included a 14-7 edge on the offensive glass, which ‘Nova turned into a 17-5 margin in second-chance points. “In the second half it would have been really close, it would have just stayed close like it was the whole first half except that getting us some extra possessions, got some 3s,” Wright said about the offensive rebounding.

The combination of the improved shooting, the stout defense and the strong rebounding helped Villanova to a 41-24 second-half margin and a 14-point win.

It certainly wasn’t a pretty performance. ‘Nova ended up shooting 32.5 percent for the game and just 26% from 3. They committed 10 turnovers, although eight of those came in the first half, so there was notable improvement in that department in the second half.

While Villanova clearly had an abnormally poor shooting night, some of the offensive struggles can be attributed to the Syracuse zone as well. It’s just so unique and something that they execute so well. “You just don’t see that,” Wright said of the zone. “It’s not like anybody else’s zone. We really struggled with it in the first half, I think it took a whole half for us to figure it out but also for the guys to be comfortable with the way they were flying at our shooters, the way they protected the rim.”

The second-half improvement shooting the ball backs up Wright’s assessment that the ‘Cats were finally adjusting to the zone. But the fact that despite the improvement ‘Nova still shot below its season average indicates that it was probably also just one of those off nights that occur from time to time in a long season. It was encouraging to see Villanova be able to rely on defense and rebounding to secure the win.

“I was really proud of our second half effort,” Wright said. “We struggled in the first half with their zone, we struggled guarding them a little bit and our defensive effort in the second half was outstanding. Defensively and on the glass, they were awesome. I was really proud of our second half effort against an outstanding offensive team.”

Syracuse entered the game with some very strong offensive numbers and holding the Orange to 53 points on 35.7% shooting overall and 33.3% shooting from 3 is nothing to scoff at.

Volume was really the name of the game on Tuesday. Thanks to the impressive rebounding, Villanova was able to take 21 more shots than Syracuse. That’s a great way to offset a poor shooting night.

Again, it was encouraging to see the defense and rebounding carry the day. Good teams find ways to win ugly games and games in which the offense is struggling, and Villanova did that Tuesday night. To win a game in which you shot 32.5% by 14 points is pretty impressive, and games like this can go a long way in developing a team’s mental toughness and helping it deal with adverse circumstances as the season goes on.

Villanova will look to build on this performance on Sunday when they travel to face No. 2 Baylor.