Villanova’s dominance in the Bahamas continued Friday. For the third time in three tries, the Wildcats claimed the Battle 4 Atlantis championship, this time with a 79-63 win over Memphis.
The first half was about as dominant a performance as you’ll see. Villanova stunned Memphis with an early barrage of threes, hitting five of their first six to open a 16-2 lead, and the Tigers never recovered. Memphis started the game 1-10, hit just three of their first 20 attempts and finished the first half 4-27 (15%). The Tigers had twice as many turnovers as made field goals, and Villanova turned those eight turnovers into 14 points.
The Wildcats did an excellent job controlling the pace. They also did a good job not totally falling in love with the three after the hot start, as they did some excellent work attacking the basket either with the dribble-drive or with excellent cuts. Both Eric Dixon and Lance Ware had a very nice pass to a cutting teammate for an easy layup. Eight Wildcats scored, eight pulled down at least one rebound and six dished out at least one assist.
“I thought we really set the tone," Kyle Neptune said of the first half dominance. "We came out, played extremely hard, were really locked in. Every person that went into the game just gave it their all. It really starts on the defensive end, when you can get stops like that and get out in transition normally your offense looks a lot better.”
The trend continued through the first 10 minutes of the second half. Villanova built the lead to 35 with 9:12 to play and looked to be cruising to a wire-to-wire dominant win. And then something happened.
Over the next four-and-a-half minutes, Memphis would rip off an almost unfathomable 21-0 run to trim the Wildcat lead to 14 with 4:29 remaining. Villanova committed five turnovers in the span. A Dixon layup at 4:01 finally stopped the run, and while Memphis would manage to pull within 13 at the 3:42 mark, Villanova steadied itself, reestablishing a 20-point advantage before a pair of Memphis baskets in the final minute set the final margin at 16.
“They just kept playing," Neptune said of the Memphis run. "They kept playing hard. We stopped getting stops for a little segment here and there. It’s a learning lesson.”
As hard as it is to look away from that massive Memphis run, that really shouldn’t be the story here. Villanova absolutely dominated for the first 30 minutes of the game, and the ability to put forth a defensive performance like the one we saw in the first half (for the second time this season) should probably be the biggest takeaway. Further, Villanova played well in all three games in the Bahamas, and the game plans for each of the games were excellent. The players then did a great job executing those game plans.
Despite the second-half hiccup, ‘Nova still held Memphis to 35% shooting overall and 28% from three. The Wildcats won the turnover battle and the rebounding battle and assisted on 14 of 26 made field goals.
It was a wildly successful trip for the Wildcats, who not only claimed the trophy but also added several quality wins to the resume and showed some significant progress while showcasing the kind of team they have the potential to be.
"Thought we had a great tournament, thought we got a lot better," Neptune said. "Really proud of this team.”
“I think we learned a lot about our team," Neptune continued. "We got tested, we were resilient. We were in some battles and that’s what you want. You want to be tested, and that’s a big thing for a team to have to be in battles and overcome them.”
