Villanova Wildcats Survive the Storm from Saint John’s

They say that defense wins championships. Well tonight, the Villanova Wildcats defense (at least in the first half) took a big step forward.

The Villanova Wildcats survived runs from the Saint John’s Red Storm in order to win their third straight 92-79 behind 26 points from Josh Hart and 20 from Donte DiVincenzo. The recursive issues that this team has had struck again as they had issues holding off Saint John’s after the half.

The first story to come out of this game for the Wildcats came from the lineups rather than the basketball court. In a late change, Eric Paschall would make his second start of the season in place of Kris Jenkins who would be available off the bench. But that didn’t matter to Jenkins who immediately upon entering the game assisted on a Mikel Bridges three-pointer.

After the game when asked about Jenkins not starting Jay Wright said,

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“I wanted him to come off the bench firing I wanted him to offensively be really aggressive. Just loosen him up and get him going again He was great on the defensive end too.”

For a team where offense has defined their season, it was actually Villanova’s defense that stole the show to begin this one. While their offense was struggling to cope with Saint John’s defensive length the Villanova Wildcats locked things down on the defensive end for good measure. They held the Red Storm scoreless for the first eight minutes of the game. In that time the Wildcats were able to reel off a 10-0 run that they wouldn’t look back from.

This start was also due to a mixture of tough luck for Saint John’s who were taking good shots but they just weren’t falling. Once they got into foul trouble, the Villanova Wildcats pounced. Keyed by a 10-0 run by Donte DiVincenzo, the Wildcats saw their advantage balloon to 21. After that, the Wildcats would go on to lead by at least 26 until the Red Storm found a little momentum to close the half. Thanks to their hot shooting, the Red Storm were able to cut Villanova’s lead to ‘only’ 46-28 at the half.

The momentum that Saint John’s gained in the first half did carry into the second half as they started out on a 7-0 run to draw within 11. Whatever was said in the locker room seemed to be working as Saint John’s were using their length to their advantage in order to push the Wildcats drawing as close as nine.

After that, Villanova woke up from their slumber to go on a 15-4 run taking their lead back up to 20 points. Things went from bad to worse for the Red Storm as Basir Ahmed, their second leading scorer tonight, fouled out with 15 points. That turned pit tp be the straw that broke the camel’s back.

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Jay Wright lauded the pressure and intensity that Saint John’s played with but at the same time, he mentioned that there were a lot of things that concerned him about his team’s performance that need to be addressed. They’ve had issues playing with leads and that needs to change moving forward.

It was a tough effort from the Red Storm but the Villanova Wildcats proved to be too much to handle tonight. Villanova’s second half couldn’t live up to the excellent standard that they set in the first half but they did what was needed to stay in control. Next up for the Wildcats will be a tough matchup against Georgetown on Tuesday.