NEW YORK – For the first time in 3 years, Villanova is in the Big East semifinals.

But not before the Wildcats went through a serious sweat.

Dwayne Anderson’s layup just before the final buzzer, his third and fourth points of the game (and first field goal) off a perfect bounce-pass from the foul line by Reggie Redding, gave Villanova a 76-75 win over Marquette this afternoon.

“We tried to attack, tried to get the ball to Scottie but they face guarded him,” Anderson said. “Reggie is a playmaker. It’s what he does. It definitely means a lot. I’ve been through a lot these four years, the ups and downs, the highs and lows. ... We’re not quite there, we’re getting close to it.”

The fourth-seeded Wildcats (26-6) led by 16 at the half.

They now will get top-seeded Louisville (26-5) at 7 p.m. Friday in the first half of a semifinal doubleheader. It’s their first trip to the semis since 2006.

The 10th-ranked Wildcats fell behind, by one, with 1:40 to play, on a three-pointer from the key by Lazar Hayward. It was Marquette’s first lead since 5-4.

The fifth-seeded Golden Eagles (23-9) were still up one with 40 seconds to go, and had possession. But Jerel McNeal’s driving layup was blocked by Dante Cunningham, and the Wildcats, who were out of timeouts, had one final chance.

Redding found himself with the ball as the clock wound down. It looked as if he would have to put up some kind of desperation shot, but at the last instant he saw Anderson cutting for the basket and found him in stride.

The officials had to check the replays to make sure it counted. But it wasn’t really that close.

Scottie Reynolds had 21 for Villanova, 18 in the first half. Corey Stokes finished with 20, 17 after intermission.

Marquette got 19 from Jimmy Butler, the first time he has led the team in scoring all season.

The Golden Eagles have now dropped five of six since losing point guard Dominic James with a broken foot. All the losses were to ranked teams.

While nothing will be certain until Sunday night, this victory pretty much assures that Villanova will get a third seed and be sent to South Philadelphia for the opening weekend of the NCAA Tournament.

 

Poll: Will 'Nova take out top-seed Louisville? (211 votes)

ATLANTIC CITY --  Despite one field goal from Dionte Christmas and a hobbled Lavoy Allen, Temple pinned its third defeat of the season on Saint Josephs with a 79-65 victory in a quarterfinal game of the Atlantic 10 Tournament.

The only field goal for Christmas came with a little less than 6 minutes left on a driving layup that gave the Owls a 65-48 lead.

Allen, who finished with nine points and 12 rebounds points, entered Boardwalk Hall before the game with a boot on his right ankle. He showed no sign of injury, though, during the game.

“He showed a lot of toughness playing today,” said Temple coach Fran Dunphy. “I know a lot of kids who wouldn’t have played.”

With Christmas struggling and Allen hurt, Sergio Olmos (14), Ryan Brooks (19) and Semaj Inge (12) combined for 45 points

With the win, Temple improves to 24-2 all-time in A-10 quarterfinal games.

Seniors Ahmad Nivins and Tasheed Carr led the Hawks with 23 and 21 points, respectively. When coach Phil Martelli pulled them late in the game, both were overcome with emotion while on the bench during the final few seconds.

Fourth-seeded Temple (20-11) will now play top-seeded Xavier on Friday night at 6:30 in the first semifinal.

St. Joe’s (17-15) will now hope for an invitation to play in a postseason tournament.
 

Marquette had lost its last four games, all to ranked opponents, since losing starting point guard Dominic James with a broken foot.

Still, the 21st-ranked Golden Eagles (24-8), the fifth seed in the Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden in New York, advanced into Thursday's quarterfinals against Villanova with a 74-45 win over No. 13 St. John's (16-17), which had eliminated No. 12 Georgetown on Tuesday.

The 10th-ranked Wildcats (25-6) are the No. 4 seed.

The teams split during the season. Marquette won in Milwaukee on New Year's Day by seven. The Wildcats won by 18 at the Pavilion on Feb. 10.

Even without James, the Golden Eagles still have two other senior guards. One of them, Wesley Matthews, had 20 points against the Red Storm, which set a tourney record by scoring 10 points in the first half.

Both teams prefer to play through their backcourt, which usually makes this an entertaining matchup.

The Wildcats could pretty much lock up a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament, and also a spot in Philadelphia for the opening weekend, with another win.

ATLANTIC CITY -- Saint Joseph’s trailed Charlotte by 13 points midway through the first half of its Atlantic 10 Tournament first-round game at Boardwalk Hall. The Hawks have given up more than a few big leads this season so there was no reason to think they could not overcome one.

When they second half began, they overcame it quickly and easily, scoring on 14 of 16 possessions and outscoring the 49ers 29-11 on their way to a 72-62 win.

St. Joe’s (17-14) will play Temple (19-11) tomorrow afternoon in the quarterfinals. It is the 11th A-10 meeting between the two schools that played for the championship Temple won last season.

St. Joe’s shot just 27.6 percent in the first half and trailed 30-23. The Hawks got to the foul line early in the second, converted just about every shot and opened up a 52-41 lead with 10:20 to go and nursed it to the wire.

Senior Tasheed Carr had 17 of his 22 points in the second half. You sort of knew the Hawks were going to win it when they trailed just 30-28 early in the second half and star Ahmad Nivins (15 points, 14 rebounds) was just 1-for-8.

St. Joe’s shot 61.9 percent in the second half and was 19-for-21 from the foul line. The Hawks shot 33 free throws to just 11 for Charlotte.

The 49ers (11-20) lost 19 regular-season games for a reason. They gave up the lead more quickly than they got it. And had no answer for a St. Joe’s team that once it got its rhythm never looked like it was going to do anything but win.

Now, St. Joe’s will have to beat a Temple team that swept the Hawks in the regular-season and has beaten them four straight. The winner plays in Friday’s A-10 semifinals.
 

To read our coverage of LaSalle's overtime loss in the quarterfinals, click here.

ATLANTIC CITY -- Kwamain Mitchell hit a driving layup with 1.8 seconds left in overtime to give the ninth-seeded St. Louis Billikens a 62-60 win over 8th-seeded La Salle in the first round of the Atlantic 10 Tournament at Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall.

“We were fortunate to beat them today,” said St. Louis coach Rick Majerus.

La Salle started the game well, jumping to a 12-4 lead, scoring on five of its first six possessions. But the team got cold, finishing the half hitting just 10-for-27 from the floor, and fell behind by 26-24.

It never led in the second half and forced the overtime when Rodney Green (24 points) grabbed a rebound, dribbled the length of the floor and made a layup with one minute, 48 seconds left for a 52-52 tie.

Mitchell, who finished with 18 points, missed a three pointer from the top of the key at the buzzer.

Four straight points by Rodney Green (game-high 24 points) in the overtime gave La Salle a 60-58 lead with 1:10 left, but Tommie Liddell hit a layup off a feed from Mitchell to tie it with 42.3 seconds remaining. La Salle then couldn’t get a good shot off and St. Louis took over with 6.6 seconds left after a shot clock violation.

Mitchell got the ball on a side court inbounds pass and drove the ball straight to the basket, lofting the winning shot high over the hand of La Salle’s Yves Mekongo Mbala.

The loss ends the season for La Salle (18-13), which shot 23-for-63 (36.5 percent) from the floor. Kimmani Barrett was the only other Explorer in double figures with 10 points.

“He just drove to the basket and we got beat off the dribble,” said La Salle coach John Giannini about the winning basket. “We wanted to stay in front of him and make him miss. And it would have worked.”
 

March Madness is an exciting time of year for college basketball coaches, players and fans, and we start our own version of the "Madness" this week with the Atlantic 10 Championships at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.

It has been a very, very balanced season in the A-10 which should make for a tremendous tournament. The first portion of the season all the coaches in the league would agree that Xavier had separated itself from the field. Then all of the sudden Dayton comes on strong and Rhode Island really started playing well, especially down the stretch. I also think that we have had a good season at Temple, but no team can be overlooked as evidenced by our 12-seed Charlotte defeating Xavier and Richmond closing out the season with a win over Xavier.

With the A-10 Championships it is a whole different world. You have to play well for three nights in a row, but before you can play three games, you have to win the first one. It is going to be a tough road, but the team that stays together is going to survive.

As a coach, when your teams takes the floor you hope your guys are ready. Coaches prepare their teams through practices, film work and strategy then we just throw it up against the wall and hope that it sticks.

You cannot change much this time of year. The interesting thing for our team is that we are going to play an afternoon game on Thursday and, if we are lucky enough to win, we will play an evening game on Friday. That will at least allow us some time to prepare for the next opponent. It is not like you are playing at night then noon on the next day. We will have also played the our seminfinal opponent so we will know something about them. Plus we will have watched them play during the tournament.

We hope to become the first team since Coach Chaney's 2001 squad to successfully defend its A-10 title. It takes a lot of luck to repeat as champions, hopefully we have the luck on our side again this season.

Hope to see you down at Boardwalk Hall.
 

WE'RE MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO: Stopping by one of the nearby racebooks between sessions to check out the action from Gulfstream Park. Semi-seriously, just some competitive hoops. Trying to make sense of this bracket is like trying to make sense of the regular season. There was a three-way tie for second and four-way tie for fifth. The regular-season champion had four losses. Should be a few games decided late where good luck or bad can change everything in an instant.

TEAM ON THE RISE: La Salle was playing its best basketball at the finish. No player in the league is playing better at the moment than Rodney Green. The Explorers just came from behind to win at Saint Louis Saturday night. The same matchup opens the tournament.

TEAM ON THE DECLINE: Since upsetting Xavier, Charlotte has lost four of five. Its only win was against Fordham, which really does not count. This team is more talented than its record, but injuries and inconsistency put them 11th in the standings when they were picked fifth

WORTH NOTING: This is the third year the tournament has been at Boardwalk Hall. It has not been announced where next year’s tournament will be. The finalists are Dayton, Cincinnati, Springfield (Mass.), Pittsburgh and Atlantic City. Sadly, no Philadelphia on the list.

DARK HORSE TO WIN IT ALL: Richmond. Chris Mooney’s team has won five of six. The Spiders beat Xavier on Saturday. Richmond is playing faster now that Mooney has amassed more talent. Having to win four games in four days obviously plays against them, but this is a dangerous team.

TEAM THAT NEEDS HELP TO MAKE THE NCAAS: All of them except Dayton and Xavier. Rhode Island and Temple might have been in play for an at large until late-season home losses to Massachusetts and La Salle respectively. The rest of them have been playing for conference seeding in recent weeks.

BEST PLAYER: Ahmad Nivins (Saint Joseph’s) led the league in scoring (tie with Temple’s Dionte Christmas), rebounding and field goal percentage despite constant double and sometimes triple teams. He was named Player of the Year by the coaches. Athletic artistry would be the best way to describe his game.

BEST SHOOTER: Rhode Island’s Jimmy Baron just set the league record with 345 made treys. This season, he made 102 and shot 45.3 percent. If he is in the gym, he is in range. He nearly beat Duke at Cameron with his quick release until the striped shirts remembered who was supposed to win.

BEST DEFENDER: Tony Gaffney (Massachusetts) led the league in blocks (113) and was second in steals (59). The frontline of the Minutemen defense is not particularly strong which puts all kinds on Gaffney as he mans the back line.

DON'T FOUL THESE GUYS: Kevin Lisch (Saint Louis) shot 82.9 percent and made 107 free throws. Duquesne’s Aaron Jackson, a wonderful all-around talent, shot 81.2 percent and made 134 foul shots.

ULTIMATE TITLE GAME: Temple-Rhode Island. With all due respect to Xavier and Dayton, they are already in the NCAA. The league would like this final as it would give them a third NCAA team. And this game would have the potential to be high scoring and quite entertaining with shooters like Baron and Christmas firing from deep and enough athletes around the basket to make it a game played in all places.

THE PICK: I liked Temple last year and the Owls got home. Without Mark Tyndale and Chris Clark scoring and leading, I don’t think this team is quite as ready as that one. I also don’t think this field is as good as last year’s. If Lavoy Allen can put together three strong games and Dionte Christmas can shoot a decent percentage from deep, I like the Owls. Juan Fernandez is going to be a very good player on North Broad. If he had been there all season, the Owls might be in play for an at large. Slowly, Fernandez’s talents are starting to emerge. If he is locked in for three games, the Owls will have even a bigger chance.
 

We were very pleased with our last win in St. Louis where the Billikens were 14-2 at home going into the game with wins against outstanding Dayton and Boston College teams. Now, we have the difficult task of beating them again in the A-10 Tournament. While we are please with a fifth-place finish in the tough Atlantic 10, we are certainly not satisfied. We have a great opportunity ahead of us and we know a few more wins in the regular season would have helped our postseason chances.

We are playing with an “edge” again. In our first 21 games we outrebounded teams 16 times. Then, we hit a bad stretch where we lost games and were outrebounded in those games. We are back to outrebounding our opponents and winning in our last four games. I believe rebounding is a measure of effort for our team. In a very long season, I think we lost some of that “edge” in practice a couple of weeks ago. We responded by making our practice scrimmages competitive and rewarding winning teams with an opportunity to start the next game. It has really helped our intensity and preparation.

With our win at Saint Louis, Paul Johnson, our first recruit, will leave La Salle with a winning career record and his degree. The most important goals for any student-athlete should be to receive a great education and have a winning experience. Paul set the standard and we feel we will continue to give our student-athletes successful experiences on and off the court.
 

Saint Joseph's senior Ahmad Nivins was named the Atlantic 10 Player of the Year in voting by the league's coaches.

Nivins was tied for the scoring lead with Temple's Dionte Christmas at 19.2 points per game. Nivins also leads the conference in rebounding (11.7), field goal percentage (.625), minutes played (39.4), offensive rebounds (3.9) and defensive rebounds (7.7). He leads the Hawks in free throw percentage (.789) and has made more free throws (191) than another player in the league has attempted.

Nivins has a streak of 41 consecutive double-figure scoring games and has recorded a league-best 20 double-doubles this season. His high game was a 34-point, 20-rebound effort in the triple overtime win over Rhode Island.

He is the third St. Joe's player in the last 6 years to win the award, joining Jameer Nelson and Pat Calathes.

In the other individual awards:

Rookie of the Year: Andrew Nicholson, St. Bonaventure
Defensive Player of the Year: Tony Gaffney, Massachusetts
Chris Daniels Most Improved Player of the Year: Aaron Jackson, Duquesne
Sixth Man of the Year: Delroy James, Rhode Island
Student-Athlete of the Year: Kevin Lisch, Saint Louis
Coach of the Year: Jim Baron, Rhode Island

Nivins also was named to the all-conference first team, along with Christmas from Temple, Rhode Island's Jimmy Baron, Duquesne's Aaron Jackson and Xavier's B.J. Raymond.

La Salle's Rodney Green was named to the second team and Temple's LaVoy Allen was named to the third team.

Allen, Nivins and St. Joe's Garrett Williamson were named to the All-Defensive team.