Game 12: Villanova 77, Drexel 58
The Wildcats held Gerald Colds and Jamie Harris to a combined 0-17 from the field, while Antonio Pena tallied 19 points and 11 rebounds
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Short analysis: When you have a player like Antonio Pena and the other guy doesn't, give it to him in the paint. And when you can defend Gerald Colds and Jamie Harris to the point where they shoot a combined 0-17 from the field, do that too.
But credit to the Dragons' freshman backcourt tandem of Chris Fouch and Derrick Thomas, who teamed for 43 points on a combined 12-24 from the field, including a really impressive 10-14 from three-point range.
Going back to Pena for a moment: he tallied 11 rebounds and career high 19 points tonight. It was his fourth double-double in seven games this season.
A few statistical oddities from tonight:
- Drexel tallied 0.929 points per possession for the game. That sounds good, but it was 0.521 in the first half and 1.435 in the second half. Was there garbage time? Certainly. But it's still a huge difference.
- Villanova made nine of 28 field goal attempts in the first half. Take out Taylor King's 4-for-8 and they were 5-for-20. Including King, the Wildcats made only four of 18 two-point attempts in the first half, but converted 11 of 14 free throws.
- Drexel made four of 21 two-point attempts in the first half and three of 14 in the second half. They made a grand total of one free throw in six attempts in the first half, but were 10-for-14 after halftime.
I still think if this Drexel team can figure out how to shoot with any consistency, they are going to make some real noise in the CAA.
As for Villanova, they're just really good. I grant that the quality of the opposition in home games has been what it's been. But Jay Wright has serious depth in his backcourt and frontcourt bench players who are stepping up in Mouphtaou Yarou's absence.
By the way, you think Taylor King is happy to get another crack at Maryland? He slipped for just a moment when I asked him tonight and admitted that it's a little more than just another game.
If you missed it, here's the latest edition of the Schuylkill 16. The live blog transcript is below, as are video highlights and audio of the press conferences.