Villanova sprints to win over Georgetown
The Wildcats played a scintillating first 25 minutes Saturday against Georgetown, racing out to a 24-point lead, and got balanced scoring once again, led by Josh Hart with 18 points, in an 84-71 victory over the Hoyas before a crowd of 20,173.
It was a day for curtain calls Saturday at the Wells Fargo Center when Villanova closed out its Big East regular season with plenty more left to be done in the post-season.
The Wildcats played a scintillating first 25 minutes Saturday against Georgetown, racing out to a 24-point lead, and got balanced scoring once again, led by Josh Hart with 18 points, in an 84-71 victory over the Hoyas before a crowd of 20,173.
The Wildcats finished the regular season with a 27-4 overall mark and 16-2 in the Big East, extending their conference record in the past three seasons to 48-6. The Hoyas, who lost their sixth straight game, closed at 14-17, 7-11 in the Big East.
Georgetown will play DePaul in a first-round game Wednesday night in the Big East tournament, with the winner advancing to meet Villanova on Thursday.
Hart, who scored 14 points in the second half, was joined in double figures by Kris Jenkins with 17, Ryan Arcidiacono with 16 and Daniel Ochefu with 10. Arcidiacono and Ochefu, the team's only two scholarship seniors, left the game late to thunderous ovations.
The Wildcats shot out to a 21-point lead before the game was nine minutes old, boosted their margin to 24 early in the second half, then withstood a rally by Georgetown that brought the Hoyas to within 11, 58-47, on a three-point basket by Marcus Derrickson with 8 minutes, 48 seconds left.
But Villanova, which had gone 6:35 without a field goal at that point, restored some order on a layup and two free throws by Hart that got the margin back to 15, and the Wildcats made it a 17-point advantage, 72-55, on Jenkins' free throw at the 5-minute mark. The Hoyas never got closer than 13 after that.
L.J. Peak led the Hoyas with 31 points on 10 of 16 shooting. D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera, Georgetown's top scorer with a 16.6-point average, made only one of 11 field-goal attempts and was held to seven points.
The Wildcats exploded out of the gate, sinking seven of their first eight shots and racing out to a 16-4 lead barely more than five minutes in. After Peak hit a driving layup for Georgetown, the Cats scored the next 11 points – starting with two free throws by Phil Booth, ending with a dunk by Hart off a pretty feed from Arcidiacono – to increase their lead to 27-6 with 11:06 to play.
At this point in the game, the Hoyas were three of 13 from the field with six turnovers.
Villanova maintained a margin of at least 15 points the remainder of the half. Peak's three-point play made the score 41-26 with 46 seconds to play, but two free throws by Arcidiacono and Jenkins' three-point basket at the buzzer gave the Cats a 46-27 lead at the break.
The Wildcats scored the first five points of the second half – a layup by Jenkins and Hart's conventional three-point play – to boost the margin to 24. Their last 24-point lead, 57-33, came on Arcidiacono's pullup jumper with 15:12 to play.
Trailing 58-37, the Hoyas finally came around on offense as Peak and Derrickson each scored five points in a 10-0 run that got Georgetown to within 11, the closest the Hoyas had been since the 12:42 mark of the first half.