Wildcats put away win at line

Villanova spent much of the second half Wednesday night watching Marquette use the lane as a freeway of sorts, speeding past slower traffic on the way to its destination.

The 12th-ranked Wildcats seemed powerless to stop penetration by the Golden Eagles. Luckily for them, they had built enough of a cushion early, and made their free throws late, to come up with a 75-70 victory, their 46th consecutive win at the Pavilion.

The Cats (18-4, 6-3 Big East), who broke a two-game losing streak, looked terrific on defense in the first half, holding Marquette - the conference's highest-scoring team - to 25 points and 34.6 percent shooting in taking a nine-point lead.

But the Golden Eagles (14-9, 5-5), in need of a quality win to keep up with the nine teams ahead of them in the brutal Big East, helped out the home team, settling for perimeter shots instead of going inside. In the second half, they went to the hoop on nearly every possession.

Sixteen of Marquette's 18 field goals in the second half were within a couple of feet of the basket, including many layups and dunks. The Wildcats watched their 14-point lead dwindle to three, on four occasions, but managed to hang on thanks to seven free throws (in nine tries) in the final 21/2 minutes.

As coach Jay Wright explained, the Golden Eagles usually make more free throws than the opponent shoots. Even in the Big East, in nine games entering Wednesday night, they had converted 167 free throws; the other team had attempted 160.

"They're driving it to get fouled," he said. "If you look at field-goal percentage, they shot 46 percent, which is not good for us. But we had to make the decision that we weren't going to foul. Once they do that, they stop the clock every time, and that's why they do it. They're very good at it."

Marquette shot 54.5 percent in the second half. After Antonio Pena's basket, a field goal that gave him an even 1,000 points for his career, put Villanova in front by 55-41 with 10 minutes, 13 seconds to play, the Golden Eagles made seven of their next 11 shots, scoring on nine of 10 possessions.

"I felt in the first half we did a good job of not getting into the bonus," Wright said. "In the second half, they got us into the bonus and then they just started driving on us. We gave up baskets but we didn't foul.

Senior Corey Fisher, who played a marvelous all-around game with 17 points, six assists and four steals, said the Wildcats had to be careful defensively.

"We wanted to continue to get stops," he said. "Like Coach said, we knew they were going to try to drive to get fouls. Sometimes if they're driving and we help out on defense, they can kick out to their shooters, so it's kind of hard to guard both. But that's something we've got to do. We have to get the stop."

A 10-2 run by the Golden Eagles got their deficit down to 62-59 with a little more than five minutes left. The Wildcats hit just two field goals after that but always managed an answer when Marquette would get within three.

Villanova's big men were up to the task. Mouphtaou Yarou, the 6-10 sophomore, tied a career high with 18 points while Pena, the 6-81/2 senior, contributed 14 and a game-high 10 rebounds.

"Villanova doesn't win too many games because of our inside game, but I think we did," noted Wright, who said Yarou "does a great job of keeping a positive attitude and continuing to work hard" while calling Pena "a rock for our team."

Villanova finished the game 29 of 33 from the free-throw line.

Marquette was just 13 of 14.