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No. 12 'Nova turns tables on No. 14 VCU

Wildcats nip their foes' run at the start of the second half and go on a big one of their own.

BROOKLYN - Villanova had gone the entire first half without a live-ball turnover against "Havoc." Then, the Wildcats started the second half against Virginia Commonwealth with an open-court giveaway, followed quickly by another turnover. The Rams scored six consecutive points. An explosion seemed imminent at the Barclays Center in the first semifinal of the Progressive Legends Classic.

Villanova coach Jay Wright obviously sensed a big run coming, so he called timeout. And he was dead on. There was an explosion - from his team.

The team picked to win the Big East knocked out the team picked to win the Atlantic 10 with one mesmerizing 2-minute blitz - defense that gave no space, runouts off live-ball turnovers and a shooting display that was exhilarating for one side and deflating to the other.

The 16 consecutive points culminated with an amazing sequence that really epitomizes this group of Wildcats. A loose ball was rolling in the VCU backcourt. Darrun Hilliard, Ryan Arcidiacono and Josh Hart all dived for it. Arcidiacono knocked it loose to Hilliard, who threw it ahead to Hart who put it in, was fouled, completed the and-one and ended VCU's chances with 16 minutes to play.

The game was over and everybody knew it. The team that specializes in forcing its will on opponents had met its match and disappeared meekly.

VCU coach Shaka Smart called two timeouts during the sequence. He could have called all four he had remaining. Nothing was stopping the Wildcats. Once they got a rhythm, everything worked. They had been 1-for-8 from the arc in the game and 21-for-84 on the season. They made five of their next six. And six players eventually made a trey.

The final was 77-53. It felt more lopsided. In fact, the 12th-ranked Wildcats (4-0) outscored No. 14 VCU (3-1) by an incredible 28 points over 15 second-half minutes before garbage time commenced. VCU had scored 85, 87 and 106 in its first three games.

"Great game for us," Wright said. "We've had a couple of games where we couldn't do much right. Tonight, we made our shots. They're a very, very good team. It was a privilege for us to get that test this early against a team like that because the way they play just tests your concepts. And it tests your will, your stamina, conditioning. When we saw that on our schedule, we thought, 'Great, we're going to know where we are.' "

They passed all those tests. Where they are is in tonight's championship game against Michigan or Oregon.

JayVaughn Pinkston, playing 15 minutes from his high school (Bishop Loughlin), kept the Wildcats in the game early with 13 first-half points and suffocating defense on Rams star Treveon Graham, who shot just 2-for-9 and had four points in the game.

"It felt great," Pinkston said. "Coach always talked to me about coming up to New York and playing in front of my family. He just told me to take it easy and focus on defense."

Fellow senior Hilliard had 14 points. The sophomore subs Hart and Kris Jenkins were huge with 23 of 'Nova's 36 bench points. Freshman Phil Booth took four shots and made them all as the 'Cats' bench outscored VCU's by 25.

Hilliard was right in the middle of the game's signature play. He remembered it exactly.

"Arch just came out of nowhere and just dives on it," he said of Arcidiacono. "He picks it up and I'm just standing there. He kicks it up to me. I see Josh and . . . "

Wright loved every bit of that sequence because that is what he teaches and that is how this group has been playing for years.

"In our program, the dive and the pass is way more important than the and-one, and our guys know it," Wright said.

When VCU got that 36-32 lead to start the second, Wright called that timeout and explained what was up to his team.

"We said if we didn't play aggressively, they're going to take it from us," Wright said.

The first 90 seconds of the second half, they didn't. The next 2 minutes, they did and the whirlwind was all encompassing.

The Wildcats shot 58.6 percent in the second half and 50 percent for the game. They had 20 assists on 29 baskets and just nine turnovers. Arcidiacono had the best 1-for-7 game of his career, with nine assists and no turnovers. 'Nova had the right personnel to beat the pressure and beat it up by attacking it with intelligence and precision.

"We've been Guard U, but we've got some pretty good forwards, too," Wright said. "Our forwards really handled the ball and our guards were smart in getting it to them."

Villanova was smart in everything it did with the ball and relentless when the other guys had it. Their attention to defensive detail was exemplified by VCU's 2-for-17 shooting from the arc. Nothing was conceded.

"They had a lot of stars tonight," Smart said. "What they did better than anything was play well together . . . We weren't ourselves, but they were a big part of that."

That 16-point run was just 2 minutes out of 40 out of, say, 1,500 minutes that Villanova will play this season. But it spoke loudly about what this team is about and what it might achieve.