Arcidiacono makes Villanova's offense go

The people whose sole focus has been on Ryan Arcidiacono's shooting this season are missing much of what makes the junior guard so valuable to Villanova.

The 6-foot-3 Neshaminy High graduate sparked the eighth-ranked Wildcats to a 90-72 victory over No. 24 St. John's Tuesday as the trigger man in a second half that saw his team score 56 points and shoot 69 percent (20 of 29) from the field.

Arcidiacono dished out eight of his 10 assists in the second half and did not turn the ball over in 34 minutes of game action at Madison Square Garden. It marked the third time this season he has posted at least nine assists without a turnover, also having done it against Virginia Commonwealth and Syracuse.

Arcidiacono had four assists during an 18-6 run that helped the Wildcats (14-1, 2-1 Big East) put the game away. Three of those passes, all to Daniel Ochefu, came in a span of 1 minute, 4 seconds.

Villanova coach Jay Wright said Arcidiacono and the Wildcats wanted to be aggressive against the quicker guards of St. John's (11-4, 0-3).

"Once they started pressing, then you have a choice," he said. "You can hold the ball or you can try to attack and score. We couldn't hold the ball against them. They're just too quick and too aggressive defensively. So we decided to just go and score and they had to keep pressing because they were down. I'll take it, though."

Arcidiacono was bothered earlier this season by a sore wrist that he said bothered him for five or six games. He is shooting 31.3 percent from the field and 22 percent from three-point territory. But he owns an assist-to-turnover ratio of 3.76, eighth in NCAA Division I and, in three conference games he has 19 assists against four turnovers (4.75). In addition, he averages 30.3 minutes, best on the Cats.

Arcidiacono's play enabled a couple of his teammates to have a big second half.

Darrun Hilliard, who scored four points on 2-for-6 shooting in the first half, connected on 5 of 8 in the second, including three three-pointers, for 17 of his team-high 21 points. He scored seven straight in an 11-2 run.

"We really wanted to get him isolated and drive the ball in the second half," Wright said. "We felt like in the first half they kept us out of the lane. We couldn't post up, they were doubling us, they were too quick. He made a lot of good plays."

As for Ochefu, coming off a 19-point, 24-rebound performance three days earlier at Seton Hall, he went for 13 and 13 against the Red Storm while making 6 of 7 shots from the floor.

"He just keeps improving every day," Wright said. "He had a career high at Seton Hall and came back to practice just wanting to get better. The older guys look for him more and he's more confident."

Junior guard Dylan Ennis enjoyed a solid all-around game with 15 points, nine rebounds, four assists and three steals.

The Wildcats return to action Saturday at the Pavilion against DePaul.