Villanova outlasts Michigan, 60-55

NEW YORK – On a night when Villanova was sparked at the defensive end, JayVaughn Pinkston came up with the play of the game with five seconds remaining and Michigan attempting to regain the lead.

Even though, in his own words, he "messed up."

Pinkston, concluding his two-game stay in his home borough of Brooklyn, blocked Zak Irvin's dunk attempt to preserve the lead Tuesday night and spur the 12th-ranked Wildcats to a wild 60-55 victory over the No. 19 Wolverines at Barclays Center for the Progressive Legends Classic championship.

The 'Cats (5-0) used a 15-0 spurt to take a 13-point lead early in the second half, only to see Michigan (4-1) outscore them 31-10 over the next 11 1/2 minutes to take a 51-43 lead with just under six minutes to play. But their defense limited the Wolverines to only two field goals after that.

It was a busy sequence for Pinkston in the game's final 37 seconds. After being called for an offensive foul, he came back on 'Nova's next possession and scored inside to put the Wildcats up one with 13.4 seconds to play. Dylan Ennis then turned back one drive at the basket and the Wolverines had a baseline inbounds play coming.

Assigned to block any pass to the middle, Pinkston took a step away from the middle and Michigan inbounded to Irvin at the rim. But Pinkston recovered to block Irvin's shot and the Wildcats (5-0) put the game away on four free throws by Ryan Arcidiacono.

"I didn't take the middle so I just tried to make a play on the ball," Pinkston said. "I saw that somebody fell and I just went up and made the block."

Villanova coach Jay Wright probably wasn't chuckling when he saw Pinkston's false step from the bench, but he did in explaining the play.

"He got overly excited and jumped to the outside and it gave them that pass to the middle," he said. "But then, to get from where he was to block that shot was an incredible play. We haven't discussed that yet. We'll get to watch film. But he's a senior, he knows."

Michigan coach John Beilein said the Wildcats' big men played well inside on defense.

"I think they had three or four of those rim-protecting type of plays today, three big blocks where I think we had the basket but their guys came out of nowhere to take it away from us," he said.

Pinkston went scoreless in the first half, but still grabbed six of his nine rebounds in the opening 20 minutes.

"It was frustrating at first," he said, "but I knew that my team needed me and I had to step up because I'm a senior leader. That's what we do in this program, step up and make the big-time plays and that's what I did."

The 6-foot-2 Ennis, who led the Wildcats with 15 points, came up with the highlight play of the night when he blocked a dunk attempt by 6-9 freshman D.J. Wilson in the opening half.

"That was a great block but that's what we do every day in practice, loading to the ball," Ennis said. "All the offensive plays came from a defensive mindset. We got steals, we got rebounds. I can't do nothing at the offensive end if we don't get on the defensive end."

The Wildcats used a 15-0 run and a scoreless streak of 9 minutes, 53 seconds by Michigan to lead 33-20 two minutes into the second half. But the Wolverines made 11 of their next 14 shots on their way to going up by eight and appeared to be in control.

Villanova, however, had a finishing kick, going on a 9-0 run sparked by a three-pointer by Arcidiacono while limiting Michigan to two field goals in the final 5:56.

It marked the second straight year that Villanova defeated two ranked teams to win a holiday-week tournament. They knocked off Kansas and Iowa last year to win the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas, and took care of Virginia Commonwealth and Michigan this season.

@joejulesinq