Villanova comes up short against Butler again
Butler came into the Pavilion Wednesday night determined to show that its victory last month over Villanova was no fluke, and to make a little Big East history.
Some beliefs die hard, such as Villanova never loses at the Pavilion and that there's little chance that a Big East opponent can sweep the Wildcats in a season series.
Both beliefs were soundly buried Wednesday night by Butler, a team determined to show that its victory last month over the Cats was no fluke, and to make a little history on the side.
The Bulldogs grabbed the game by the throat in the second half with a run of 18 consecutive points while holding the second-ranked Wildcats scoreless for more than 6 ½ minutes, and hung on for a stunning 74-66 victory that snapped the Cats' 48-game winning streak at their campus arena.
The loss for the Wildcats (26-3, 13-3) prevented them from clinching outright their fourth straight Big East regular season championship, something they can do on Saturday when they host Creighton.
Meanwhile, the No. 22 Bulldogs (22-6, 11-5) became only the second team to sweep the Cats in a season series in the reconfigured Big East since Creighton did it in the 2013-14 season. Butler defeated Villanova, 66-58, on Jan. 4 at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
While there were a lot of blank stares among the 6,500 who once again packed the Pavilion, 'Nova coach Jay Wright said Butler "played better than us in all phases" in snapping his team's seven-game win streak.
There was a lot of proof of that on the stat sheet. The Bulldogs shot 60 percent from the field in the second half and 50.9 percent for the game, the second-worst performance by a Villanova defense this season. The Cats committed 15 turnovers and recorded only eight assists.
And playing without forward Darryl Reynolds, who missed his fourth straight game with a rib injury, the home team was outrebounded in the second half 19-13.
"Defensively, they just guard us really well," Wright said. "They force us into turnovers. Their physicality defensively, we don't handle well. That's the second time (against Butler) we turned the ball over. We didn't get any assists and couldn't really get any offensive rebounds either."
Wright said the Wildcats have been "teetering" defensively, something that surfaced Saturday against Seton Hall but wasn't noticed because they shot a season-best 67.3 percent in a 92-70 win.
"We didn't play great defense against Seton Hall," Wright said. "Butler came in and really executed offensively and defensively. They did a great job with their defensive game plan, and then offensively, finding their shooters. When we left them, they found them and they hit big shots."
Villanova started slowly but managed to take a 29-28 lead behind Jalen Brunson, who scored 14 of his 24 points in the opening 20 minutes. The game was tied at 36-all early in the second half before the Wildcats scored eight straight points – five by Josh Hart. Hart's three-pointer later made it 49-42 with 10:37 remaining.
But that was to be Villanova's last points for a period of 6:32. The Bulldogs' 18-0 run featured nine points by Kelen Martin, who scored a game-high 22 points, including a three-pointer that capped the spurt and put the visitors on top 60-49 with 4:22 remaining.
"We've got to have better attention to detail," said Hart, who scored 18 points but shot only 7 of 18 and missed all four of his free-throw attempts. "It starts with me, first and foremost. That's something we've got to have, better attention to detail. It starts with the seniors and trickles down."
The Wildcats scored the next five points and cut the deficit to six but they just couldn't threaten the Bulldogs. The nation's second-leading free throw shooting team at 80.6 percent, they also could not convert on the front ends of two 1-and-1's, with Hart and Brunson failing to deliver.
Villanova got as close as 70-66 on Hart's three-pointer with 12 seconds left, but Martin and Avery Woodson each hit a pair of free throws to ice it for Butler and finalize the first loss at the Pavilion in the Villanova careers of the team's three seniors – Hart, Reynolds and Kris Jenkins.
"When you lose, it's tough to swallow no matter what," Hart said. "How competitive we are, it always stings a little bit losing. Obviously you never like to lose at home so that definitely stings. But no matter if we won this one or we lost this one, we were going to come back tomorrow and prepare for Creighton. It's over now and all we can do is learn from it."
Added Wright: "We didn't execute well, and a lot of it was because of their good defense. You've got to give them credit. They were just a better team than us tonight."