City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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Villanova ran its win streak to four games overall, including the first two in Big East play, as the Wildcats took down Creighton in an 85-71 road win on Saturday night.

At First...
The teams traded blows early, with no runs through an opening dozen minutes that saw Villanova hold a four-point lead. A quick 8-2 spurt by 'Nova made it a 31-21, though Creighton would close on a 7-2 burst to trail 40-35 at halftime.

Turning Point...
Villanova maintained that halftime advantage, slowly widening it back to double-digits over the first five minutes of the second half. The key stretch came with starting with 9:36 remaining, when a Mikal Bridges layup began a stretch of six straight made shots for the Wildcats as well as four foul shots, and even though Creighton was also hot during that time, scoring 12 points in a five-minute span, it still ended with 'Nova up 80-66. The teams would only score a total of 10 points over the remaining 5:16.

Standout Stars...
Junior wing Josh Hart came within two points of his career high, going for 25 points, and he wasn't the only Villanova player to finish that close to setting a new career mark. The Wildcats fed the post early and often, helping Daniel Ochefu go for 19 points; the 6-11 senior center grabbed seven rebounds to go along with two steals and two blocks. 

Philadelphia native Maurice Watson Jr. led Creighton with 15 points on 6-of-13 shooting. The Boys' Latin grad, a redshirt junior, had four assists and one turnover while also picking up three steals.

Noteworthy Number(s)...
0: Villanova's offensive rebounds. All 29 boards grabbed by the Wildcats were on the defensive end, which sounds bad--but keep reading.

87.5: There simply weren't many offensive rebounds to grab. Villanova was 28-of-32 from inside the arc, led by Ochefu's 9-of-10 and Hart's 8-of-10 from 2-point range leading the way in an all-around impressive shooting performance that saw the Wildcats make 34-of-50 (68.0 percent) overall and 6-of-18 (33.3 percent) from 3-point range. Creighton was a nifty 62.5 percent on its 2-point attempts, but that wasn't nearly good enough in this one.

Up Next...
Villanova (12-2, 2-0 Big East) vs. Seton Hall (12-2, 2-0) (Jan. 6, 7 PM, FS1)
Creighton (10-5, 1-1 Big East) vs. Georgetown (9-5, 2-0) (Jan. 5, 9 PM, FS1)