City of Basketball Love

Mitchell Northam (@primetimeMitch)
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When No. 6 Villanova last faced rival Georgetown in the Verizon Center, Hoyas’ fans stormed the court after their team upset the then-No. 4 Wildcats by 20 points nearly a year ago.

That nearly happened again this year as the Hoyas hung around and were within three points of the leading Wildcats with under a minute to play on Jan. 16 after Reggie Cameron nailed a corner three-pointer assisted by D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera.

But when it mattered, hard-nosed defense and clutch free throw shooting would help lift the Wildcats to another win. Ryan Arcidiacono flushed six shots from the charity stripe in the last minute while the Wildcats’ defense forced turnovers and misses on the other end.

The Wildcats escaped Washington D.C. with a 55-50 win on Saturday.

“It’s a great road victory for us,” said Wildcats’ head coach Jay Wright. “We knew it was going to be this kind of game. We knew they weren’t going away. Our defense was really tough tonight.”

Arcidiacono finished the game with 15 points, but it was his free throw shooting near the end of the game that would help propel the Wildcats (16-2; 6-0) to a win. He was almost perfect from the line, making 7-of-8 free throws.

His teammate Josh Hart scored 15 points of his own and also grabbed 12 rebounds in the win. Hart’s most important rebound came on the Hoyas’ (11-7; 4-2 Big East) possession after Arcidiacono hit his first two free throws in the final minute.

After a Hoyas’ miss, Hart dived on top of the ball in a crucial moment where an offensive rebound could have turned into another chance for the Hoyas to close the gap. Hart had 11 of his 12 rebounds in the second half and this was his fourth double-double of the season.

“In the second half I just said, if I’m not going to score then I’m going to rebound and help this team,” Hart said.

The Wildcats have held teams to shooting just 38 percent from the floor this season, which is the best among Big East teams and 15th best in all of Division I basketball. The Wildcats have allowed opposing teams to score just 60.6 points per-game this season, another stat that is the best in the Big East and eighth-best in all of Division I hoops.

The Wildcats needed their defense in this one because the Hoyas played them tough too. While Georgetown shot 32.7 percent from the floor for the game, Villanova wasn’t much better at 38.3 percent. From behind the arc, the Wildcats were even worse, hitting just three of their 18 attempted three-pointers.

“That was a Big East game right there,” said Hoyas’ head coach John Thompson III. “Neither team was pretty.”

When asked about the Hoyas’ shooting woes, Thompson said it was, “a little bit of both,” Villanova playing tough defense and Georgetown missing shots.

One of the keys for Villanova to get this tough win was figuring out how to stop Smith-Rivera. In his previous two games, the senior Hoya guard averaged 17 points, 7.5 assists and three rebounds.

In this one, Smith-Rivera got his 15 points, but only had two assists and coughed the ball up seven times in 40 minutes of play.

Many Wildcats were tasked with having to defend Smith-Rivera, but Wright tabbed a freshman to be his shadow for much of the game. That player was Mikal Bridges, who played 21 minutes of tough defense on one of the best scorers in the Big East and came up with three blocks and two rebounds in addition to his five points.

“(Bridges) loves to defend,” Wright said. “He’s really long, he’s got great mobility and we put him on some really good players. Smith-Rivera is probably one of the best and I thought he did a great job on him.

“We knew (Smith-Rivera) had the ability to go off, and I thought we did a great job on him.”

The Hoyas’ star guard did go off in the first half, scoring 10 points, but Bridges and other bottled him up in the second half. Smith-Rivera was limited to scoring just five points after halftime and the Wildcats forced him into four more turnovers as well.

“They were just being ultra aggressive like they always are,” Smith-Rivera said of the Wildcats’ defense. “Part of it was we had some shots we usually make but didn’t go in, and part of it was they packed the paint and were really aggressive on defense.”

Villanova was powered by a 7-1 run to start the second half, that later turned into a 12-5 run that was capped off by a three-pointer from Kris Jenkins. A possession later, after the Hoyas had cut the deficit to eight points after a trey of their own, Arcidiacono fired a pass toward the backboard that was slammed down by Bridges to push the lead to 10 points.

After that spurt from the Wildcats, the Hoyas switched to a 2-3 zone defense and they proved to be much more effective in the last eight minutes of the game. With that, and smart offensive plays, the Hoyas were able to battle back before the Wildcats put a halt to it.

“(Villanova) is a good defensive team,” Thompson said. “They make every possession hard. They do a very good job of helping each other.”

Villanova has not lost a game in the Big East since they last fell to Georgetown nearly a year ago. The Wildcats have won 21 straight conference games since.

Wright and his players hope that streak continues next week when they travel to Seton Hall. If the defense continues to play strong, then it probably will.

Notes: Ochefu battles through injury

It was unclear if the Wildcats would be short-handed against the Hoyas. In a win against Marquette a few days ago, senior forward Daniel Ochefu bruised his tailbone and Wright said he did not get out of bed until it was near game time.

But the senior forward played through the pain and played big for the Wildcats. Ochefu started, played 22 minutes, blocked three shots, corralled four rebounds and scored six points.

“I’m just proud of him,” Wright said of Ochefu. “He just really battled.”