City of Basketball Love

Will Slover (@WillSlover31)
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Villanova suffered its first Big East loss since last Jan. 19 at the hands of Providence by way of an 82-76 defeat in overtime on Sunday afternoon at the Wells Fargo Center.

At First…
A slow start from both teams, Villanova kicked off the game going 0-6 from three until Josh Hart’s trey from the corner with 14:15 left in the first half and no team reached double digits until Villanova did so at the 12:47 mark on a free throw by Daniel Ochefu. Providence standout Kris Dunn first got on the board with a three with 6:38 left in the first half. After Villanova got out to a 29-18 lead, Providence used a 17-9 run to cut the Villanova lead to two at halftime, briefly taking a lead on a Ryan Fazekas 3-pointer before Jalen Brunson answered at the buzzer. Kris Dunn hit a three with 1:11 remaining and that was followed by two free throws from Kyron Cartwright that gave Providence a 66-63 lead, which looked like it was going to hold until Ryan Arcidiacono hit a three from NBA range with seven seconds remaining to send the game to overtime.

Turning Point…
Providence went on an 10-3 run with 2:46 remaining in overtime that was highlighted by six points for Ben Bentil that swung the lead from a 69-66 lead in Villanova’s favor, to a 76-72 lead for the Friars with 16 seconds remaining.

Standout Stars…
Josh Hart had a solid day for Villanova with 18 points and five rebounds. Also coming up big for Villanova was Ryan Arcidiacono who had 19 points, highlighted by a 3-pointer to send the game to overtime.

St. Andrew’s (Del.) product Ben Bentil was a monster inside for Providence with 31 points and 13 rebounds. Another huge contributor for the Friars was Kris Dunn with 13 points, 14 assists and five rebounds.

Noteworthy Number(s)...
17: The game featured 17 lead changes, with the final change coming at the 1:51 mark in overtime on a layup from Junior Lomomba.

Up Next…
Villanova (17-3, 7-1 Big East) @ St. John’s (Jan. 31, Noon)
Providence (17-3, 5-2 Big East) vs. No. 5/6 Xavier (Jan. 26, 8:30 PM)