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No. 3 Villanova tops St. John's for 10th consecutive time, 70-57

01/14/2017, 5:45pm EST
By Marley Paul

Marley Paul (@MarleyPaul22)
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NEW YORK -- Despite losing two key starters to graduation following a national championship run, No. 3 Villanova boasts a starting lineup comprised of a trio of seniors, a third-year player, and a standout sophomore guard who, at times, plays years ahead of his age. That’s a luxury St. John’s coach Chris Mullin marvels at as the second-year coach trots out a first-team unit with three players in their first season of Division I basketball — the other two just in their second.

In front of a packed crowd in Madison Square Garden, the Wildcats showed cracks in their title defense armor — allowing the Red Storm to hang around for the better part of 30 minutes — before ultimately delivering the knockout punch to claim a 70-57 win, its 10th straight victory over their Big East counterpart.

The scouting report for both teams were easy. For Jay Wright’s club, key in on the freshman backcourt of Shamorie Ponds and Marcus LoVett plus JUCO transfer Bashir Ahmed. Josh Hart, a top pick for National Player of the Year accolades, will sit atop any team facing the Big East powerhouse from Pennsylvania and Kris Jenkins won’t trail too far behind.

The usual suspects didn’t bring their A-game to the Garden. Hart scored 11 points on 13 shots and Jenkins went 1-for-10 from the floor but reached double digits (10 points) by taking advantage of free throws — going 7-of-9 from the charity stripe. Conversely. the LoVett-Ponds-Ahmed trio, who Wright called among the best offensively in the Big East earlier this week, collectively shot 35 percent (12 of 34) from the floor and missed 14 of their 20 total 3-point attempts.

Sitting somewhere near the bottom of that Villanova scouting report probably featured a redshirt freshman coming off a 4-of-6 outing at No. 15 Xavier. The 10-point outing for Donte Divincenzo wouldn't put fear in too many teams. He upped that worry on Saturday, breaking out for a career-high 19 on 7-of-10.

“No one on our team is surprised,” Wright said of Divincenzo’s performance, “but it’s good that other teams see that. It’s good that he’s doing it in games, on the road.”

It’s been a long time coming for the Wilmington, Delaware native who’s seen his role continue to grow with each passing game and each untimely setback. As Phil Booth remains sidelined with a knee injury, Divincenzo has seen his role on the squad continue to grow in the shadow of the veterans powering the team.

In a few seasons, Divincenzo may very well be one of those names Wright relies heavily upon. Wright set the stage for those expectations in his post game presser, declaring “I think he can be a Josh Hart.”

“I’ve talked to him about that before. What impresses me about Josh is he’s complete; he does everything,” Wright added. “There’s nothing on the basketball court he doesn’t do, and I think Donte can be that kind of player, too.

“He’s only a freshman. Those two compete against each other in practice and he’s got the same competitiveness so it’s exciting for us. You have to do it in games, we all know it’s going to come some time but you have to do it in games. Do it here, in the Garden, did it in the Xavier game, that’s big time.”

With a shade under seven minutes remaining in the game, Ponds drilled a 3-pointer in front of the St. John’s bench and closed a once double-digit deficit to 53-48, forcing a Villanova timeout. Unfazed by 17,309 shouting fans or the nothing-to-lose group donning red and white, the Wildcats responded with a team effort.

Jalen Brunson penetrated through traffic to dish off to Eric Paschall in the lane for an easy bucket. Hart, who’s saved this team time and time again in close games this season, calmly floated a chip shot over Malik Ellison, one of the rising perimeter defenders in the Big East. Hart later sucked the defense in the paint to kick out to Jenkins, who drained a 3 — his lone field goal.

Then, Divincenzo sat behind the St. John’s full-court press and after a few passes to advance the ball, he rose to the basket and flushed his easiest points of the game to take a 62-49 lead with 4:15 on the clock.

"We just backed down. They punched us, and we couldn't recover from the punch they gave us,” Ponds conceded.

The start of the game didn’t quite resemble the surging finish. Villanova missed nine of the first 13 shots taken, and St. John’s jumped ahead by six. Eventually, the experienced Wildcats imposed their presence on the game, outscoring the Red Storm 11 to 5 in the closing five minutes of the first half to take a 35-39 halftime lead. 

“We always want to set a tone to start the game off,” Hart said. “When we don’t do that it’s comforting to know that we have Eric, we have Donte, two guys who can start at a lot of programs, coming off the bench bringing incredible energy and thats something we always know we have and makes this team what it is.

“When the seniors are slipping up and not playing Villanova basketball, we know the young guys are going to step up and bring energy and get us going. I think we’re a good team now but I think we can be a great team if we all play that way: Seniors set the tone, then you have guys coming off the bench and there’s no drop off. In that aspect we’re happy we have those guys but we have to get everybody bringing that energy from the start.”


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