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Hart, DiVincenzo power No. 4 Villanova in wire-to-wire victory over St. John's

02/04/2017, 11:15pm EST
By Josh Verlin and Will Slover

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin) &
Will Slover (@WillSlover31)
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For the briefest of moments, it looked like No. 4 Villanova was somehow going to be in trouble.

Though the Wildcats had opened up a 26-point first-half advantage on visiting St. John’s, the Johnnies used a strong push around halftime to get back within nine before the first media timeout of the second half. The crowd of 20,000 strong at Wells Fargo Center, which has been jubilant all first half, was nearly silent.

But there’s only so long you can keep the national defending champions on their heels at home, even if that home court is one usually occupied by the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers.

With senior Josh Hart leading the way as usual, Villanova benefitted from a strong effort by redshirt sophomore Donte DiVincenzo to wind up with a 92-79 win over St. John’s.

“They played harder than us for 40 minutes, that’s been our challenge for us all year is to put 40 minutes together, we’ve been inconsistent,” ‘Nova head coach Jay Wright said. “But we made shots.”

The Wildcats (22-2, 9-2 Big East) won for the fourth time in four games at Wells Fargo this season, running their record on both home courts -- they typically play at their on-campus Pavilion -- to 12-0 on the season.

But it was far from Villanova’s most clinical win of the year.

The Wildcats turned it over 23 times, four more than their previous season high, which also came against St. John’s. They allowed the Red Storm to shoot more than 55 percent in the second half and 44 percent for the game despite St. John’s opening the game missing its first 14 shots.

Even Hart and DiVincenzo, who combined for more than half of Villanova’s offense (46 points), gave it away a combined 11 times, two of three Wildcat players with more than five individual giveaways. All eight Villanova players who took the court committed at least two blunders.

The turnovers were a major reason why St. John’s was able to cut a 26-point first-half deficit down to nine early in the second, and why even after Villanova re-established a 20-point advantage late in the second half the Red Storm got it back to 13 at the end.

“It’s tough to play with a lead, we got sloppy,” Wright said. “The turnovers come from little things: being physical to get open and not getting sped up, and being on balance when you make a pass rather than jumping in the air, not over-dribbling, just all the fundamentals that they speed us up and take us out of that.”

DiVincenzo set a new career high with 20 points, including 10 in a row during one first-half spurt. The 6-4 guard out of Salesianum (Del.) had several run-out layups, catching full-court passes from Hart and fellow senior Kris Jenkins before putting moves on St. John’s defenders to get to the hoop.

He ended the game shooting 7-for-11 from the floor and also had a career-high-tying seven rebounds.

“There was a lot of attention on Josh and Kris, and they just found me for some easy baskets early,” DiVincenzo said. “We got stops on defense, and once we secured the rebound, I ran out, got on the break a lot quicker and just was fortunate enough to make easy layups.”

Jenkins, battling a shooting slump over the last three games, came off the bench for the second time this season; redshirt sophomore Eric Paschall was given second start of the year.

The 6-6 forward had made just four of his last 29 attempts from the field in the previous three games coming into Saturday’s contest, responded well to his temporary bench role as he finished with 15 points, five rebounds, and four assists after failing to reach double-digits in those last three games.

“I just wanted him to come off the bench firing, I wanted him to get his, just offensively, be really aggressive. We started in the second half, I thought he was great, I love how he started the game,” Wright said. “I thought he was great. That’s exactly what we wanted to do, just loosen him up, get him going again.”

For Hart, Jenkins, and fellow senior Darryl Reynolds, this game was the last time those three would wear a Villanova Wildcat uniform at the Wells Fargo Center after the trio has compiled a 14-2 record at the larger arena over the last four seasons.

“I didn’t even realize it was my last one here,” Hart said. “It went by quick, but whenever you’re able to play in an arena like this, it’s always amazing, especially when our fans always come out each and every game out here, always support us. It went by really, really fast, and it’s an amazing place to play.”

Leading the way for St. John’s in the loss was Marcus LoVett, a redshirt freshman. Starting off on the bench for the Johnnies, LoVett sparked the Red Storm upon entering the game, scoring 11 of their first 16 points on his way to 23 points, six assists, four steals and three rebounds.  

Villanova held St. John’s scoreless for the opening 7:25 before a LoVett layup got things started for the Johnnies. On top of their exceptional defense against the shot, as they held St. John’s to 11-of-34 (.324) from the field in the first frame, Villanova also forced eight first half turnovers against the Red Storm.

Although Villanova’s defense started off spectacularly, their offense took a while to catch up, as they connected on just three of their first 11 attempts before knocking down seven of their next eight attempts to take a 32-9 lead with 6:50 to go in the first half.

The Wildcats’ early offense was also aided by St. John’s foul trouble, which had Villanova in the bonus with 12:08 to go in the first half. Villanova capitalized on the early mistakes from St. John’s and shot 13-of-13 from the stripe in the first half; the Wildcats finished the game 25-of-27 (.926) from the line.

Next up, the Wildcats will look to make it four wins in a row as they play host to conference rival Georgetown (13-11, 4-7) on Tuesday back on campus at the Pavilion, and Wright knows that the turnovers and at times subpar play will not make for a winning formula against the Hoyas.

“We need to rest, and they probably need to get away from me,” Wright said. “Then we’ve got to have a really good practice and get prepared for a long, athletic Georgetown team that could turn us over like this, we’ve got to get a day of practice and get better.”


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