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Wright becomes Nova's wins leader as Wildcats top Marquette

03/08/2018, 10:45pm EST
By Owen McCue

Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue)
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No the Villanova players were not aware that head coach Jay Wright had just become the winningest coach in the school’s history. Well, at least until the reporters headed into the locker room and started asking them about it.

With a 94-70 victory against Marquette in the quarterfinal round of the Big East tournament on Thursday night, Wright picked up win win No. 414 to pass Alex Severence (1936-1961) for first on the Wildcats’ all-time list.

“We had no idea,” freshman forward Omari Spellman said. “Never talked about it. I think that’s what makes coach unique. He never talks about stuff like that.”

Wright picked up his 400th win at the Wells Fargo Center in early January, coincidentally also against Marquette.

His comments after Thursday’s win were similar to the comments after completing that milestone. He’ll appreciate those accomplishments later on down the road.

“I'm mostly proud to be the coach of Villanova, honestly,” Wright said. “The wins and everything don't matter. I know I'll look back on it later.”

It was a slow start for both teams on Thursday night. Villanova held a 12-10 lead with a little more than 10 minutes left in the first half, as the Wildcats were 3-of-16 from the field up to that point.

Villanova made 11-of-14 attempts from the floor to close out the first half and take a 41-34 lead into the break. Redshirt-junior wing Mikal Bridges led the Wildcats with 16 points. Bridges finished with 25 points in the game to lead the Wildcats. Junior guard Jalen Brunson added 21.

“We all have confidence in ourselves and missing shots don't really affect us,” Bridges said. “So that's what we mean -- just keep shooting no matter what happens.”

It was a two-man show for Marquette in the first half. Sophomore guard Markus Howard and senior guard Andrew Rowsey combined for 30 of the team’s 34 points.

The Wildcats knew how dangerous both players were coming in. Howard scored 37 points against the Wildcats in their first meeting on Jan. 6 at the Wells Fargo Center. Rowsey dropped 29 in the second meeting on Jan. 28.

Rowsey finished with 22 and Howard finished with 23 as the Wildcats did a much better job defensively on the two standout guards in the second half. Wright said it might have had something to do with the Golden Eagles coming off a three-point win against DePaul on Wednesday.

I thought they might have got a little worn down,” Wright said. “Last night was a tough, physical game for them, and I just thought they got a little worn down. We were able to stay fresh.”

After Marquette forward Sam Hauser cut the deficit to three points two minutes into the second half, the Wildcats reeled off 12 straight, capped by a 3-point shot by Phil Booth, to go up 58-43 with 13:48 left in the game.

Booth, who missed seven games with a fractured hand, scored 14 points on 4-of-6 shooting upon his return from injury against DePaul on Feb. 21. In the three games after, he combined to shoot 7-of-26 from the floor and 3-of-16 from three with an average of 6.3 points per game.

The 6-foot-3 guard shook off the slump on Thursday by scoring 15 points on 6-of-10 shooting, including 3-of-4 attempts from deep.

“The shot was falling but I felt better being on the floor, getting that trust back from my teammates, being connected as a unit felt good coming back,” Booth said.

Marquette cut the lead down to 11 with 12:25 left on a three by Rowsey, but that’s as close as it would get.

Villanova made 10 of its next 11 attempts from the floor, including eight 3-point makes, to go up 88-64 with 5:03 left in the game.  The Wildcats finished the second half shooting 67.9 percent from the floor and 64.7 percent from deep.

In contrast, Marquette shot 42.9 percent from the floor and 33.3 percent from 3-point range in the second half.

“We’re definitely capable of doing things like that, but we want to pride ourselves on defense and being able to grit that game out even if we don’t go on a run like that,” Spellman said.

Villanova won the Big East regular season and tournament title a year ago. After Xavier snatched the regular season crown from the Wildcats this season, Wright’s squad has its eye on winning the conference tournament for the third time in four years.

The Wildcats will play either No. 3 seed Seton Hall or No. 6 seed Butler at 9 p.m. on Friday in the tournament final.

“Very two good teams,” redshirt-junior forward Eric Paschall said of his memories of both squads. “Seton Hall is very tough. They got great length, great defensively, and Butler is just always a tough game for us.”


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