City of Basketball Love

Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue)
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VILLANOVA — Stevie Mitchell’s phone wouldn’t stop buzzing this week.

“Oso sent you two tickets, Chase sent you two tickets,” the notifications read. 

The Wilson-West Lawn product and former Philly Pride guard returned to the area on Saturday with his Marquette team in town for a Big East matchup at Villanova.

Mitchell had plenty of help from his teammates fulfilling ticket requests for friends and family who wanted to see him play. He said he had 31 people on his ticket list and had several others find their way to Finneran Pavilion on their own.

The sophomore made sure their efforts were worthwhile, turning in the finest outing of his young career. He scored a career-high 19 points in a 66-64 Marquette win.

“I was excited in the days leading up and today obviously,” Mitchell said. “I had a lot of family and friends here, so I was really excited. It’s always nice to see familiar faces. It was definitely nice to get to play in front of them.”

Mitchell came in averaging 6.2 ppg with a season-high of 11 points. He eclipsed that with 6:05 left in the first half, scoring 12 of his points before the break. 

“This is the Big East,” Villanova coach Kyle Neptune said. “Every team has a lot of good players. Even if they’re not playing well at that point in time, you know they can get it going. He’s a great player and he definitely made some key shots tonight.”

Behind double-digit efforts from Cam Whitmore, Eric Dixon and Caleb Daniels the Wildcats (7-6) still led 44-39 at the break. Whitmore had 12 of his 14 in the first half, while Dixon and Daniels finished with 10 of their 13 before the break.

Villanova appeared ready to start pulling away early in the second half when a Chris Arcidiacono (eight points) lay-up gave the Wildcats a 48-39 lead two minutes in.

Mitchell had a response, reeling off seven consecutive points to tighten things back up. By the 13:29 mark the game was tied 53-53 and by the 12:09 mark, the Golden Eagles had their first lead — 57-55 — since the 17:45 mark in the first half.

“My teammates finding me when I was open and my teammates and coaches just instilling confidence in me to trust my shot because I work on it a lot and me trusting myself as well,” Mitchell said of his career night.

Villanova got the lead back (58-57) on a three from Aricaidcono and tied the contest 60-60 on a Mark Armstrong dunk with 8:02 to go after the Golden Eagles jumped back ahead. Marquette immediately answered both times.

Arcidiacono hit another big three with 3:42 left to tie the game 66-66. The Wildcats had a handful of chances to take the lead, but couldn’t convert any of their looks. A dunk by Marquette’s Olivier-Maxence Prosper with 1:42 to play marked the final points of the game.

A game-tying attempt by Dixon bounced off the rim several times at the buzzer, sealing a second straight loss for the Wildcats following a five-game win streak.

Villanova is certainly much improved from a sluggish start but the last two losses — to UConn and Marquette — showed there is still some distance right now between themselves and the top of the Big East.

“I think we are turning the corner in terms of doing what we do and playing Villanova basketball,” Daniels said. “I think we can pump it up a little bit, take it to another level.”

Villanova was one the top seven schools on Mitchell’s recruitment list before his senior season at Wilson along with Marquette, Stanford, Miami (Fl.), Georgia Tech, St. Joe’s and Temple.

So there was a time Mitchell thought the faces in the crowd on Saturday would have the chance to watch him on a more regular basis.

Instead, he should have a few more chances during his career to put on a show for them like Saturday’s at Villanova.

“Just being from around here, obviously even my friends are Villanova fans,” Mitchell said. “They were only cheering for Marquette because I’m here. That was obviously cool to be recruited by a school that everybody loves, but I’m glad that I’m at Marquette. I love my teammates, and I love my coaches, so there’s obviously nothing better than I could have asked for.”