City of Basketball Love

By Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue)
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PHILADELPHIA  — In the final minute of a game they played from behind throughout, Villanova needed one more play.

The Wildcats pulled themselves out of a double-digit lead in the first half and despite falling down by nine again in the second half there they were — ball in their hands down by two with 30 seconds to play against the No. 1 team in the country.

An offensive foul call on graduate guard Justin Moore spoiled the Wildcats’ opportunity. They never got another one. Villanova’s upset bid fell just short in a 66-65 loss to the top-ranked Huskies on Saturday night at the Wells Fargo Center.

“Hats off to UConn. They really set the tone tonight, especially the first couple minutes and playing hard throughout,” Wildcats’ second-year coach Kyle Neptune said. “They made some timely shots, got some stops when they needed to get stops.”

“A lot of credit to them. They came out and played really hard. We’ve got some things we can clean up, but overall I thought they played a great game.”

Senior guard T.J. Bamba and Moore led the WIldcats (11-7, 4-3 Big East)  with 15 points apiece. Graduate guard Tristen Newton led the Huskies (17-2, 7-1) with 25 points on 8-of-17 shooting. 

Villanova missed its first five shots and turned the ball over three times before it finally scored its first points Saturday night — a layup by Hakim Hart with 14:07 left in the first half. They whittled the early deficit down to one, 13-12, on a jumper by Moore. He gave the Wildcats their first lead, 17-16, on a three with six minutes left in the half. The Huskies responded with a 10-0 run and went into half with a 29-24 lead.

It took a little more than two minutes into the second half for the Wildcats to tie the game on a Bamba three. They went up 39-38 with 15:10 to play on another three by Bamba. The lead got as large as four, 42-38, on a three by Tyler Burton with 13:39 to play.

“If anything I think it speaks to how strong we are, mentally tough,” Bamba said. “We didn’t want to come out like that and give them an 11-0 run but we just kept saying, ‘attitude, attitude,’ and we just fought back.”

After their two big runs in the first half, the Huskies had another to retake control in the second. They reeled off 13 unanswered to go up 51-42 with 10:43 left.

The Wildcats chipped away until tying the game again, 54-54, with 4:46 to go. The two teams took turns answering each other over the next several minutes.

“If I knew I would tell you,” Neptune said of stopping those runs. “I would do it during the game. This is the Big East. You’re going against really good teams, really good coaches, really talented players. Teams are gonna throw blows at you. … Teams go on runs. It’s an unfortunate part of sports. You either respond or you don't. I thought our guys were resilient. They responded to their runs.”

Moore’s first offensive foul came with Villanvoa trailing 61-58 and 1:25 to play. The Wildcats got two straight stops before Moore’s layup with 35 seconds left pulled them within one. Newton split a pair of free throws to give Villanova a chance to tie the game or go ahead. 

Instead, Moore was called for a hook on a drive to the hoop. The Wildcats couldn’t get the necessary steal or missed free throws in the final 19 seconds to get another chance to tie.

“Like coach said, credit nothing to the calls, or anything like that,” Moore said. “Just look in the mirror and see what I can do better and maybe make a better play.”

The late-game turnover overshadowed a terrific outing for the veteran guard.

Moore missed five games previously this season with an ankle injury, but he looks like he’s returning to form, shooting 7-of-9 from the field and grabbing five boards on Saturday.

“Day by day, I’m just trying to get better and better,” Moore said. “There’s going to be some bad days. There’s going to be some good days. I’m just trying to continue to get better.”

It was a temperature-check week for the Wildcats when it comes to their standing among the rest of the squads in the Big East.

The Wildcats sported a 4-1 record in the conference heading into Monday with two nationally ranked teams on the schedule. First came an 87-74 loss to No. 17 Marquette on Monday that got away from Villanova in the last eight minutes of the second half. 

They fell another rung down the standings after Saturday’s loss, dropping them into a tie with Marquette for fourth place in the Big East. Still, trading blows down the stretch with the top team in the country gave a glimmer of hope that the Wildcats’ ceiling is a high one.

“We got the utmost confidence in ourselves and believe,” Bamba said. “We feel like we work hard. We got way better in practice this week. I feel like this week’s practices have separated from the other weeks just in terms of intensity, nastiness, grit. I just feel like it’s step by step and we just gotta keep working and working and working and ultimately we’re gonna put it all together and we’ll see where we are.”