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Villanova throttles Lafayette in NCAA Tournament

03/19/2015, 10:00pm EDT

By Andrew Koob

Andrew Koob (@AndrewKoob)

PITTSBURGH — It didn't take long for Villanova to show the country why they deserved a one-seed.

The Wildcats jumped all over the 16th-seeded Lafayette Leopards en route to a 93-52 victory in the second round of the NCAA Tournament at CONSOL Energy Center.

The Wildcats started off hot, taking an 11-2 lead in the first 3:30 of the game. Four players scored during the run, with JayVaughn Pinkston scoring four points all off of putback layups.

"There was a huge emphasis," senior guard Darrun Hilliard said of the early run. "We know what kind of team they were. We have a lot of respect for them. They came into our house last year and gave us a great battle. We were down late in the game and we knew if we didn't come in and kind of play defense the way we were supposed to, it could be an easy, closer game.

"It was great to come out and kind of jump on them from the start."

Lafayette continued to teeter on the brink of a double-digit deficit before Villanova started to hit their stride and score 10 straight points, taking a 21-point lead late in the first half. The Wildcats scored the first half’s final eight points to take a healthy 23-point lead into the halftime break.

Villanova wouldn’t take the foot off of the pedal, eventually doubling up on Lafayette thanks to a 10-0 run that gave them a 63-30 advantage early in the second half. The lead would balloon all the way to 45 points, a mark they hit after a successful Dylan Ennis three-ball with nine minutes remaining.

The Wildcats featured six players to reach the double-digit mark, led by Ennis’ 16 points. Daniel Ochefu added 14, Ryan Arcidiacano posted 13, while Pinkston and Hilliard had 12 each. Kris Jenkins brought up the rear with 10.

Lafayette countered with Dan Trist’s 18-point, six-rebound performance and Seth Hinrich’s 13 points. Nick Lindner, the Patriot League Tournament MVP, was held to just three points on 1-of-4 shooting and six turnovers.

"They switched and they're long," Lafayette coach Fran O'Hanlon said of Villanova's defense. "They're athletic, and they made it hard for Nick to get in any kind of gaps. And once again, I knew that this is a different type of team because you have Ochefu sitting back there, which is very hard even if you get by the first line of defense, that he's a rim protector.

The Leopards, coming into this game tied for second in the nation shooting 41.3 percent from three-point range, were off target from deep in the first half. Lafayette only connected on two of their nine attempts in the first half and ended the game shooting 23.5 percent.

"We feared his ability to get them shots," Wright said of Lindner. "We picked him up full court. We had Dylan Ennis, Ryan Arcidiacono and Phil Booth on him. And we just wanted to keep fresh bodies on him and just try to wear him down, because we just, we watched all those games recently and we also switched on him. We doubled him a little bit. We switched on to him some. He was a big part of our game plan."

Villanova, in turn, turned in an extremely efficient performance. A first half where the Wildcats shot 62.5 percent from the field and hit half of their three-point attempts. Overall, they hit 63.2 percent of their shots from the field and turned the ball over only eight times, three in the first half.

"It's an emphasis, but it's also having two seniors and three juniors out there a lot that have played together a lot and done the same thing," Wright said of the turnovers. "I think they're very comfortable. Usually, you make turnovers when there's some indecision. These guys are just very comfortable in what we do because they've done it so long and done it together. Indecision can come sometimes when you don't know what your teammate's going to do either. That's the key."

The Wildcats dominated in the paint, outscoring the Leopards 42-24 in the paint. 6-foot-11 Ochefu created a problem for Lafayette, one they couldn't figure out throughout the 40 minutes. Despite the solid individual performance, Ochefu credited the Lafayette frontcourt for a tough matchup.

"Definitely didn't have my way," Ochefu. "Their big guys are strong. They don't look as strong as JayVaughn, but they're strong inside. It was a tough battle, preparing myself in practice every day against Darryl (Reynolds) and (Pinkston), guys like that definitely helped me a lot in this game."