City of Basketball Love

Teddy Bailey (@TheTeddyBailey)
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VILLANOVA-- For the first time this season within the friendly confines of The Pavilion, Villanova's shots weren’t falling.

The Wildcats finished with a 4-of-22 shooting performance from 3-point range. The backcourt trio of Jalen Brunson, Phil Booth and Ryan Arcidiacono combined for a 5-of-21 night from the floor. The team scored just 30 points in the first half.

Villanova’s merciless 22-year streak of defeating Seton Hall at home was in peril after freshman guard Veer Singh hit a 3-pointer to pull the Pirates within 42-40 of the Wildcats with 11:46 remaining.

Luckily, for head coach Jay Wright, Daniel Ochefu was there to keep the Wildcats afloat after one of their most dire offensive performances of the season. The 6-foot-11 senior forward tallied a game-high 20 points and 18 rebounds, his sixth double-double of the season, to power Villanova past Seton Hall, 72-63 on a chilly Wednesday night.

“That is what we expect from Daniel every single day,” Arcidiacono said. “He does that in practice, actually in practice you can’t really score because Daniel is playing such good defense.”

While the Pirates held Villanova to 21-of-58 (36.2 percent) from the field, Ochefu was an 6-of-13 from the floor. The towering forward torched Seton Hall inside for five close-range buckets while converting 8-of-10 at the free throw line.

“We expect that,” Arcidiacono reiterated. “Daniel is an experienced player and we know every time that we can’t make shots we are going to make straight line drives and try to get him an easy basket.  One thing about Daniel is that he is improving his free throw shooting and is consistent with it.”

Ochefu, who increased his season average to 11 points and 8.6 rebounds, added an element of consistency on both ends that the Wildcats lacked, at times, against Seton Hall. Ochefu was matched-up against the Big East’s leading rebounder in Angel Delgado (10.3 rpg); who corralled just four boards against Villanova.

"We know he's a great offensive rebounder,” Ochefu said. “He's always on the weak side trying to grab the board. Either myself or one of our guards know we have to go with him and keep him from getting opportunities. That was a big focus in our scouting report."

“He’s had big games against us,” Seton Hall head coach Kevin Willard said. “It’s been his rebounding that has hurt us, I thought he was dominant on the boards. He understands where their misses are going to come off, he’s played in that system for so long. He was big-time.”

Wednesday’s win, was admittedly not the prettiest. 43 fouls were called, 57 free throws were taken in an old-school Big East battle. For Ochefu and the ‘Cats, however, they’d rather have it that way.

“I love these types of games,” Ochefu said. “I know that our team loves them as well.  Our practices are even uglier than this game, it is something we work on every day but we expect that type of game. Our offense was terrible in the first half, and our defense got us through. Games like this are good for us, when we miss shoots and we still find a way to get out with defense and rebounding.”

Villanova led Seton Hall, 30-23 at the half after the two teams played a back-and-forth opening 20 minutes. The Wildcats opened the second frame with three unanswered baskets to give themselves a comfortable lead. Sophomore guard Isaiah Whitehead scored 15 of his team-high 20 points in the second half to help the Pirates storm back midway through the final frame.

“I told the guys at halftime I was really pleased with our first half defense,” Wright said. “I thought that regardless of what we did offensively, we could grind it out in the second half. But we didn’t, we didn’t put our defense together in the second half. This is where we are going to learn how tough it will be."

After two glamorous outings, a 95-64 thumping of then-No. 6 Xavier, and an 85-71 road win at Creighton, to open Big East play, Vilanova found themselves in a Big East battle. Due to a dominant performance from Ochefu, along with 15 points and 10 rebounds from Josh Hart, the Wildcats were able to escape without a blemish.

Villanova will take its 13-2 (2-0 Big East) record into Hinkle Fieldhouse on Sunday night against No. 18 Butler. From there, the Wildcats will host Marquette before hitting the road against Georgetown, and Seton Hall again.

“This conference is a long way from over,” Wright said.