City of Basketball Love

Will Slover (@WillSlover31)
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With the crowd heavily on its side and the opportunity to make history at hand, La Salle showed up at the Palestra on Tuesday night ready to give No.1 Villanova everything it could handle.

The Explorers hung tight with the Wildcats for the majority of the game, despite a brief period midway through the second half in which Villanova pulled away by double digits, La Salle battled back to keep the game in single digits until just before the final buzzer sounded.

Despite the valiant effort from their fellow Big 5 foe, Villanova hung on to top La Salle by a score of 89-79.

Although Villanova (9-0, 3-0 Big 5) snuck out of the Palestra with a 10-point victory, the game on the floor was much closer than the score indicated as La Salle (4-3, 0-2) trailed by as little as four with just over a minute remaining until two lapses in their full-court press allowed Villanova to cushion their lead.

“Good battle, a really good battle,” Villanova head coach Jay Wright said “Good experience for us. Tough environment and I thought La Salle played great. Anything we didn't do well or look great was a tribute to La Salle’s great game plan.”

From the opening tip, you could tell the fans in attendance at the Cathedral of College Basketball were in for classic Big 5 battle.

The first half was a true battle, with neither team being able to open things up in a half that consisted of six lead changes and eight ties.

The largest lead of the opening frame until there were just over three minutes remaining was three points, until Villanova went on a quick 5-0 run just before the half that looked like would open things up for the ‘Cats.

That is, until Pookie Powell got hot.

Powell, the redshirt sophomore transfer from Memphis, scored four consecutive points to end the half to send the game into the intermission at 40-36 in favor of Villanova.

Coming out of the half, Powell was a force offensively for La Salle and causing havoc for Villanova’s defense.

“I was just trying to go out there and help my team win,” said Powell. “Coach said he wanted me to be aggressive before the game, he wanted me to just get to the basket and look for my shot and don’t be too passive, so that’s what I tried to do.”

Powell scored 24 points in the final 21 minutes of the game and was a huge reason why La Salle occasionally found themselves down, but never out.

Whenever Villanova would look like they were going to run away with the contest, Powell hit a clutch shot to give his Explorers a fighting chance.

Down 13 with just over seven minutes remaining, it was back-to-back three pointers from junior Johnnie Shuler and Powell that got La Salle back in the game as the Villanova lead was cut to seven in less than a minute.

Once Villanova extended their lead to double digits again, this time 73-63 with 2:39 remaining, it was Powell again with a clutch shot from three-point land that kept the Explorers’ chances alive.

After cutting the lead to four, 79-75, on a Jordan Price make from way beyond the arc with 1:18 , Villanova had to resort to fouling to keep them in it and Villanova capitalized at the line, hitting six free throws down the stretch and putting La Salle away.

Ultimately, Powell finished with a career-high 27 points while B.J. Johnson chipped in with 13 points and eight rebounds and junior center Tony Washington added a season-high of 10 points on 5-of-6 shooting.

As for Villanova, who has found themselves on the top end of some blowouts this year, a hard-fought battle in the nation’s most historic gymnasium is something that Wright is happy his players experienced.

“It wasn't pretty,” said Wright. “Sometimes the other team has a better plan. I think (La Salle head coach) John (Giannini) had a better plan for us than I had for them and sometimes things don't go your way and you have to find a way to grind it out.”

As the reigning National Champions and current No.1 team in all of college basketball, Wright’s Wildcats are playing with a target on their back that is larger than ever.

“They played with a little more energy against us and played really well against us,” said Wright. “We didn't have our best game because of them and we found a way to grind it out. It’s a game you can learn from, win or lose. It’s just a lot more to win and learn from it but you’re going to learn from it. So these are valuable games.”

Leading the way for Villanova and making sure they remained undefeated on this young season, was sophomore Jalen Brunson, who finished with a career-high 26 points on 10-of-18 shooting.

“I really just played what the defense gave me,” said Brunson. “Coach always says just be aggressive, be ready to catch and shoot and be ready to make plays and I was just feeling it tonight. It’s a credit to my teammates for finding me and having confidence in me.”

Helping Brunson carry the load was senior National Player of the Year candidate Josh Hart, who finished with 21 points and eight boards, and redshirt sophomore Mikal Bridges, who ended the game with 16 points on an efficient 6-of-8 shooting.

Both of these teams can use this dogfight to help them in their next games, which both come against high-profile teams as La Salle will travel down to Miami to take on Georgetown in the Miami Hoophall Invitation on Saturday at 2:00 PM and Villanova will head to Newark to take on No. 23 Notre Dame (9-0) in the Never Forget Tribute Classic on the same date at noon.

As the newly-minted No. 1 team in the country, Villanova will have to keep their guard up as they look to stay undefeated.

“I mean we didn’t really handle it a certain way last year,” said Hart. “It’s us just taking things one step at a time, one day at a time and keep the rankings on the outside and just focusing on getting better.”