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'Nova set for Big East title game rematch vs. Providence

03/10/2018, 8:00am EST
By Austin Petolillo

Eric Paschall (above) and 'Nova are back in the Big East championship game after dispatching Butler on Friday. (Photo: Mark Jordan/CoBL)

Austin Petolillo (@AustinPSports)
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Since the re-alignment of the Big East back in 2013, there hasn’t been a team that has been as dominant since Villanova.

Their 78-12 conference record shows it in that time shows it.

Their four consecutive Big East regular season titles show for it as well and on Saturday night, Villanova can potentially add another trophy to the Davis Center trophy room.

After obliterating Butler in the Big East Tournament semifinals on Friday night by a final score of 87-68, Villanova will be matched up against Providence on Saturday night as they look to capture back-to-back Big East Tournament titles for the first time in school history and their third in four years.

But for Villanova, they see the game business as usual.

“I feel like we see it as the next game,” redshirt junior forward Eric Paschall said. “We don’t see it any different, we see it as our next game.”

This season, the Wildcats and the Friars split the season series as both teams won on their home floor. Villanova disposed of Providence 89-69 on Jan. 23 in Philadelphia and on Valentines day, Providence upset Villanova 76-71 in Providence.

In the game prior to Villanova’s Providence came back from being down as much as 17 in the second half as they upset No. 1 seed Xavier in overtime, 75-72.

“We're concerned with how good  Kyron Cartwright is, how well Jalen Lindsey shoots the ball, Rodney Bullock and how to defend him.” Villanova head coach Jay Wright said. “And they do a great job defending on us, we have to be able to score on them.”

Villanova had no trouble scoring on Butler on Friday night.

The first four minutes of the game dictated how this game was going to be; a blowout.

The first four minutes were the only time the contest was tied, in the first five seconds to be exact. Once Mikal Bridges hit a three at that point, the Wildcats never looked back.

“When Mikal hit that first shot, that's not what we were looking for right there,” Wright said. “But he does have the freedom.”

“That just kind of set a great tone,” Wright added. “Win the tip, throw it up, he hits a 3, that's a nice way to start, I thought it gave everybody confidence.”

Villanova started the game on a 19-0 run spanning over the first 6:30 of the game which propelled the Wildcats to the victory.

“I didn't even notice the score was 19-0,” Villanova redshirt junior guard Phil Booth said. “I saw them call timeout, I looked up and I noticed what it was, but we were just playing, trying to get stops and kept going and just played defense.”

The Wildcats outing against Butler on Friday night was much different from previous meetings between the two in recent memory. The Bulldogs swept the season series last year and this year split the series with both teams winning a game at home.

Slowly but surely, the Wildcats are starting to get back to their dominant form again after struggling in Feburary, suffering two losses, which is not normal for a Villanova team of the past five seasons to endure.

“I think this year has been a unique year where we just had crazy injuries,” Wright said. “And a couple of them were to some young guys that didn't hurt us a lot, but it did affect how we played.”

“Now that we've got everybody back, we're back kind of playing how we did before the injuries,” Wright added. “So it's just a weird year that way, but it's kind of interesting now, I think we feel we're a new team rather than a team that's kind of stale at the end of the year.”

Villanova’s “Killer B’s” led the Wildcats to the wire-to-wire victory as Bridges scored 18 points on 7-11 shooting, junior guard Jalen Brunson scored 17 points on 6-10 shooting and Booth scored 14 points on 4-11 shooting as the trio combined for 49 of the Wildcats 87 points.

Freshman forward Omari Spellman recorded a double-double as he went for 12 points and 12 rebounds and Paschall also added 12 points himself.

Providence heads into the Big East Tournament final coming off of back-to-back overtime games, but Wright won’t be looking to speed the tempo against the Friars.

“No, we'll be more concerned with what we do really,” Wright said. “We wouldn't change what we do for that reason.”


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