BOX SCORE
In a season full of tough defeats, Villanovas loss to No. 25 Notre Dame on Saturday night may have been the toughest of all.
Playing without leading scorer Maalik Wayns and starting sophomore guard James Bell, Villanova surprisingly raced out to a 20-point first half lead only to see the white-hot three-point shooting of Pat Connaughton and an 18-point, 13-rebound performance from Jack Cooley help Notre Dame erase the deficit en route to a 74-70 overtime victory at the Wells Fargo Center.
That was obviously a tough loss in a game you wish you never had to experience, Villanova head coach Jay Wright said.
Villanova opened the game with a vengeance, outscoring the Irish 34-9 over a 14-minute span to take 39-19 lead with 1:53 left in the first half and a 16-point lead into the halftime break. In the first half, the Wildcats out-rebounded the Irish, 24-10, and held them to a paltry 37.5 percent from the field.
JayVaughn Pinkston set the pace for Villanova, scoring 14 of his game-high 24 points in the first half.
In the second half, however, Notre Dame found its defensive stride, limiting Villanova to 23.8 percent from the field while slowly chipping away at the Wildcats lead.
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In overtime, both teams traded baskets for the first three minutes of the period until the Irish went on an 8-0 run that included back-to-back three-pointers by Jerian Grant and Connaughton, which gave Notre Dame the lead for good.
In regulation, a Connaughton three-pointer at 2:37 cut the Villanovas lead to two and a three-point play by Eric Atkins on the next possession gave Notre Dame its first lead since the game was 10-9 early in the first half.
The Irish extended the lead to four with just under a minute, but two free throws by Dominic Cheek set up a dramatic close to regulation as Maurice Sutton ripped an offensive rebound off a missed Ty Johnson jumper and scored the put back with 0.9 seconds to provide the Wildcats with a temporary stay of execution.
Ty Johnson thought he had a good mismatch, Sutton said. He went off the dribble and the offensive rebound came right to me. I was just in a good position.
In addition to scoring 12 points, Sutton also snagged 10 rebounds for his second double-double of the season.
Sutton is stepping up, Wright said. He understands what we are doing. Hes been in a lot of big games. Hes starting to get it. He made some huge plays.
Connaughton finished the game with a team-high 21 points for the Irish, connecting on 7 of 12 from beyond the arc.
Notre Dame made every big shot, Wright said. We, down the stretch, missed every big shot. We got good shots, we just missed them.
The loss, which comes on the heels of a 65-51 drubbing at the hands of South Florida is the Wildcats fifth in their last six games and fifth in a row versus ranked teams at the Wells Fargo Center.
It also is the second game in a row against a ranked opponent where Villanova has been unable to hold onto a double-digit leadthe Cats lost to Marquette on Jan. 28 after leading by as much as 18a trend Wright knows is part of the growing pains for his youthful team.
If youre a real good team, you win this game by 16-18 points, Wright said. If you are a struggling team that can make plays at the end, then you win it close at the end, but we just couldnt make the shots and they did. You got to give them credit. They executed better than us down the stretch.
Lost in the disappointment of the loss for the Wildcats was another strong performance from Cheek. The junior guard finished with 19 points, marking the fifth time in the last seven games that he has scored in double digits.
The Wildcats will not have a lot of time to lament this loss as they host a struggling Connecticut team that has lost three of its last four games on Monday at the Wells Fargo center. The Huskies have dropped three of their last four including a 79-64 defeat to Marquette earlier in the day. Tip off is at 7 pm.
E-mail John Turner at jturne@gmail.com