Some called it, others wondered why they didn't see it coming. The Villanova Wildcats suffered the third loss of their season last Monday, as the UConn Huskies, hot off a 48-point performance against Cincinnati, brought their A-game to the Wachovia Center. Part of a weekend wave of conference upsets, Nova let a hot start to the second half give UConn the boost they needed to pull off the 84-75 shocker, dropping Villanova out of their first-place tie for the lead in the Big East.
With almost a full week off to stew about the L, Villanova will look to take out their frustrations against the Panthers in Pittsburgh today. As most of you no doubt remember, things ended auspiciously the last time these two teams met, with Scottie Reynolds going near-length-of-the-floor for the game-winning bucket in the waning seconds of the Elite Eight matchup. That shot cemented Scottie Reynolds as a Nova legend, and the Cats could use a little of that magic again today against 19th-ranked Pitt, especially after Scottie experienced an uncharacteristic fade in the second half of the UConn game (although without his scintillating first half--14 points on 6-10 shooting--they likely would never have been even close).
Meanwhile, in other Big Five news, Temple and St. Joe's had themselves a nice little game yesterday. With St. Joseph's 3-10 conference record (9-18 overall), they didn't seem like contenders to put up much of a fight for the 21st-ranked Owls, but the yen for Bragging Rights has inspired man to much greatness over the years, and the Hawks gave 'em all they could handle, hanging tough with Temple all through the second half, thanks to a pair of 20-point performances by Darren Govens and Garrett Williamson.
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A Williamson layup put St. Joseph's up 59-57 with only five seconds to go, but an almost instantaneous response at the other end by Ramon Moore sent the game into overtime, where Temple was able to pull away, escaping the Palestra with the 75-69 victory. Moore finished with 24 and 9, while big'un Lavoy Allen pitched in 16 and 10 on a 7-8 FG performance. With Richmond squeaking out a victory by similarly thin margins against GW, Temple is still a half-game back in the A-10 going into their game against Daytona on Wednesday.
12:00 tip from the Petersen Events Center for Nova today. Next week's game against conference-leading Syracuse continues to loom large on the horizon--let's not have the Cats head there with a losing streak blemishing their record.