Dec. 12, 2008
It is the ritual that closes every Villanova practice. Its title is "win the game" and each member of the Wildcats gets one crack at a free throw. A conversion counts as a plus one. A miss detracts two points. And if the "opponent" ends up with more points than Villanova, the "home" team is usually running wind sprints.
Nearly one calendar year ago, Dante Cunningham cited the drill as a reason he was confident when he stepped to the line and sank a pair of free throws that were the margin of victory in the `Cats critical Pavilion 64-63 win over Pittsburgh.
On Thursday night, in a similar packed setting, it was Scottie Reynolds who found himself at the line with two shots and his team down by a 56-55 score. There were 4.8 seconds left on the clock in regulation against Philadelphia Big Five rival Saint Joseph's in a contest that had kept the sellout crowd at the Pavilion on its feet for most of the second half.
Like Cunningham, Reynolds found comfort in the daily exercise.
"We do this every day in practice," stated the junior guard, who was asked to make a play with his team trailing by one and was fouled in the act of shooting to earn the free throws. "Coach prepares us every day for the toughest situations in the toughest environments. At the end of practice we call it `win the game.'
"We always say `win the game.'" Reynolds proceeded to calmly drain both free throws to push the Wildcats in front 57-56. Then Cunningham stepped in front of a pass in the backcourt on the ensuing inbounds play, was fouled with 2.5 seconds left, and himself sank both of his attempts from the charity stripe. It all added up to a 59-56 win that pushed Villanova's record to 9-1 and helped ease the sting of the team's first loss of the campaign less than 48 hours earlier against No. 6 Texas at Madison Square Garden in the Jimmy V Classic.
"That's the greatest thing you can give a player - the ball in their hands at the end of the game," said Reynolds. "To give me the ball in a situation like that and just let me go is something I really appreciate."
An assist of sorts was owed to Cunningham, who helped lift Reynolds from the floor after the 6-2 native of Herndon, Va., was knocked nearly to the court by Saint Joseph's forward Idris Hilliard.
"I started getting cramps as I was going down," he explained. "And if I had gone down I wasn't getting up. Thanks Dante for picking me up."
Added Cunningham of the final sequence: "even if he does miss, I'll go rebound for him."
Defense was the element that allowed Villanova to climb out of its first half hole. After Saint Joseph's converted .560 of its first half field goal attempts to build a 35-26 lead, the Wildcats turned up the defensive pressure.
"We knew they would turn it up," stated Saint Joseph's coach Phil Martelli. "That wasn't a surprise. But we had eight turnovers and some of them were unforced."
"We all just said we've got to get it done," said Reynolds of the break between halves. ""We just have to go out there, play Villanova basketball, leave it all out there and what happens happens. We have to be aggressive on defense and I think that's what really turned the game around.
"It didn't go our way at times. We get a deflection and the ball lands in (Ahmad) Nivins' hands for a dunk. (Darrin) Govens hits a three. Things like that. That's why we say `attitude' all the time. Things like that are going to happen. You can't let it affect you. You have to go on to the next play and keep on playing."
Going forward, Reynolds believes the lessons taken from this tussle will serve the Wildcats well.
"With this group of guys and what we've been through, coming off a loss to Texas we could have hung our heads. But we didn't' - no excuses," stated Reynolds. "This wasn't pretty. It's not going to be pretty every night. But these kinds of wins will benefit us later on down the season."
In this case "win the game" helped Villanova do just that.
- MIKE SHERIDAN
