Dec. 3, 2011
Box Score
VILLANOVA, Pa. - On a night when the two halves of basketball looked markedly different, Villanova relied on its early defense to build a large lead and then held off Penn late, in a Philadelphia Big Five game played in front of a sellout crowd at the Pavilion on Saturday night. The final was 73-65.
The Wildcats improved to 5-2 with their ninth straight victory over the Quakers, who are now 4-5.
In the first half, the Wildcats held Penn without a 3-point field goal and limited the Quaker to .292 shooting from the field while building a 38-20 lead. The advantage grew into double digits in the final minutes of the period when starters James Bell and Maalik Wayns were on the bench with two fouls each.
"I thought we did a great job defensively in the first half," noted Villanova head coach Jay Wright.
In the second half, however, Penn rallied, slicing the lead to 48-40 with 8:54 left. The Quakers kept coming and drew within 69-65 when Zack Rosen drained a 3-point goal with 15 seconds left. But Wayns and Bell were steady at the free throw line when it mattered and Villanova earned its second Big Five triumph in as many attempts in the young campaign.
"They beat us by 10 points in the second half," Wright said. "We played like we have been playing this year. What we are going to take out of this is that we know what we can do defensively - that first half was great. We have to learn that we have to play 40 minutes. If you let a guy like Zack Rosen get it going and a team like that that can shoot the basketball get rolling, you can be in trouble."
Villanova limited Rosen to four first half points. He would end the night with 21 points, tying the Wildcats Mouphtaou Yarou for game scoring honors.
"We just tried to keep fresh people on him," stated Wright of VU's effort on Rosen. "Maalik Wayns did a great job on him. I thought it was really important that with Maalik on him, we really didn't let him get started. When he gets going, it's really tough to stop him."
Yarou contributed 11 rebounds to post his fourth double-double of the season. Darrun Hilliard added 13 points and five rebounds while Wayns scored 11 points, all of them coming after halftime.
"I thought Maalik did an outstanding job running the team," Wright said. "He was getting people involved the whole game. Late in the game, the ball got into his hands. I thought we stood around and watched him too much in California. Other guys weren't aggressive and tonight we got the ball to Mouph more. Even though (Dominic) Cheek didn't shoot it that well, he was aggressive taking shots.
"I thought it was really important to come out and play well defensively. It was great to get ahead."
Villanova played without forwards Maurice Sutton (dislocated left thumb) and Markus Kennedy (right shoulder contusion), both of whom were injured in practice this week. Eight Wildcats saw 15 or more minutes of action tonight.
"There were times," noted Wright, "when we had Cheek playing the four."
Next up for Villanova is a Tuesday night contest at New York's Madison Square Garden against Missouri in the Jimmy V Classic (7:00 p.m./ESPN).
