Box Score | Photo Gallery

NEW YORK, N.Y. - The No. 7 Villanova Wildcats used an old-fashioned closing kick to pull away from the Illinois Fighting Illini over the final eight minutes to post a 73-59 victory at the Jimmy V Classic here on Tuesday night.

After a 3-pointer by Aaron Cosby at 8:29 deadlocked the contest at 50, the Wildcats outscored Illinois 23-9 the rest of the way thanks in no small part to the efforts of junior Dylan Ennis (18 points) and Daniel Ochefu (12 points, six rebounds).

Ennis put the Wildcats in front with a 3-pointer with 8:12 to play and drained another with 4:40 left that put a cap on the Wildcats surge. Ochefu, meanwhile, scored a pair of baskets off low post moves before the second Ennis triple that allowed Villanova to roll to its ninth consecutive victory.

"That's a good win for us against a really good team," stated Villanova head coach Jay Wright. "At times that game looked really ugly but those were two good defensive teams. They did a really good job at the end of the first half and midway through the second half of taking us out of what we wanted to do.

"There was a period at the end that we were able to get the ball inside to Daniel. That got us going and opened things up for us."

The Wildcats used a handful of steals to kick start an offensive attack that staked them to a 25-14 advantage midway through the first period. The Wildcats sank 11-of-16 from inside the arc and 11-of-20 overall to build that lead while also collecting nine of the game's first 11 caroms.

But Illinois fought back quickly off its work at the defensive end of the court, creating an 8-0 burst that pulled the Fighting Illini back to within 27-25 with three minutes to play in the first half.

Villanova held a 33-27 lead at halftime.

Illinois kept battling, however, and pulled even on two occasions. Malcolm Hill was one key for the Fighting Illini, finishing with 20 points on the night.

But in the end, Villanova used its defense to ignite its offense in the home stretch

"We've got great guys so it isn't about one guy trying to get us going," Ennis noted. "We want to use our defense to get us going and I thought that's what we were able to do."

Ennis connected on 7-of-10 field goal attempts to accumulate his 18 points. The native of Ontario added five rebounds as part of an effort that helped the Wildcats out-rebound the Illini 37-30.

Joining Ennis and Ochefu in double figures were Darrun Hilliard (12 points, four rebounds) and Josh Harts (10 points, seven rebounds).

"This was a good test," stated Wright. "It felt like we got punched a couple of times. We can get a lot better, though, in our offensive execution and some other areas."

Following this contest, Villanova returned to campus as the fall academic semester winds down on Thursday with exams looming. Its next action on the court will come Sunday when it hosts Temple in a Philadelphia Big Five clash at the Pavilion (2 p.m./Fox Sports 1).

Follow Villanova Basketball on social media

Twitter: @NovaMBB #NovaMBB

Instagram: @novambb