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VILLANOVA, Pa. ââ'¬" On a day when an Akron Zips unit filled with confidence came to the Pavilion in the NIT Season Tipoff, Villanova got a big boost from junior Josh Hart. The native of Maryland dropped in a career-high 27 points to go with nine rebounds in a 75-56 victory over the previously unbeaten Zips (3-1 overall, 0-0 Mid-American Conference).

The Wildcats improved to 4-0 and a good share of the credit went to Hart, senior Ryan Arcidiacono (15 points, eight assists, five rebounds and zero turnovers), and a defense that slowly disrupted the Zips' fluid offense.

"That's a good win over a good team," stated Villanova head coach Jay Wright. "We didn't start slowly ââ'¬" they are just really good. They have upperclassmen, guys who know how to play. They came in, were tough and physical."

Akron entered Sunday's game fresh from an 88-80 victory at Arkansas and carried the confidence from that success into today's action. The Zips jumped out to a 13-5 lead after a Josh Williams basket with 14:52 remaining in the first period. Five of Akron's first seven field goals were from beyond the arc and the Zips led 26-20 with 7:59 left to play before halftime..

One of the Zips keys' was sophomore guard Antino Jackson, who scored nine early points.

"Jackson getting into foul trouble was big," noted Wright. "Against Arkansas, he just dominated the game. At the beginning of the game we couldn't press them because of him in there. When they got the ball in the half court, he controlled tempo.

"But he got two fouls quickly and a third one quickly in the second half. Arch made a great play when Jackson picked up his fourth (foul). I thought we wore them down a little bit. To me, that's an NCAA Tournament team. I would not want to play them in Akron."

As it had in its wins earlier in the week over Nebraska and East Tennessee State, Villanova got a nice lift from its reserves. Redshirt freshman Mikal Bridges was particularly effective, scoring five points, collecting three rebounds while adding a pair of assists and steals in the first 20 minutes..

Bridges and Hart helped ignite an 18-5 run to close out the first half and establish a 38-31 lead at the break.

"There are certain teams that have size and length like that which don't have to get extended against us that Josh is going to be really important for us," explained Wright. "These teams force you to take them 1-on-1. The only way you can do that is if they are afraid of your threes.

"Josh hit some three's and took them out of it. Then he got into the lane. He's really good at that. It's hard to do that against teams with length. Josh recognized that and what he did tonight was great."

Villanova carried that momentum into the second half and had crafted a 47-32 lead with 16:42 on the clock. The lead never dipped below 15 points the rest of the way as the 'Cats kept Akron at bay, holding it to 9-of-28 shooting after intermission (.321) and 21-of-59 accuracy for the game (.356).

In the win, VU enjoyed a 36-12 edge on points scored in the paint and a 17-7 advantage in points scored off of turnovers.

Another important performance was turned in by Bridges, who finished with seven points, four rebounds, three assists, and three steals in 20 minutes. His tenacity and long arms helped disrupt the early flow that Akron had established.

"When Phil Booth and Mikal come in off of the bench they take us to another level defensively," Wright stated. "They did that tonight."

Hart thought there were multiple reasons for the win.

"It wasn't just one thing," he stated. "It was how active we were basically. They really (charged) out on us as shooters and Coach always preaches for us to get to the rim. We kind of saw how they played it and after that we kind of knew how we wanted to attack it."

The Wildcats will next see action on Thanksgiving at 4:30 p.m. when they meet the Stanford Cardinal in the next phase of the NIT Season Tipoff at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. (ESPN2/610 Sports Radio).

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