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PROVIDENCE, R.I. ââ'¬" Just as it had in last Sunday's win at St. John's, Villanova's class of 2017 came up big Saturday as the No. 3 Wildcats defeated No. 11 Providence 72-60 before a packed house of 12,883 at the Dunkin Donuts Center.

Leading the way was junior forward Darryl Reynolds, who in his third straight start for senior Daniel Ochefu (sidelined again today with a concussion) stepped forward with a career-high 19 points and 10 rebounds. The points total was 13 more than his previous best of six points, accomplished twice.

Classmate Josh Hart added 14 points and 13 rebounds while Kris Jenkins contributed 10 points and 10 rebounds, including a dagger 3-pointer that halted a Providence surge with just over five minutes to play that had brought the Friars to within 58-53.

The Wildcats never trailed.

"That's a great road victory for us against an outstanding team in an electric college basketball environment," stated Villanova head coach Jay Wright.

Providence had halted Villanova's 22-game BIG EAST winning streak with an 82-76 overtime triumph on Jan. 24 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. With the win today, Villanova has posted a 20-win season for the 11th time in the past 12 seasons (20-3 overall, 10-1 BIG EAST).

Villanova created momentum quickly, grabbing a 5-0 lead over the Friars thanks to a 3-pointer by senior Ryan Arcidiacono (16 points) and a steal and slam by Hart in the opening minute. The advantage grew to 10-0 after freshman Jalen Brunson (nine points on the day) dropped in a 3-pointer.

The Friars (18-6 overall, 6-5 BIG EAST) were able to make a dent in the lead before an 11-0 spurt capped by a Jenkins triple extended the Wildcats lead to 29-10 with 6:33 to play in the first period.

However, Providence was able to clamp down defensively and the Wildcats scored their last field goal of the first half with 4:40 left. That allowed the Friars to shave the gap to 31-19 at intermission.

The main reason VU took the lead to the locker room at halftime centered on the defensive end. Providence connected on 7-of-30 field goal attempts in the stanza (.233). It would end the day with 19 field goals while converting just .333 of its field goal attempts.

Villanova got its scoring from an unexpected source in the early minutes of the second half as Reynolds heated up in a hurry. The Philadelphia native tallied nine points in the first five minutes of the period to help the Wildcats craft a 40-25 lead at the first official timeout of the period.

Reynolds would end the day 9-of-10 from the field.

"I just thought Darryl was a force inside," noted Wright. "They put Kris Dunn on Josh. We decided to use Josh as a decoy to take the best defender away from the ball. And it opened it up for everybody else. Josh kept getting offensive rebounds, did all the dirty work.

"I'm so proud of him. He had a double-double but that wasn't a big-time scoring game for him. But it was the best game he has played as a Villanova Basketball player."

Fueled by Bentil and Dunn, the Friars found their offensive flow midway through the second half. Their work helped get the Friars back to within 44-35 with just over 13 minutes to play in the second half.

"Bentil was a handful and he was definitely not 100 percent," stated Wright of the Friars' forward who scored 20 points after injuring an ankle earlier in the week at DePaul.

Villanova was able to extend the margin back to 56-41 with 7:41 to play before a 9-0 run on 3-pointers from Rodney Bullock, Bentil, and Ryan Fazekas brought the Friars back to within 56-50 with 5:55 on the clock in the second half. Another Fazekas triple with 5:16 on the clock got the Friars to within 58-53. But then Jenkins dropped in a 3-pointer and that helped VU withstand the Friars push down the stretch, ultimately rolling to a 72-60 win.

The Wildcats, who were out-rebounded in their previous meeting with PC, collected 48 caroms to 29 for the Friars.

Villanova now looks ahead to a Tuesday night matchup at DePaul (8:30 p.m./FS1 and 610 Sports Radio WTEL).