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UNIONDALE, N.Y. – A balanced scoring attack helped lift No. 1 ranked Villanova to a 95-72 victory over Hofstra (7-5 overall) at NYBC Live, home of the Nassau Coliseum, on Friday evening. The Wildcats are now 12-0 as they look ahead to the start of BIG EAST play next week at DePaul.

The win came in head coach Jay Wright’s first game against the Pride, a program he led to 122 victories in seven seasons from 1994-2001. Redshirt junior Mikal Bridges paced the Wildcats with 20 points and five rebounds. Classmate Phil Booth contributed 18 points while Omari Spellman added his fourth double-double of the campaign (19 points, 10 rebounds).

Hofstra was led by a game-high 25 points from Justin Wright-Foreman.

“It was great to be back here,” stated Wright. “Hofstra is a tough team to play – scrappy and Joe (Mihalich) has a great way to prepare for you. They know all your cuts, they change up their defenses. You can’t look good against them. It frustrated our guys at times. But I think that team when it gets to their league is going to have a chance to win it.”

“I thought we did a pretty good job against a team that can get you.”

Bridges got the opening bucket but after that the contest’s earliest minutes mostly belonged to the Pride, which used a 6-1 edge on the glass to grab an early 9-7 lead. But Villanova began to settle in after a nine day gap between games and reeled off a 22-8 spurt to grab a 29-15 lead at the mid-point of the first half.

“We got some lineups in there that allowed us to get more aggressive defensively,” stated Wright. “The small lineups we had in there created some turnovers and got us out into transition.”

One of the reasons that Villanova was able to further advance its margin was the terrific work of Spellman. The native of Cleveland did damage from distance and close range, tallying 14 points and eight caroms over the game’s first 16:02 to help the Wildcats take a 39-23 lead over the Pride.

The Wildcats closed the period with a nifty in-bounds play with 1.2 seconds on the clock. Donte DiVincenzo inbounded the ball along the sideline not far from the coaches box line in front of the Villanova bench. He found Phil Booth a few steps inside the half-court line. Booth’s long bomb dropped through the nets just before the buzzer sounded.

Jalen Brunson scored 11 points in the first five minutes of the second half, which allowed Villanova to extend its lead. But Hofstra found an offensive groove too and began chipping away at the deficit, converting 12-of-19 from the field in the first 12:13 of the second period to shave the gap to 79-58.

But the Wildcats put together another spurt, this one sparked by DiVincenzo and Bridges and pushed the margin back to 90-63 with 3:33 to play. The final count was 95-71.

“This was emotional for me,” stated Wright. “We have so many great memories of Hofstra and the people in this area. We follow Hofstra and we root for Hofstra.

“I told the guys a few days ago ‘I’m messed up on this one.’ We’re usually really focused and I’m usually focused and I tried to be. But coming back here, there are just so many great feelings and emotions. Joe Mihalich and I spoke to the Hofstra alumni before the game. I would never do that for any other school. It was important to do it.”

“I didn’t really notice any difference in Coach,” added Bridges. “He was just staying on us to remind us that this was a time of year where there are a lot of upsets. We had to stay focused on Hofstra.”

BIG EAST action opens next week when Villanova visits the new Wintrust Arena for the first time to take on DePaul (7:30 p.m. on CBS Sports Network and 610 Sports Radio) on Wednesday night.

The 2017-18 Villanova Basketball season is presented by KeyBank.