Postgame Press Conference 

VILLANOVA, Pa. – On the official opening night at the Finneran Pavilion, No. 9/8 Villanova rode the scoring of Eric Paschall (27 points) to a 100-77 victory over Morgan State in the season opener for both teams.
 
"This was a great start for our building," stated Villanova head coach Jay Wright. "Coming in here, you didn't know what the atmosphere would be like. You wondered whether it would be better or worse than the old building, which we loved. It was loud and jumping all night. The crowd was great. There is a different vibe in here – it's louder."
 
But as far as the team's performance, well the head coach saw room for improvement. The 77 points surrendered stood out as did a spat of first half turnovers that helped keep the Bears within range.
 
"I want to give Morgan State a lot of credit," said Wright. "They battled, they're quick and they spread us out. We have one of the bigger teams we've had in a while and we struggled to guard them. Offensively we were OK, but we have a lot of work to do defensively."
 
Joining Paschall in double figures was classmate Phil Booth (17 points, four assists), freshman forward Saddiq Bey (16 points, four rebounds), sophomore Jermaine Samuels (12 points, six rebounds) and Joe Cremo (10 points).
 
Isaiah Burke led Morgan State with 17 points.
 
Credit for the first basket in the Finneran Pavilion went to sophomore Collin Gillespie, whose 3-ball opened the scoring on this night. The Wildcats would go on to connect on 4-of-6 from beyond the arc – including a banked in triple by freshman Saddiq Bey – to claim a 16-7 lead after 4:16 of action.
 
Villanova pushed its lead to 26-15 before a 7-0 run by the Bears shaved the margin to 26-22. A short jumper by Booth halted the run and after a defensive stop, a pair of Booth free throws nudged the margin to 30-22 at the 10:15 mark of the first period. The run stretched to 10 and it was 36-22 at the 8:30 mark.
 
Eric Paschall's work towards the end of the period – he converted his first five field goal attempts of the night and was also 5-of-5 at the free throw line – helped the 'Cats extend to a 48-34 edge at 3:28. But the Bears snapped off another 7-0 run to shave the deficit to 48-41 with 1:60 to go before halftime.
 
At intermission, Villanova led 54-43, thanks largely to a combined 30 points from Paschall (19) and Booth (11). The Wildcats sank 18-of-29 from the field in the first half (.621).
 
Yet the Bears drained 18-of-35 in the period (.514) and forced 10 Villanova turnovers to remain within striking distance.
 
A scoreless drought of four minutes midway through the period helped Morgan State to narrow the gap to seven points. But then Paschall went to work, scoring seven consecutive points to restore Villanova's hold on the contest.
 
The final count was 100-77.
 
"We were trying to keep fresh bodies out there," Wright said. "Phil, Collin and Eric are experienced guys. With the rest of the guys we're just going to see who's going well."
 
The Wildcats return to action on Saturday, this time at the Wells Fargo Center. Quinnipiac, coached by former VU player and associate head coach Baker Dunleavy, will be on hand for a contest that gets underway at 8 p.m. (FS1 and 610 ESPN).