PHILADELPHIA, Pa. – No. 23/22 Villanova constructed a 16-point halftime cushion and then held its composure in the second half to hold off Saint Joseph's 78-66 in a Philadelphia Big Five game played at Hagan Arena Saturday.
 
Sophomore Saddiq Bey scored 22 points and added nine rebounds to lead the Wildcats (7-2 overall, 3-0 Big Five). Junior Collin Gillespie added 20 points for the winners while Justin Moore provided 14 points, including key baskets when the Hawks had closed to within 62-59.
 
Ryan Daly paced the Hawks (2-8 overall, 0-1 Big Five) with 32 points.
 
"That was a great Big Five game," stated Villanova head coach Jay Wright of the Wildcats' first clash with a Hawks squad led by former associate head coach Billy Lange. "We know what these games are going to be like. Saint Joe's played really tough and smart. It was a great environment. They never went away.
 
"In the first half, they didn't hit 3's. But they keep firing them. In the second half, they got them going and it was a totally different game."
 
The Wildcats jumped out to an early 9-2 lead thanks for the scoring of Gillespie (five points) and Bey (four points). Work on the offensive glass – the Hawks came up with seven in the contest's first 10 minutes – helped Saint Joseph's narrow the deficit to 17-14 at the midway point of the half.
 
Villanova responded with an 8-0 burst with Gillespie doing much of the damage. The product of Huntingdon Valley, Pa., drained a short jumper with 7:30 left in the period to extend the Wildcats advantage to 25-14.
 
Samuels and Bey helped pick up the scoring load through the rest of the period as Villanova claimed a 41-25 lead at halftime. Gillespie (13 points), Samuels (12) and Bey (12) combined for 37 of those points, with Justin Moore dropping in the other four. Nova held a 22-17 edge on the glass and 26-18 edge on points scored in the paint.
 
Daly led the Hawks with 10 points at intermission.
 
Saint Joseph's reeled off the first seven points of the second half, including the first Hawks' made 3-pointer of the afternoon by Lorenzo Edwards to close the deficit to 41-32 just 94 seconds into the period. A Gillespie 3-pointer from the left side after a Villanova timeout gave the 'Cats their first points of the period and pushed their lead back to double digits at 44-32.
 
"You know they're going to make adjustments at halftime," Wright noted. "They did a great job."
 
But the Hawks' offense found its groove and after a short jumper by Anthony Longpre the Villanova lead was down to 50-46 at the 11:38 mark of the period. At that point, Villanova was just 3-of-12 from the field in the second half while SJU was 7-of-12, including 4-of-7 from beyond the 3-point arc.
 
"Ryan (Daly) reminds me a lot of (AJ) Brodeur (Penn) in their importance to their team," stated Wright. "He's the leading scorer who can get a bucket any time. But he's also their top assist guy. That's what makes him so difficult to defend. He's an outstanding college basketball player."
 
The Wildcats got a lift from Moore, who stepped up with two clutch baskets in the lane after Gillespie had been whistled for his fourth foul and went to the bench. That helped Villanova push its lead to 60-52 with 7:17 on the second half clock. But a 7-2 spurt by the Hawks narrowed the gap to 62-59 as the contest headed towards crunch time.
 
Moore stepped forward again, scoring on the next possession. Freshman Jeremiah Robinson-Earl lent a hand too, scoring seven late points to help the 'Cats put this one into the win column.
 
"I was proud of our guys," Wright said. "A big part of their run was Collin getting his fourth foul. He's our leader. We've got Justin Moore, a freshman, running the point. We were running our offense through Saddiq Bey, a sophomore, and Jeremiah Robinson-Earl, a freshman. On the road, they really did keep their composure."
 
"We work every day on playing 94 by 50 feet, playing for each other," said Moore of the late game levelheadedness. "Our leaders do a great job of teaching us to stay composed – Collin, DaDa (Dhamir Cosby-Roundtree) and Jermaine."
 
"Every day in practice we just make it tough on the first team," added Bey. "We simulate playing on the road so come game time we know what it's going to be. We know it's going to be tough."
 
The 2019-20 season – Villanova's 100^th college basketball campaign – is presented by Hartford Funds and Coca-Cola.