PHILADELPHIA, Pa. – A powerful defensive performance and the return of graduate student Dhamir Cosby-Roundtree to game action highlighted a 72-46 Villanova victory over La Salle in a Philadelphia Big Five contest played Sunday evening at the Palestra.
 
The Wildcats (4-2 overall, 1-0 Big Five) used a 21-0 stretch midway through the first half to build a 30-point lead over the Explorers. They also held La Salle to 17 first half points.
 
"It's a Big Five game and in these, it's always survive and advance," stated Villanova head coach Jay Wright. "We played a good first half. We did a really good job defensively. They adjusted in the second half and made it tougher on us. We didn't do as good a job in the second half. We'll take it. We're happy to get a Big Five win against a good La Salle team."
 
The Wildcats scored the game's first nine points and much of that surge was powered by the two staples of Villanova Basketball: defense and rebounding. La Salle missed its first five attempts from the field and Villanova owned an early 8-2 advantage on the glass through the game's first 4:19.
 
Seven minutes into the period Cosby-Roundtree came on for the Wildcats. It was the Philadelphia native's first game action since March 7, 2020 and he promptly dropped in a basket to extend the Nova lead to 13-2. With a flu strain having hit the Wildcats earlier this week, the coaches asked Cosby-Roundtree – who has battled shin and tibia issues for most of the past three seasons – if he thought he could play.
 
"We've been battling the flu," stated Wright. "We needed bodies in practice, so we put Da Da in there and he looked really good. I know he isn't supposed to be able to do this. I knew he wanted to play and we said, 'let's give it a shot.' For not having played in a year and a half, I thought he looked really good."
 
Cosby-Roundtree logged 5:55 and finished with two points and two rebounds.
 
"Physically I didn't feel any pain or anything like that," stated Cosby-Roundtree. "We had some guys down with the flu and I just wanted to help our team get better any way that I could. They asked me if I wanted to practice and I did. I felt good the following day. They asked me every day how I felt and every day I felt good. I've been working with our trainer Dan (Erickson) getting ice, to make sure my body was good."
 
The forward said he arose this morning with an extra jolt of energy.
 
"I was really excited," he said. "I still couldn't believe it was going to happen. I just tried to keep my head focused on the game and what we're trying to do and trying to be solid."
 
Freshman Khalil Brantley scored La Salle's first nine points to carve the margin to 18-9 with a little more than 11 minutes to go in the period.
 
The Wildcats kicked their offense into high gear over a six-minute stretch of the period, outscoring the Explorers 21-0. Three 3-pointers from senior Caleb Daniels helped ignite the run that pushed the Villanova lead to 39-9 with 4:30 to play in the period. A Brantley 3-pointer snapped the Nova run.
 
At halftime, Villanova held a 42-17 lead. It held the Explorers to 4-of-26 shooting from the field over the first 20 minutes (.154).
 
"We did a really good job defensively in the first half and it got us easy baskets," stated Wright.
 
Nova sank 5-of-9 to open the second half, including 3-pointers by Collin Gillespie and Chris Arcidiacono to build a 55-26 advantage with 15:37 to play in the second half. La Salle got its offense going and the period was much closer on the stat sheet, with Villanova outscoring the Explorers 30-29 over the final 20 minutes.
 
One indicator of Villanova's sound defense: La Salle was credited with just one assist over 40 minutes while committing 11 turnovers.
 
The story of the night was Cosby-Roundtree's return to game action in his home town of Philadelphia.
 
"It was really exciting," said Gillespie. "I've seen him in practice the last couple of weeks and he's been helping our young guys, especially the bigs, get a lot better. He's just kept a great attitude through the whole thing. We know he's wanted to play but his role had just changed but his status was the same. He was bringing a great attitude and helping our team be successful."
 
Villanova's busy week of Big Five action continues Wednesday when they return to the Palestra to face Penn at 7 p.m. before hosting Saint Joseph's next Saturday at Finneran Pavilion at noon.