INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – No. 11 Villanova jumped out to a 17-4 lead to open the game and never looked back on its way to a 78-59 triumph over Butler in the BIG EAST regular season finale for both teams Saturday at Hinkle Fieldhouse.
 
Junior Justin Moore led five Wildcats (23-7 overall, 16-4 BIG EAST) in double figures with 16 points. The Wildcats sank 11 3-pointers on the day and held Butler to .364 shooting on the day. It also owned a 29-15 advantage in bench scoring with Caleb Daniels (11 points) and Jordan Longino (10 points) leading the way. Jermaine Samuels added 15 points and four rebounds.
 
Chuck Harris scored 19 points to lead the Bulldogs (13-18 overall, 6-14 BIG EAST).
 
"That's a good win for us against a team that's tough for us to play against," stated Villanova head coach Jay Wright, whose team was already locked into the No. 2 seed at the BIG EAST Tournament presented by Jeep. "They're similar to us in style of play and that always gives us trouble.
 
"We played well, They're banged up. Not having (Jair) Bolden is big for them. He also hurts us. And we're getting healthy. Justin Moore and Collin Gillespie both had two days of practice this week. We hadn't had that since they each got hurt (in early February. We were a lot more connected today having had these guys in practice this week."
 
The game was scoreless for nearly three minutes before a Jermaine Samuels 3-pointer got the Wildcats on the scoreboard. Samuels added a driving bucket shortly thereafter and a Caleb Daniels 3-pointer gave Nova an 8-3 lead over the Bulldogs five minutes into the first half.
 
The Wildcats extended that lead to 17-4 after a Justin Moore 3-pointer from the left wing. At that juncture Villanova had limited the Bulldogs to 1-of-9 shooting from the field through the first 7:50 of the first half.
 
When Longino sank 3-pointers on consecutive possessions, it became a 20-1 Wildcats' run. The run ended when Butler's Bo Hodges drained a 3-pointer to make it a 23-7 VU lead near the halfway point of the first half.
 
The Bulldogs began to get their offense going in the final minutes of the period but the 'Cats were efficient too. That allowed Villanova to claim a 38-24 lead at halftime. Samuels set the scoring pace for VU with 11 first half points while Moore added nine points. The Wildcats were 15-of-30 from the floor in the period (.500) while limiting the Bulldogs to a 10-of-29 clip (.345).
 
Moore dropped in five points in the first five minutes of the second half. When Longino dropped in a driving score the Wildcats were up 50-30 after seven minutes of action. A pair of Chris Arcidiacono free throws made it a 54-32 advantage as the under 12 official timeout in the second half.
 
Villanova used 3-pointers on consecutive possessions from Brandon Slater and Collin Gillespie to push their advantage to 60-32 at the 9:32 mark of the second half.
 
"People take away 3's from us and Butler does a good job of that," stated Wright. "The ability of Jermaine and Brandon to get into the lane and score is important to us. They're a big part of what we do with their ability to get to the rim. It's not just getting to the rim, it's making the right decisions when they get there.
 
"I thought Jermaine was incredible today."
 
The Wildcats made extensive use of their bench in the final minutes. Freshman forward Nnanna Njoku was not with the team here due to a death in the family.
 
The final count was 78-59.
 
"We really got some good minutes from Arch and Jordan," noted Wright. "It's the culmination of them working hard in practice. Coming into this game we knew we needed depth because they like to play fast here. We needed them today and they delivered. I was really proud of them."
 
The Wildcats portion of the BIG EAST Tournament bracket was set later on Saturday afternoon. Villanova will meet the winner of Wednesday's opening round matchup between No. 7 seed St. John's and No. 10 seed DePaul on Thursday at 7 p.m. at Madison Square Garden.