NEW YORK, N.Y. – The Villanova Wildcats turned a stifling defensive effort into quality offense Wednesday at the BIG EAST Tournament presented by Jeep. That combination carried them to an 80-48 victory over Georgetown (7-25 overall, 2-18 BIG EAST) before a sold out crowd of 19,812 at Madison Square Garden.
 
The 32-point margin of victory was the largest this season for Villanova (17-15 overall, 10-10 BIG EAST) which advances to meet No. 3 seed Creighton Thursday night in the BIG EAST Tournament quarterfinal.
 
Villanova never let Georgetown's offense – which scored 73 points in the last meeting between the teams' on Jan. 16 at Finneran Pavilion – get untracked. The Hoyas were just 19-of-56 from the field (.339) and 3-of-20 from beyond the 3-point arc (.150). The Wildcats owned a 43-27 margin on the glass as well.
 
Cam Whitmore, named BIG EAST Freshman of the Year earlier in the day, posted a double-double with 19 points and 10 rebounds. Senior Justin Moore scored 12 of his 13 points in the first half, helping Nova craft a 41-20 halftime lead.
 
"I thought we played really hard from the beginning tonight," stated Villanova head coach Kyle Neptune. "They didn't really score on us in the halfcourt. We got back and got stops in transition. That was something we really talked about in our gameplan. Proud of our guys' effort."
 
A pair of 3-pointers from Brandon Slater and Moore helped Villanova grab a 6-2 lead in the early going before the Hoyas responded with six straight points to grab an 8-6 edge at the first official timeout of the evening.
 
Villanova answered that flurry with a 10-0 run of its own, sparked by five points from Eric Dixon and another triple from Moore to take a 16-8 lead at the 12:35 mark of the first half. Baskets by Slater and Jordan Longino pushed it to a 14-0 run before Georgetown converted an old-fashioned 3-point play from Brandon Murray to shave the deficit to 20-11 with 9:35 left in the first half.
 
Another burst – this one 11-0 - helped Villanova extend its lead. Whitmore started the surge with a 3-pointer that was followed by two more long balls from Moore. Whitmore then drove the left side for a basket to make it 31-13 with six minutes plus to play until halftime.
 
When Brendan Hausen became the fifth Wildcat to drop in a 3-pointer with 3:54 to play in the period, the Villanova lead was 38-18. When the horn for halftime sounded, the Villanova lead over Georgetown was 41-20.
 
Moore set the first half scoring pace with 12 points. Villanova was 8-of-16 from beyond the 3-point arc (.500). Perhaps more impressive was its work on the defensive end, where it held the Hoyas to 9-of-26 shooting over the first 20 minutes (.346).
 
The Wildcats connected on just 2-of-7 attempts to open the second half but their defense would not allow the Hoyas to cut into the lead. A Mark Armstrong corner 3-pointer gave the Wildcats a 48-25 edge with 15:35 left in the second half.
 
Villanova kept the heat on the Hoyas, building a 63-37 advantage thanks to more good work from Whitmore, who connected on his first seven shots of the evening, including three from beyond the 3-point arc. There was 8:02 on the clock.
 
"We all know what kinds of players Justin Moore and Cam Whitmore are," stated Neptune. "We all know what they're capable of doing. I thought this was a great team effort. We came out and executed defensively."
 
The Wildcats ended the evening draining a season-high 15 3-pointers, one more than they dropped in at Saint Joseph's back on Dec. 17 in Philadelphia. There were 35 attempts, giving them a conversion rate of .429.
 
But at the end, all the principals pointed to the defensive end of the court as to what most drove this win.
 
"We all know we can shoot the ball," noted Moore. "We're not really worried about makes and misses. Tonight we just hit them at a higher clip. But we focus on defense. At the end, that's what got us over the hump."