VILLANOVA BLASTS DUKE IN SWEET 16

March 26, 2009


It is an all-Big East final in the East Regional with a ticket to the Final Four for either Pittsburgh or Villanova. The Wildcats earned their spot in the Elite 8 with a thorough beating of Duke, 77-54, at the TD Banknorth Garden in Boston.

After playing two games at 'home' in the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia, Jay Wright's club took their NCAA Tournament show on the road and buried the Blue Devils of the ACC with good ole Big East toughness and defense.

"I think kind of everything fell into place for us," said Villanova coach jay Wright following the game. "When we got a lead to start the second half, they had to press. And we made the plays."

After a defensive struggle in the first half, which saw 'Nova clinging to a 26-23 lead at the half, the Wildcats unleashed a fury on both ends of the court that quickly buried the Blue Devils, much to the delight of a well represented Wildcat crowd.

"You know, we like to call it Nova Nation, it's everywhere," Dante Cunningham said following the win. "It was great to hear everyone behind us yelling and screaming."

After Duke cut the lead to 26-25 after the break, The Wildcats went on a 23-8 run, capped to take a commanding 49-33 lead with 12:25 remaining.

The unrelenting Villanova defensive pressure limited Duke to 16-60 shooting in the game, 26.7%. Often, the Blue Devils had absolutely nothing created during a full 35-second possession and were left launching prayers just to get a shot off.

"We all knew we can score," said Scottie Reynolds, who had a game-high 16 points. "We knew we could put points on the board, but it's going to be those times where we're not going to be able to score and we have to do it on the defensive end. And I think everyone has taken pride on that and likes to come back on defense and try to get stops."

Villanova also had nine players score, all with at least four points, and in one 12-1 run that really stretched the lead and put the game away, six different Wildcats scored the 12 points.

"I think that's been the strength of our team, is really having 8 scorers," said coach Wright. "It is -- it's really fun coaching a team when you know one or two guys aren't hitting shots, you know you've got five others that can make shots and make plays. What we're starting to do now is all eight of those guys are playing consistently defensively. That's what's making us really good."

Next up for Villanova is a familiar foe, Pittsburgh. The two teams met once this season and Villanova got past the Panthers 67-57 in the closing of the Spectrum. Tune in Saturday to see if they can make it two in a row!

"We know that they're going to come out tough, we've played them before," said Cunningham, who had 14 points and 11 rebounds against Duke, of Pitt. "We won the first one, but we're not going to take them lightly."