Guards Win it For Villanova, Again
PISCATAWAY, N.J. – In college basketball, if you have one good guard you are fortunate. If you have an abundance of good guards, then count your blessings.
Villanova’s guards helped them pull away from a scrappy Rutgers squad in overtime on Wednesday, surviving with an 84-78 victory. That brings their record to 11-1, (2-1) in the Big East. The Scarlet Knights dropped to 11-4 with the loss, 1-1 in the Big East.
Kyle Lowry, the sophomore guard scored a career-high 28 points while dishing out 5 assists. Randy Foye added 24, while Allan Ray chipped in with 17.
Early on, it looked as if it would be a Randy Foye-Quincy Douby battle. Douby scored the first five points of the game on a layup and a deep three from the wing over Ray. Foye would answer back with a strong drive in the lane, giving the Wildcats their first bucket of the game.
The Wildcats applied a 1-2-2 half-court trap that seemed to bother Rutgers early on. The Scarlet Knights were forced into two turnovers early that both led to fast breaks for the Wildcats.
Foye started to warm up with a pull up three from the top of the key to give the Wildcats a 15-13 lead. He then knocked down a pretty pull-up jumper in the corner and a layup on the break to stretch the lead to six.
Douby would fire back at the end of the first half. The guard from Brooklyn scored on back-to-back layups to bring Rutgers within two at 31-29 with 4:23 left in the half. He would then knock down a three to give Rutgers the lead. Douby would hit another jumper with 1:56 to go in the half, giving the Scarlet Knights the momentum. Rutgers would go in to the locker room with a 43-38 lead.
Rutgers would try to give the game away early in the second half. The Scarlet Knights committed five turnovers in the first five minutes of the half, highlighted by a failure to get the ball past half court on its first three possessions. Villanova failed to capitalize as it scored on only two of Rutgers miscues.
Villanova’s experience, however, did start to become evident in the second half. A couple of tough shots by Ray and a three-pointer by the ultra-quick Lowry gave the Wildcats a 53-49 lead at the 12:08 mark. A big-time block by Douby on an Allan Ray jumper would swing the momentum back in Rutgers’ favor. He would score a layup on a pass from point guard Anthony Farmer, then pop another jumper to push Rutgers to a 57-53 advantage.
With the score tied at 64, Foye would hit, what was then the biggest shot of the game, a pull up three from the top of the circle while being fouled. He converted the free throw to give Villanova a four-point lead at 68-64. A three pointer by Marquis Webb brought Rutgers within one with 2:10 to play.
After two free throws by Ray, the Wildcats held a three-point lead. Rutgers set up a play where Farmer dribbled to the corner and tried to throw the ball back out top to Douby, but the Wildcats did a good job in taking the play away and left Farmer no choice but to throw it out top to 6’9 center Jimmie Inglis. Inglis fired a three-pointer from straight on off the backboard to tie the game at 70.
In the overtime period, the inevitable happened, as the Villanova guards took control of the game, spearheaded by Lowry. After two free throws by Webb, Lowry scored on a tough spinning drive to the basket, then stole the ball from Rutgers freshman J. R. Inman and fired it to Nardi. Nardi then dropped the ball off to Foye for the score. After a layup by Douby, Foye hit a tough turnaround jumper to give Villanova the lead at 76-74.
On the other end, Douby drove the lane and dropped a nifty bounce pass to Adrian Hill for a dunk to tie the game at 76. Lowry was then fouled on the other end. He missed both foul shots, but rebounded the second miss and drove the lane for a basket and the foul. He completed the three-point play, which took the air out of the Scarlet Knights once and for all.
For the Scarlet Knights, Douby finished with 28 points on 11-of-19 shooting. Inman and Webb each added 11 points with Webb tallying a game-high 7 assists.
“I don’t think we had a letdown, the veterans just took over for Villanova,” said Rutgers coach Gary Waters. “Eventually, it’s going to happen. We are going to beat rated teams in this gym.”
“We have had two games in here that were unreal,” said Villanova coach Jay Wright. “Every game is important. This is what you expect. This was good for us.”
As it was for anyone who witnessed this barn-burner, and for the Big East.
