By John McMullen
Philadelphia, PA (The Phanatic Magazine) - For whatever reason, Villanova wasn't ready to play when it took the floor against a senior-laden American University team in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday at the
Wachovia Center.
The 14th-seeded Eagles lacked depth, however, and the No. 3 Wildcats were able to use pressure in the second half to overcome a 14-point deficit and stave off elimination.
A sequel against sixth-seeded UCLA would likely have resulted in a drastically different outcome. Instead, Jay Wright's club raced out of the blocks and dismantled the Bruins, 89-69.
Senior forward Dante Cunningham led a balanced attack with 18 points and 10
rebounds for the Wildcats (28-7), who earned a trip to the Sweet 16 for the fourth time in five seasons, and snapped UCLA's imposing streak of three consecutive Final Four appearances.
Villanova will now face Duke in Boston's TD Banknorth Garden on March 26 for a spot in the Elite Eight.
Philly native Reggie Redding and Corey Fisher each added 13 points for the Wildcats, who put up the most points against UCLA (26-9) this season and also handed the Bruins their worst defeat of the year. Before Saturday's contest, UCLA's worst game was in Arizona, an 84-72 setback. Redding also added a career-high seven assists in the game
"That's a great team," Fisher said. "We came out and played hard and got the win."
Corey Stokes contributed 12 points, Scottie Reynolds 11 and Dwayne Anderson 10 points and 11 boards for 'Nova, which dominated inside, outscoring UCLA 46-20 in the paint.
"As the game went on more, we noticed driving the ball seemed to be working for us a little bit," Cunningham said.
These Bruins weren't in the same class of coach Ben Howland's three previous teams that all reached the Final Four. Players like Kevin Love, Arron Afflalo, Russell Westbrook and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute are now safely tucked away in the pros but there is something about those uniforms.
The 11 national championships, the 18 Final Four appearances and all those big wins over the years. The Bruins' hard fought triumph over VCU in the first round on Thursday gave the program an unbelievable 99-35 mark in the tourney, second in all-time winning percentage to Duke. Meanwhile, a win against Villanova would have made UCLA just the second school to reach the century mark, joining Kentucky.
John Wooden's legendary teams, featuring the likes of Lew Alcindor, Bill Walton, Sidney Wicks and ex-Sixer Henry Bibby, compiled most of those gaudy numbers. But, this new era of Bruins under Howland's direction have been pretty impressive also. The aforementioned three straight final four appearances is certainly the crown jewel of the program but Howland's 14-4 record in the tourney coming in was nothing to sneeze at.
This latest group of Bruins is a defensive minded unit led by a trio of seniors that were shooting for the remarkable fourth straight appearance in the Final Four, guard Nick Collison, forward Josh Shipp and center Alfred Aboya.
Aboya, a Cameroon native that joined Collison on the Pac-10 All Defensive Team and also was named to FOXSports.com's national All-Defensive team, picked up his second foul less than three minutes into the game and that seemed to open things up for the inside-outside game of the Wildcats. Meanwhile, it was Villanova that was playing the tenacious defense.
"We played great," Stokes said. "Our defense opened up our offense."
Consecutive threes, by Stokes and Redding, highlighted a 19-2 run and ignited the partisan crowd of 19,894 as the Wildcats led 28-11 with 10:45 remaining in the half.
UCLA seemed to finally get a break when Cunningham picked up his second foul but 'Nova was able to keep the Bruins at arm's length for the rest of the stanza.
Shipp started pressing a little bit late in the half and did manage to convert a conventional three-point play to cap the scoring in the frame with the Bruins trailing 44-31.
Villanova was extremely unselfish in the half with Anderson, Redding and Fisher all recording seven points. Cunningham, Reynolds and Stokes had six points apiece for the 'Cats. Shipp had 13 of UCLA's 31 points in the frame.
Despite the veteran presence, the Bruins didn't have a push in them for the second half. In fact, Villanova just kept pulling away. Fisher's floating jumper, 3 1/2 minutes into the frame, gave the Wildcats their first 20-plus point cushion, 56-35.
Eventually, Villanova would lead by as many as 25 points, 78-53, after Cunningham deposited a lay-up with just over six minutes to go.
Even Villanova junior guard Jason Colenda, who played all of 20 minutes during the regular season, got into the act with a pair of free throws to put the stamp on the rout for the 'Cats.
"I think our guys really were just aggressive for 40 minutes," Wright said, "That was really good defense and we played it for 40 minutes. We've had leads at halftime where we didn't come out as aggressively so playing it for 40 minutes was important."
Shipp finished with 18 points but didn't record a rebound in 31 minutes of action for UCLA. Collison donated 15 points and Serbian sharp-shooter Nikola Dragovic netted 11 points.
"They did a great job today," Shipp said. "They outplayed us, out-toughed us and out-hustled us. They did a great job jumping out on us , kept the pressure on and maintained their lead."
In the second game of the day, UConn continued to look a cut above everyone else that played in Philly when A.J. Price scored 27 points and dished out eight assists to help the Huskies cruise by Texas A&M, 92-66.
Jeff Adrien had 23 points and eight boards while Stanley Robinson added 12 points and five rebounds for UConn (29-4), which welcomed back coach Jim Calhoun on the bench.
Calhoun was hospitalized on Thursday for dehydration and released early Friday morning. He missed UConn's tourney opener, a 103-47 drubbing of Chattanooga on Thursday. Associate coach George Blaney guided the team in the first-round game.
Connecticut, the top seed in the West Region, will move on to face Purdue.
Bryan Davis had 12 points and nine rebounds, while Donald Sloan contributed 12 points for the ninth-seeded Aggies (24-10), who were unable to build on their first-round victory over BYU.
Cat Droppings:
'Nova is in the NCAA tourney for the fifth straight year, the second longest streak in school history. VU chalked up seven consecutive appearances under Rollie Massimino from 1980-86, a run that included the 1985 NCAA title...The Wildcats are now 9-4 in the tourney under Wright. Three of Wright's losses came to the eventual national champions, North Carolina (2005), Florida (2006) and Kansas (2008)...Villanova and UCLA are 2-2 in their all-time series. This
was the second NCAA Tournament game between the two schools. In the 1971 championship game, the Bruins topped 'Nova 68-62 in Houston. Members of the '71 team were in attendance to support the Wildcats.
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