Villanova’s Gillespie questionable for Providence game with thigh injury

Villanova has picked up valuable momentum in the last two weeks, with five straight wins and its sights set on a sixth Big East regular-season championship in the seven-year history of the reconfigured conference.

But the 12th-ranked Wildcats (22-6, 11-4), one game out of first with three to play, may have to enter the homestretch beginning with Saturday’s contest against Providence (16-12, 9-6) at Wells Fargo Center without Collin Gillespie, their floor leader and arguably their most essential player.

Gillespie, the Cats’ No. 2 scorer and among the league leaders in assists and in taking care of the basketball, suffered a deep contusion in his right thigh in the second half of Wednesday night’s 71-60 victory over St. John’s and is considered as questionable for Saturday.

Villanova coach Jay Wright said Gillespie, a 6-foot-3 junior, did not practice Friday.

“It’s pretty sore,” he said. “We don’t know so we’re saying he’s questionable and we’ll see what he feels like [Saturday] morning.”

Gillespie limped off the court Wednesday night with 12 minutes, 12 seconds to play and returned a little more than 2 minutes later. But he was clearly in pain and left the game for good at the 4:43 mark.

“I just got a knee to the thigh, so right now just taking it day-by-day and getting treatment on it and trying to get prepared to play,” Gillespie said Friday. “Right now I’m just going to see how I feel. I want to be out there. I’m going to do everything I can to be out there.”

Gillespie, who starred at Archbishop Wood High School, averages 15.5 points (11th in the Big East) and 4.6 assists (fifth) per game. He boasts a 2.4 assist-to-turnover ratio (third) in all games, but that mark improves to 3.0 (second) in conference contests.

Wright said after practice he hadn’t decided on a fifth starter if Gillespie can’t go. Freshman Justin Moore and sophomore Saddiq Bey would perform much of the ballhandling duties in his absence.

Providence has been surging of late, winning three in a row to vault to fourth place in the Big East standings. Since their Jan. 25 home loss to Villanova, the Friars are 4-0 against top 25 teams, including an 84-72 victory over Marquette in their most recent game last Saturday.

Luwane Pipkins, a graduate transfer from Massachusetts, scored 24 points against Marquette and leads the conference in free-throw percentage at 90.6%. The Friars certainly have improved their shooting from last month’s ‘Nova game, when they were 3 of 23 from three and shot 31.7% overall.

“They’re always a great defensive team, great rebounding team,” Wright said. “I think they’ve just kind of found their rhythm offensively now, which just takes them to another level. They’re a lot more in sync offensively.”

The Wildcats also must show more fight on the boards. They were outrebounded, 45-32, last month and had just two offensive rebounds to 16 for the Friars, who outscored them, 19-4, on second-chance points.