After losing to St. John’s, Villanova to face another hot opponent in Georgetown
After losing 70-59 to St. John's, the Wildcats face another team on a roll. The Hoyas are 2-0 since coming off a three-week pause and defeated No. 15 Creighton on Wednesday night.
While St. John’s made Villanova appear pretty dreadful a few nights ago, it was Georgetown that actually rolled up the largest deficit faced by the Wildcats this season.
The Hoyas led by 18 points in the first half of their Dec. 11 meeting at home before the Cats rallied to win, 76-63. ‘Nova’s task Sunday at Finneran Pavilion is to make sure the re-energized Hoyas don’t put on a display like that for 40 minutes.
The Wildcats (11-2, 6-1 Big East), whose No. 3 ranking will likely drop a few rungs when the new AP poll is announced Monday, are trying to bounce back from their worst performance of the season in a 70-59 loss to the Red Storm. They set season lows for points, field-goal percentage and three-point shooting, and a season high with 17 turnovers.
» READ MORE: Villanova wasn't the only major team to suffer an upset this week
The Hoyas (5-8, 3-5) of coach Patrick Ewing have recovered from a poor start and enter the Finn on a two-game winning streak that followed a three-week pause resulting from positive coronavirus tests in their program. They caught everyone’s attention Wednesday night with an 86-79 victory at No. 15 Creighton.
“Their last two games have been like how they played the first half against us,” ‘Nova coach Jay Wright said Saturday after practice.
“I think Georgetown showed in that first half what they were capable of, and then in the last couple of games, they’ve gotten to play together for a while. I think they’re playing as well as anybody in the conference right now.”
In that Dec. 11 meeting, the Hoyas shot 58%, including 6-of-12 from three-point range in the first half before tailing off significantly. The Wildcats capitalized, outscoring their opponent, 48-17, in the final 22 ½ minutes.
Georgetown’s shooting accuracy stayed consistent the entire game against Creighton -- 50% from the floor, including 47.6% from distance with 10 threes. Senior Jahvon Blair led the way with five threes and 22 points, and leads the Hoyas in scoring at 17.6 points per game.
Rebounding is Georgetown’s strength. The Hoyas outrebound opponents by almost six boards per game. Jamorko Pickett leads the Big East in that department with 8.4 rebounds per game, and 6-foot-11 Qudus Wahab is fourth at 7.8.
Wright said the Wildcats have had two good days of practice to wipe out the bad memories of the St. John’s contest. The toughest night was experienced by senior leader Collin Gillespie, who committed six turnovers and scored four points on 2-of-12 shooting, with no three-point baskets in eight attempts.
Gillespie said the Wildcats did not follow their habits.
“We kind of lost sight of that a little bit in that game,” he said. “We got up and down with them. We just lost some of our habits, some of our concepts, and that’s what we need to get back. We got back to practice, worked all the little things, all the details.”
» READ MORE: 'Old soul' Jeremiah Robinson-Earl consistently excels in his own box for Villanova
Jeremiah Robinson-Earl leads the Cats in scoring (15.4 ppg) and rebounding (7.4 rpg). Gillespie averages 14.6 points and his six assists Wednesday night moved him up to third in the Big East at 4.8 assists per game.