Villanova returns to competition after a 27-day hiatus, slips past Seton Hall, 76-74

For long stretches of Tuesday night’s return to competition by Villanova, it didn’t appear as if the Wildcats had been away from game action for 27 days.

However, down the stretch, the third-ranked Wildcats appeared to be running out of gas against Seton Hall, a product of their inactivity from two COVID-related pauses since their last game on Dec. 23 at Marquette.

Still, Villanova found a way to survive. Cole Swider hit the go-ahead free throw with 1.9 seconds to play and the Wildcats escaped with a 76-74 victory over the Pirates at Finneran Pavilion, their seventh consecutive win.

It was quite the endurance test. The Wildcats (9-1, 4-0 Big East) led by nine points with just over 7 minutes to play but managed to score just four points in the final 3 minutes, 22 seconds. The game was tied at 72 and at 74 and appeared ready to go into overtime after the Hall’s Shavar Reynolds missed a three-point try with 5 seconds remaining.

“I think they did wear us down a little bit at the end,” Villanova coach Jay Wright said. “If this game would have gone into overtime, we probably would have been in a lot of trouble.”

But in the scramble for the rebound after Reynolds’ miss, officials detected a foul against Takai Molson on Swider. Swider, who was 0-for-2 from the line in his first nine games, missed the first free throw but, after a Seton Hall timeout, drained the second.

Sandro Mamukelashvili then couldn’t handle the full-court inbounds pass as the ball went through his hands and sailed out of bounds. Jeremiah Robinson-Earl sank one of two free throws for the final margin, and Mamukelashvili missed an off-balance three at the buzzer.

Mamukelashvili led the Pirates (9-6, 6-3) with 23 points.

Afterward, after Wright said he “didn’t have any expectations” and that it was “great to get a win,” he put his coach’s hat on.

“One of the things that we pride ourselves in is doing the little things,” he said. “We made a lot of little mistakes, a lot of them Seton Hall exploited and were very smart about. But we definitely weren’t digging in and grinding it out at the end. I think we were more surviving at the end.”

Collin Gillespie led the Wildcats with 22 points, but the most courageous effort of the night came from fellow senior Jermaine Samuels, who was cleared to play Monday after testing positive for the coronavirus, which led in part to the Cats’ most recent pause in team activities.

Samuels scored 20 points and pulled down a team-high nine rebounds. He shot 7 of 11 from the field and hit all three of his three-point tries.

“I am truly amazed at Jermaine Samuels,” Wright said. “He literally practiced one day, couldn’t practice until [Monday]. To be able to come out and play like that is incredible.”

“As soon as I found out I was cleared, I was extremely excited to take the floor and just go out there and contribute in any way I could,” Samuels said. “Just to be back and contribute was important to me. Then going into the game, my mindset was just to contribute and play Villanova basketball, try to set the tone as best I could, and lead by example.”

Samuels’ follow-up basket gave Villanova its largest lead at 61-52 with 7:21 to play, and he followed that with a three-pointer. His jumper from just inside the three-point line with 3:22 remaining gave his team a 72-66 lead, but that would be the Wildcats’ last field goal.

Still, they found a way to a victory in their return to action.