MBB Minute – Villanova, Providence Score Sunday Victories
Villanova and Providence picked up victories on Sunday while Marquette lost to Maryland in the championship game of the Orlando Invitational.
Villanova started its Philadelphia Big 5 play with an 83-72 win over La Salle at Finneran Pavilion. Freshman Justin Moore, who had been starting, came off the bench and tallied a game-high 25 points and made five steals. Saddiq Bey added 19 points and 10 rebounds.
Providence won its final game at the Wooden Legacy, an 80-77 decision against Pepperdine. Nate Watson and A.J. Reeves each scored 15 points. Alpha Diallo finished with 13 points and nine rebounds. For the three games, David Duke led the Friars in scoring with a 13.7 average.
Marquette’s Markus Howard was limited to six points in the loss to Maryland after he had already set the tournament scoring record in only two games with 91 points in the first two rounds. Against Maryland, forward Brendan Bailey broke out with a career-high 27 points. Sacar Anim added 21 points.
Some more about Howard’s scoring exploits: In BIG EAST history, a player has scored 50 or more points only four times. Howard has three of those performances. The other 50-point game was by Providence’s MarShon Brooks, who had 52 points versus Notre Dame on Feb. 23, 2011. Additionally, Howard also owns three of the five 50-point games by active NCAA D-1 players. He is the only Division I player in the past 20 seasons with multiple 50-point games.
All 10 BIG EAST teams are idle on Monday. League squads are a combined 58-18 (.763) going into Tuesday’s games.
On Tuesday, Butler puts its unbeaten record (7-0) on the line at Mississippi. The SEC Network will carry the game at 7 p.m. ET. FS1 will telecast a doubleheader that starts with Saint Peter’s at St. John’s at Carnesecca Arena at 6:30 p.m. followed by Creighton hosting Oral Roberts at 8:30 p.m.