Phil Booth scored 13 against Providence in the BIG EAST Quarterfinals.
Villanova's Veterans Lead Wildcats To Quarterfinal Win Over Hungry Providence
By SEAN BRENNAN
Special to BIGEAST.com
All season long there have been doubters about Villanova. Sure they were the preseason pick in the conference to be the top dogs in the BIG EAST once again this season. A season, you might remember, that began without four starters from last year’s national championship team.
The Wildcats also spent most of the season living in various locales in the Top 25 in the country, a testament not only to BIG EAST Coach of the Year Jay Wright, but to his two seniors, Eric Paschall and Phil Booth, who not only had to shoulder most of the Villanova’s heavy lifting on a game by game basis, but also play the role of mentor to a very young group of Cats.
But there was Nova Thursday afternoon, opening up their BIG EAST Tournament experience with a quarterfinal-round game against a desperate Providence team. And, yes, there were still some doubters. Providence was desperate of course, because in the words of Friars’ head coach Ed Cooley, the Friars needed to run the table in the tournament in order to secure a sixth straight trip to the NCAA Tournament. Anything less and that dream was over.
That should have made for a very dangerous opening opponent for the Wildcats, and the Friars were formidable for sure. But there’s a reason Villanova has two national titles in its back pocket in the past three seasons. There’s a reason the Wildcats have reached the BIG EAST Tournament championship game four consecutive seasons. It’s called pedigree, and Villanova showed its down the stretch as they broke open a tie game with a 17-5 run that late in the second half that was capped by a pair of free throws by Cole Swider (yes, not a name you expected, right?) to open a 12-point lead with 4:36 to play. From there the Wildcats held off the gutty Friars to post a 73-62 victory and advance to the semifinals Friday night.
Can there still be any doubters?
“I think we beat a good team. A good, physical team,” Wright said. “It wasn’t pretty, but you’ve got to be able to play ugly and win some of those games.”
As per usual, Paschall was right in the middle of things for the Wildcats. The senior posted a double-double with 20 points and 10 rebounds, but mostly what Wright wanted to talk about after the game was Paschall’s defense and Booth’s all-around savvy play.
“There’s a responsibility on Eric and Phil that is off the charts,” Wright said. “They’re our leading scorers, but we also put them on the best players (defensively). They have to defend them. (Paschall) is our leading rebounder. There’s just so much on their shoulders. We don’t feel sorry for them and they don’t either. But it’s pretty impressive.”
Booth chipped in with 13 points and Collin Gillespie added 19 points while bagging five three-pointers. All season long the Wildcats have searched for a consistent third scorer behind Paschall and Booth and if that turns out to be Gillespie, well then life just got a little bit more difficult for Villanova’s opponents both for the remainder of the BIG EAST Tournament and in the NCAA tourney as well.
But there were significant contributions from all over the Nova roster. Dhamir Cosby-Roundtree logged eight points with 10 rebounds and three steals (though he would have had double digit points if he could have finished off a couple of dunk attempts), Jermaine Samuels added eight points and seven boards and the aforementioned Swider added five points and some very solid defensive play. Enough to impress his boss, Wright.
“His length defensively was great,” Wright said. “He did a good job on the offensive glass (and) offensively he’s always a threat to score. We couldn’t have asked for anything more. He was awesome.”
That’s the thing with Villanova, even when you know what they have, even when you know who is going to come at you at a critical juncture of the game, they pull out a wildcard like Cosby-Roundtree, like Samuels or even like Swider. It hardly seems fair.
But for Paschall, it was just another day at the office. Well, make that another very successful day at the office.
“Coach tells us we have to lead by example,” Paschall said. “Talk to the younger guys and just do all the little things – playing defense, rebounding, not worrying if our shot’s going in.”
Yes, Paschall and the Wildcats certainly checked all those boxes Thursday at the Garden and now they sit just one more victory away from making a fifth straight trip to the BIG EAST Tournament championship game. If you still doubt them, take this little tidbit of advice from one who knows a thing or two about facing Nova in big games in the month of March.
“I do think they are undervalued,” Providence head coach Ed Cooley said of the Wildcats. “When you play them you run into a really physical, methodical, tough team. So for everybody who doesn’t think Villanova is still one of the elite teams in the country, wait until they play them.”