MBB Minute – Providence, Villanova Take Tuesday Road Wins
Providence and Villanova captured hotly-contested road victories on Tuesday while delivering the first home losses of the season to Marquette and Creighton, respectively.
The Friars are the first team to 3-0 in the BIG EAST after an 81-80 overtime win at Marquette. Reserves Maliek White, Nate Watson and A.J. Reeves outscored the PC starters. White scored a team-high 19 points. Watson had 13 points while Reeves added 10 points, including a 3-pointer with four seconds left in regulation that forced overtime. MU’s Markus Howard poured in a game-high 39 points. Brendan Bailey contributed 19 points and eight rebounds.
Villanova, which lost at Marquette on Saturday, rallied from a 14-point deficit to win 64-59 at Creighton. Collin Gillespie led the Wildcats with 24 points on 8-of-10 shooting and seven rebounds. He committed only one turnover in 39 minutes. Villanova (11-3, 2-1) had only five turnovers for the game. Christian Bishop had team highs of 16 points and nine rebounds for the Bluejays (12-4, 1-2).
Wednesday’s schedule features another doubleheader on FS1. At 6:30 p.m. ET, St. John’s visits Georgetown followed by Seton Hall at Xavier at 8:30 p.m.
St. John’s and Georgetown, meeting for the 114th time, are both looking for their first BIG EAST wins after 0-2 starts. The Johnnies want to shoot better from 3-point range than the 1-of-16 performance in Sunday’s loss at Xavier. They are taking care of the ball, ranking fourth nationally in turnover margin at +6.1. The Hoyas’ Omer Yurtseven ranks fourth in the league in scoring (17.3) and third in rebounding (9.8). He is the only player ranked in the top five in both categories.
Seton Hall will be aiming to match Providence at 3-0 in the league standings. The Pirates (10-4), ranked 25th this week by USA Today, have a four-game winning streak. A win would give the Hall its fourth 4-0 start in league history. The Musketeers (12-3) are 9-0 this season at the Cintas Center and have won 13 straight at home dating to last season. In last year’s meetings, the road team won each time. The Pirates prevailed 80-70 in last year’s matchup at Cintas Center.
Home teams are 7-5 in league games going into Wednesday.