Villanova entered this week with a stranglehold on the nation's No. 1 ranking and on a five-game winning streak. For 60 minutes—first in their loss to Marquette and then the first half Sunday—it looked like the Wildcats completely lost their identity.
Then they remembered.
Donte DiVincenzo tipped in a Josh Hart miss as time expired, giving Villanova a 61-59 come-from-behind victory over 12th-ranked Virginia on Sunday. It was DiVincenzo's only basket of the game and helped propel the Wildcats to a win after they played their worst half of basketball all season.
Facing the prospect of back-to-back losses for the first time since 2012-13, Villanova trailed by nine at halftime and by as many as 13 in the second half.
The Wildcats shot just 18.2 percent in the first half and were limited to one three-pointer. ESPN's College BBall Twitter feed shared a shot chart:
Kris Jenkins and Hart combined to miss their first 14 shots and finished with 20 points between them. Jenkins missed his first six three-point attempts. The pair finished just 4-of-19 from the field.
Jeff Skversky of 6ABC offered a proper GIF reaction:
It's been a disappointing last two games for Jenkins, who was limited to two points on 0-of-7 shooting in Tuesday's loss to Marquette. Hart has scored in double figures in every game this season and had made at least half of his shots in his last three games.
Both were nonetheless able to hit clutch shots in the midst of the comeback. Hart's three with 4:02 remaining gave Villanova its first lead of the second half shortly after Jenkins hit back-to-back threes that brought the Wildcats from down seven to within one with under seven minutes remaining.
With Hart and Jenkins struggling, Villanova relied on big performances from Jalen Brunson and Mikal Bridges, who tied for a game-high 15 points. Bridges knocked down three of his four attempts from deep, and Brunson was 9-of-10 from the line.
The charity stripe saved Villanova for long stretches. The Wildcats went to the line 24 times compared to just three for Virginia.
The Cavaliers' effort was surprisingly led by freshman guard Ty Jerome. Seldom used in his first season under coach Tony Bennett, Jerome led all Cavaliers with 15 points and was their go-to scorer at times late. His shot with 17 seconds remaining tied the game back up at 59-59 after Villanova had pulled ahead on a Brunson layup.
Jerome was also responsible for half of Virginia's six three-pointers.
Sam Vecenie of Sporting News was impressed:
Isaiah Wilkins knocked down all six of his shots and grabbed eight rebounds in perhaps his best performance of the season. Andrew Ramspacher of the Daily Progress complimented Wilkins' performance:
Marial Shayok was also in double figures for the seventh time in his last eight games, finishing with 14 points.
Virginia unfortunately got little help from leading scorer London Perrantes, who was limited to four points on 2-of-11 shooting. The Cavaliers lost despite shooting 50 percent from the floor—usually well within range of victory given their defensive excellence. The lockdown defense just halted after the first 20 minutes, though, and Virginia could not keep pace on offense with Perrantes struggling.
Villanova, now 11-0 at home, will hit the road Wednesday night for a trip to Providence. Virginia hosts Virginia Tech on Wednesday night and will look to recover from blowing what could have been a signature win.
Postgame Reaction
Cavaliers coach Tony Bennett shared his thoughts after the game, per Caroline Darney of Streaking the Lawn: “We had chances. London’s three rattled in and out, Ty’s three was in and out...we played stretches of good basketball for long periods of time but just enough breakdowns to not be able to come away with a victory.”
Perrantes discussed missing a late three: “It felt good coming out of my hands, it looked good when it hit the rim. That was just kind of my night tonight.”
Villanova coach Jay Wright also shared his thoughts: “It was an unbelievable basketball game. We have so much respect for their team and their program. We were looking forward to this game, we just knew that we would be tested and we knew we were going to come out of this game learning a lot. We got a little lucky at the end, Donte made an unbelievable play, obviously not drawn up."
He said the first half can be a learning experience: "Everything in the first half, the way they guarded us, the way they executed offensively, we’re going to learn from that. We’re going to learn so much from this game. I just love playing Virginia. I think Tony is one of the best coaches ever and I think that program is outstanding.”