PHILADELPHIA – West Virginia and Villanova met on Saturday afternoon in another Big East bruiser, as the winner was looking to improve to 7-3 in a tie for second-place with Notre Dame, with the losing team falling to the middle-of-the-pack in the rugged Big East Conference.
The Mountaineers have won six of their last seven Big East games, including a two-game winning streak over the likes of Cincinnati and Seton Hall.
WVU head coach Bob Huggins is 3-2 against Villanova during his tenure, but this game began in West Virginia’s typical back-and-forth type of contest.
WVU’s offensive struggles have been well-chronicled throughout the season without a go-to scorer. Those same offensive struggles came back to haunt the Mountaineers once again on Saturday afternoon.
Villanova then broke the game completely open less than ten minutes remaining in the contest. The Wildcats went on a thunderous 19-3 run behind ‘Nova’s 55 percent shooting from the field and 53 percent from the perimeter.
Four Wildcats tallied double-digit scoring, led by Maalik Wayns 17 points and Corey Fisher’s 16 points. Kevin Jones led WVU with 16 points, with John Flowers right behind with 15 points.
What has haunted WVU in most of their losses this season came back to bite them in a tough environment on the road against the highly-ranked Wildcats. The offense failed to show up once again in a big game as far as conference standings are concerned.
It doesn’t get any easier for West Virginia – no. 4 Pittsburgh will pay a visit to the WVU Coliseum for the Backyard Brawl on Monday night.
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