Georgetown limited Villanova, one of the premier outside shooting teams in the nation, to 24 percent shooting from long distance Thursday, something that frustrated Wildcats head coach Kevin Willard as he credited the Hoyas’ defensive scheme for having stymied his own team in his return to the Big East tournament.
“I thought we got a lot of really good looks throughout the game,” he said. “(Georgetown) was in huge drop (coverage), so you’ve gotta take advantage of that and be able to do it. And unfortunately, (Devin Askew) had a tough night.” It was not only the struggles from the perimeter that doomed the Wildcats on this night, as Georgetown was able to attack the paint against a smaller Villanova unit.
Center Julius Halaifonua followed the example set Wednesday against DePaul by his teammate, Vincent Iwuchukwu, racking up a second straight double-double for a Hoya big man with his 21 points on 9-of-12 shooting and 10 rebounds.
“Those two first baskets definitely helped, but I think the rest of the game, I just trusted my guards to make the right play,” the New Zealander assessed. “They trusted me with the ball, and I just happened to make shots.”