Big East Basketball Notebook

Big East Basketball Notebook

By Randy Rosetta
WagerWeb.com Contributing Writer

Villanova stays in Big Five play on Saturday night when it entertains Temple at the Pavillion.

The Wildcats won their second game in a row and improved to 2-0 against Big Five foes this season last Saturday when they leaned on a suffocating defensive performance to down LaSalle 64-51.

The Explorers couldn’t get their shooting touch warmed up and shot just 35.7 percent against ’Nova, including a season-low 26.7 percent (4-of-15) from 3-point territory.

That shutdown defense came in handy as the Wildcats missed all nine 3-point tries they took in the second half. Taking care of the ball also helped as Villanova committed only nine turnovers vs. LaSalle. After coughing the ball up 139 times in the first nine games, ’Nova has reduced its turnovers to 17 in the last two.

Senior Curtis Sumpter paced the Wildcats with 13 points against the Explorers, the third straight game he has led ’Nova in scoring and ninth time in 11 games. He’s averaging 19.5 points a game (second in the Big East), while fellow guard Mike Nardi is supplying 14.5 a game. Sumpter and Nardi have combined for 49 3-pointers in 115 attempts. The rest of the Villanova roster is 46-of-130.

Sumpter and Nardi are two of seven Wildcats shooting 82.4 percent or better from the foul stripe. Nardi ranks third in the league at 92 percent (23-of-25), with freshman Scottie Reynolds 10th (84.6 percent) and Sumpter 13th (81.7). Only two players have made or attempted more foul shots than Sumpter (58-of-71). Villanova is the Big East’s beat team from the line at 78.3 percent.

The ’Cats brings a nine-game Big Five winning streak into tonight, the longest in program history. Temple was the last Philly team to beat Villanova, 53-52 in 2004. The series with the Owls is deadlocked 39-39. Villanova is a 12.5-point favorite tonight on