This night belonged to nearly perfect Villanova; one more night to go
HOUSTON — The game’s final minute ticked away quickly and slowly at the same time.
A stoic Jay Wright stood at the far corner of the court and glanced down at his bench, letting his gaze fall on his starters, who’d been pulled a few minutes earlier.
Ryan Arcidiacono and Josh Hart looked at each other, ecstatic but also puzzled.
“We didn’t believe it, either,” Hart said later.
No one could have predicted a 95-51 final score, the most lopsided game in Final Four history. No one thought this Villanova team could play nearly perfect in its biggest game of the season to date.
Villanova dominates Buddy Hield, Oklahoma 95-51, roars into title game
But the Wildcats did, and an even bigger game now awaits: Monday’s national championship game against North Carolina.
If they can play like they did against Oklahoma on Saturday, they might be unbeatable.
Villanova shot 71.4% from the field, the second-best shooting performance of any team in Final Four history; the best, of course, was Villanova against Georgetown in the 1985 title game, a performance many consider the Perfect Game.
The Wildcats also shot 61.1% from beyond the arc to boot. And while both those offensive numbers are staggering, it was the Villanova defense that both set the tone for the game and secured the victory. The Wildcats picked pockets, stealing the ball 12 times from the Sooners, who ultimately turned the ball over 17 times — which led to 31 Wildcat points. Villanova outscored Oklahoma in the paint, on the break and off the bench.
“It was a phenomenal game on both ends of the floor,” Villanova assistant coach Ashley Howard told USA TODAY Sports. “We always say when we have games where we get stops and shoot the ball well, we can have games like this. It was almost a perfect storm for us.”
Asked when he knew Villanova’s game plan entering Saturday’s contest would work, Howard smiled.
Armour: Villanova clearly got Jay Wright's message, Wildcats stay focused to the end
“When the horn went off,” he said, laughing. “(But really,) once we got it up to 25 in the second half, and I saw that our guys were still really dialed in.”
Wright said he felt good at halftime, and felt that his players were focused. At that point, too, he felt confident in the way they had switched and helped on Buddy Hield, Oklahoma’s star shooter and one of the best players in the country. He’d only scored seven points and shot 3-for-8 from the field in the first half.
“I didn't think it was ours at that point, but I felt good that what we decided to do was working,” Wright said. “I told the team at halftime, ‘All right, they're going to come back and make a run,’ which they did at the start of the second half. About three minutes to go (in the game), (associate head coach) Baker Dunleavy said, ‘Do you want to put the walk-ons in?’ I said no.
“I wasn't even sure at that point to be honest. When you're in it, you're not thinking clearly about that, about the game being over. You're thinking about next play, substitutions. Probably everyone else knew (the game was over) earlier than I did.”
Bad ending to great career for Oklahoma's Buddy Hield
Hield finished with nine points, his second-lowest output of the season. Only one Oklahoma player — Jordan Woodard — reached double-digits; he had 12 points. The Sooners shot 31.7% as a team, 15 percentage points lower than their season average.
The night, quite simply, belonged to ‘Nova.
“It was just one of those games that could happen to anybody,” Wright said. “I feel bad for Oklahoma that it happened to them in the Final Four. But I'm happy we had one of those games where we just make every shot. We had end-of-shot-clock shots we just threw up and went in. …
“We'll try to continue to be dialed in and try to get one more on Monday night.”
