Villanova finds ways to turn game ugly, come out on top

Sometimes ugly is beautiful.

At least it was for Villanova on Saturday night in defeating Kansas 64-59 to earn the school’s fifth trip to the Final Four and a date next week with Oklahoma.

“We wanted to make it an ugly game, a street fight,” said Ryan Arcidiacono, a senior guard who celebrated the victory on his 22nd birthday. “We accomplished that.”

Sure did.

KU’s 59 points didn’t come close to its 81.9 season average. Few of the Jayhawks’ points came without clawing and scratching.

And none had to feel it more than KU senior forward Perry Ellis, who scored a season-low four points after making 1 of 5 field goals.

“As soon as we knew we’d be playing Kansas,” Villanova forward Daniel Ochefu said, “we knew we had to be ready for him. He’s a special player.

“It was a total team effort. We were aware of him all the time and kept a body around him.”

Even when beefy forward Kris Jenkins spent a long stretch on the bench in the second half with his fourth foul, the Wildcats kept Ellis locked down.

“Defense usually decides games,” Arcidiacono said. “You have to play defense with a lot of heart. That’s what we do.”

Villanova’s heart didn’t fade when top-seed KU made a run at the second-seeded Wildcats. An 11-2 spurt put the Jayhawks up 40-36 with just under 13 minutes left.

But Villanova answered with a 10-point run of its own for a 50-45 edge with just under 8 minutes remaining. Not surprisingly the birthday boy had half of those 10 points.

“Ryan was always there doing what we needed most at the right time,” said Villanova junior Josh Hart. “We expect that out of him.”

In a balanced attack, Arcidiacono joined Hart and Jenkins in leading the Wildcats with 13 points apiece. Ochefu added 10.

Villanova had raced through the first three NCAA Tournament games with sizzling three-point shooting, making 53 percent (33 of 62). But that wasn’t the Wildcats’ game Saturday night.

While they hit a couple of back-to-back three-pointers late in a key spurt, they finished with 4-of-18 shooting from downtown.

Saturday’s saving point was Villanova’s free-throw shooting, hitting 18 of 19 from the line. The Cats made all eight from the line in the final 33 seconds.

But that wasn’t anything new. Villanova came into the game having hit 77.9 percent of its free throws to rank second nationally.

The game followed very much the same format of the last time the two teams met – two years ago in a tournament in the Bahamas when Villanova won in a strikingly similar score, 63-59.

“That was a street fight then,” said Arcidiacono, “and that’s what we expected again. That’s what we got.”

Villanova coach Jay Wright also expected such a tussle.

“That Kansas team is a championship team, a team of national championship caliber,” he said. “They made all the right plays at the end, fouled the right guy – until we made a steal at the end.”

That was a steal by Mikal Bridges with four seconds left and Villanova leading 62-59.

What else but free throws – two by freshman Jalen Brunson a second later – sealed it up.

“Amazing,” said Ochefu. “Just amazing. We did it.”

This story was originally published March 26, 2016 at 11:23 PM with the headline "Villanova finds ways to turn game ugly, come out on top."