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Don't look now, but due to a 10-3 Bucknell run to end the half, the Villanova Wildcats only lead by seven over visiting Bucknell Bison. Here are a couple of notes after the first half.
-The 'Cats continue to struggle from 3-point range. So far, Nova is shooting only 1-12 from beyond the arc, and the 'Cats have missed their past 11. Against this lower level competition, the Wildcats can get away with shooting that badly from outside, but good luck with that against a team like VCU.
-Villanova did a good job forcing Bucknell to get in early foul trouble as a team ('Cats were in the bonus with 8:28 left in the half). They did a relatively goof job of converting from the line as well, shooting 10-15 from the charity stripe.
-Ryan Arcidiacono had easily one of his best offensive halves since his freshman season. Instead of working as a distributor, like he did in his sophomore season, he showed a lot of scoring prowess. He has a team-leading nine points already and is shooting 50 percent from the field.
-Once again the defense has been the savior for the 'Cats. So far, Villanova has forced Bucknell into shooting 11-30 from the field and 13 turnovers, which have resulted in 12 points. For a team that's struggling in some offensive facets (3-point shooting specifically), defense obviously becomes that much more important.
-To improve the defense even more, the Wildcats need to get the ball out of Chris Hass' hands. In the first half he had half of the Bison points. Specifically they have to stop him from getting to the line, where's he done most of his damage, going 6-7 from the line.