Villanova rolls over Georgetown, 76-63

Villanova used a spirited second half comeback to defeat Georgetown 76-63 in their Big East opener on Friday night.

The Wildcats trailed by as many as 18 points late in the first half, but still pulled off the win in D.C. anyway. Jahvon Blair knocked down a jumper to make it 50-38 in the Hoyas’ favor at the 17:28 mark. From there, Villanova went supernova, going on a 15-0 run to wrestle the lead away from the Hoyas.

The teams would trade blows for the next few minutes. Blair would give the Hoyas the lead again to the tune of 61-60 at the 5:54 mark. But from that point, ‘Nova would again go on a run. This time, the Wildcats scored 13 straight points to go up 73-61. They’d soon wrap things up, having turned the tables on Georgetown, who had dominated the first half and change.

Villanova’s second half surge was spirited by the play of Caleb Daniels and Collin Gillespie. Daniels and Gillespie each scored 12 points, and shot a combined 7-for-9 from the field and 6-for-7 from beyond the arc. Daniels didn’t miss on any of his three tries from deep, while Gillespie found iron on just one of his four tries. Cole Swider also performed well, scoring eight points and scored two of the eight 3-pointers that Villanova dropped on Georgetown in the second half.

Georgetown played a lights out first half, but just couldn’t replicate that success in the second. They shot 58.1 percent from the floor, 50 percent from 3 and 100 percent at the free throw line on their four tries. In the second half, they shot just 26.7 percent from the field, 9.1 percent from 3, going 1-for-11, and didn’t have a single FT attempt.