NCAA News Wire
Villanova 77, VCU 53
Jeff Hawkins is an award-winning sportswriter with more than four decades in the industry (print and digital media). A freelance writer/stay-at-home dad since 2008, Hawkins started his career with newspaper stints in Michigan, North Carolina, Florida, Upstate New York and Illinois, where he earned the 2004 APSE first-place award for column writing (under 40,000 circulation). As a beat writer, he covered NASCAR Winston Cup events at NHIS (1999-2003), the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks (2003-06) and the NFL's Carolina Panthers (2011-12). Hawkins penned four youth sports books, including a Michael Jordan biography. Hawkins' main hobbies include mountain bike riding, 5k trail runs at the Whitewater Center in Charlotte, N.C., and live music.
All posts by Jeff HawkinsUpdated15 Oct 2021
BROOKLYN, N.Y. — VCU prides itself on wreaking havoc, but it was the Villanova Wildcats who played a helter-skelter brand of basketball in the semifinals of the Progressive Legends Classic Monday at the Barclays Center.
Villanova used a massive second-half blitz to turn back VCU 77-53
The loss was the worst for VCU since a 71-51 decision to George Mason on February 5th, 2011.
Forward Jay Vaughn Pinkston led No. 12 Villanova (4-0) with 15 points, guard Darrun Hilliard scored 14 points and forward Kris Jenkins had 13. Guard Josh Hart scored 10 points of the bench.
No. 14 VCU (3-1) was paced by guard Melvin Johnson and Briante Weber, who scored 13 points each.
The Wildcats play the winner of the Michigan-Oregon game in Tuesday’s final.
The Wildcats shut down one of the country’s best offensive teams. VCU was averaging 92.7 points until they were stymied by Villanova’s man-to-man approach.
Coach Jay Wright’s team turned VCU’s high-scoring backcourt tandem into non-factors. Senior Treveon Graham and Johnson were averaging 18 points apiece for the Rams, but ended the night with four and 13 points, respectively.
VCU opened the second half with a 6-0 run to move ahead 36-32, then the Wildcats went on a 16-0 burst to re-take the lead 48-36 with just under four minutes gone in the half.
Hilliard and Kris Jenkins contributed five points apiece in the run. The Rams couldn’t recover.
NOTES: This was the eighth game VCU played at the Barclays Center, the host of the Atlantic 10 Conference Tournament. … The Rams scored 85 or more points in each of their first three games for only the second time in school history. … The Rams have led the country in steals per game for three straight seasons. … Villanova was a unanimous selection to finish first in Big East Conference in the preseason voting by the coaches.
