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#8 Villanova 74, St. John's 67 - The Wildcats and the Red Storm traded leads in the first half, and not that silly one or two points here and there kind of trading. A Ryan Arcidiacono three pointer gave Nova a six point lead at 12-6 before Phil Greene IV gave St. John's a five point lead at 18-13 with just less than 10 minutes remaining in the half. VU would eventually wipe out that lead, but the Red Storm took a two point lead into the half.
The next twelve minutes featured nine ties as neither team could gain separation. Finally Villanova put together an 8-0 run with three different players scoring to take control of the game. Two free throws from D`Angelo Harrison pulled SJU within four points with 47 seconds left before Josh Hart hit a free throw, made a steal, and converted the layup to push the lead back to seven to finish the game off for Nova.
The two teams combined to shoot 7-27 behind the three point arc. Villanova had four scorers in double digits led by 14 from Hart off the bench. Harrison had a game high 22 to lead the Red Storm. You can check out VU Hoops and Rumble In The Garden for more on this one.
Georgetown 70, Butler 67 (OT) - Welp. Butler falls to 0-4 in league play. They travel to Creighton on Tuesday night before hosting Marquette on Saturday.
As far as the game goes, I guess it's an upside for Butler that they got the game to overtime after going down 11-3 to start the game. The Bulldogs finally wiped out that lead with a pair of free throws from Andrew Chrabascz with 3:19 remaining. Butler would eventually build a three point lead, giving Markel Starks a chance to tie the game up and force overtime. It almost didn't work out that way, as Starks buried his three pointer with 14 seconds remaining, giving Butler one final chance to win, but Kameron Woods' last second try didn't fall.
Starks would go on to score five of the Hoyas' 10 points in the extra time, as the Hoyas had to find a way to play with Nate Lubick, Mikael Hopkins, and Moses Ayegba on the bench with five fouls, plus a broken nose for Lubick. Butler had one last chance to tie the game at the end of overtime when they ran the famous Valparaiso/Bryce Drew hook and ladder play, but Kellen Dunham's three pointer bounced away.
D`Vauntes Smith-Rivera had 18 points to lead Georgetown, while Dunham had a game high 21 points in a losing effort. Head over to Casual Hoya to dig into this game.