Old Big East rivals faced off again on Saturday as the #7 ranked Villanova Wildcats hosted the 6-3 Syracuse Orange.
Syracuse started the game strong as they mixed in jumpers and dunks to force Jay Wright and the Wildcats to use a timeout. The infamous “Cuse Zone” forced five Villanova turnovers in the first seven minutes as the Wildcats could get nothing going.
Syracuse’s hot scoring got them out to a 25-14 lead, causing the Wildcats to use another timeout. After a Daniel Ochefu basket and steal, the Cats gained some momentum and forced the Orange to use a timeout of their own. Syracuse kept the pressure going after the timeout and went into the half leading 43-31. The Orange shot 17/27 from the floor including 4/6 from three. Nova was shut down as they were held to 12/34 shooting and only 1/8 from three.
As the second half got underway, it was more of the same from ‘Cuse as they kept the lead in double digits. Nova turned it around after back-to-back deep threes from Darrun Hilliard to spark a 10-0 run. After sloppy play from both sides, unranked Syracuse was still in the lead. After a Hilliard steal and dunk, the Wildcats cut the lead to 2 with 2:15 to play. ‘Cuse led by 5 with ten seconds left, but a Josh Hart three, steal, and a JayVaughn Pinkston layup tied the game with 4.2 seconds remaining. Syracuse had a chance at the buzzer but missed and the game went into overtime.
After Hilliard hit two free throws, the Wildcats took their first lead of the game with 4 minutes left in overtime. After a basket by Pinkston, the lead was extended to 3. With under a minute to play, Pinkston had a huge block to secure the win.
The Villanova Wildcats come from behind to beat the Syracuse Orange 82-77 to start the season 11-0. The Wildcats had three players with 20+ points (Pinkston, Hilliard, Hart) as they led the team down the stretch.
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