By PAUL GOTHAM
BROOKLYN — Ryan Arcidiacono scored 14 points and handed out four assists, but his lone offensive rebound triggered a decisive run as the No. 2 seed Villanova Wildcats defeated No. 15-seed UNC-Asheville Bulldogs, 86-56 in the first round of NCAA Tournament action at Barclays Center Friday afternoon.
The senior point guard chased down his errant three-point attempt and reset the offense. Three passes later, Mikal Bridges connected from the left corner with a catch-and-shoot three pointer. It was the first of four triples over the remaining 3:15 of the first half as the Wildcats went into the locker room on a 12-2 run and turned a four-point game into a double-digit affair.
“They are really aggressive on it and you can’t be very passive,” Arcidiacono said of UNC-Asheville’s zone defense. “You have to attack it look for your open shots.
“It was definitely important to us. We were just catching and shooting, being aggressive against their zone.”
It was the first of two triples on the day for Bridges.
“If it wasn’t for Arch being on that rebound, I wouldn’t have had that shot,” Bridges said. “Arch took a good shot. Just sticking with what we do, he went and got the offensive rebound. The extra pass got to me. If you’re that guy, you gotta make a play. I thought I was open and I just shot it.”
One possession later, Arcidiacono connected from long range before setting up Jalen Brunson with his own triple on the next trip. Arcidiacono closed the stanza with another trey as the buzzer sounded.
“We were able to get in the lane and take out for a couple open threes,” Arcidiacono added. “Just ran a good play at the end of the half that we run every single day with like 4.9 seconds.”
After going almost 12 minutes between 3-pointers, the Wildcats hit 7-of-17 (41.2) from long range in the first 20 minutes against an Asheville defense leading the nation holding opposing shooters to 28.4 percent from behind the arc.
Villanova head coach Jay Wright pointed to the role Daniel Ochefu played in the Villanova offense.
“They were doing what they do,” Wright said UNC-Asheville. “They were guarding us one-on-one in the inside and taking away the threes. But when Daniel got it going, they had to come after Daniel.
“In their conference… they can guard guys one-on-one inside, and they can get out on three-point shooting. They started on him early. They did a good job on him early, and we weren’t really hitting threes.”
Ochefu scored 12 of his game-high 17 points in the second half. The 6-11 senior finished a barrage of jump hooks in the lane against the overmatched Bulldogs.
“I was just trying to be aggressive, doing what my teammates expected me to do,” Ochefu said. “Their defensive plan was kind of tripping me up in the first half mentally, and I was making some of the wrong decisions. So Coach got on me in the locker room in the huddles and responded and made the adjustments that we needed to — kicking the ball out to shooters like Ryan, Josh, guys cutting, and scoring when I couldn’t.”
With Arcidiacono, Josh Hart and Ochefu collecting four assists apiece, the Wildcats finished with 21 helpers on 33 field goals.
“They really do a fantastic job of sharing the basketball,” Asheville coach Nick McDevitt said. “You look at 21 assists on 33 made baskets. That’s a great percentage. So any time a team shares the ball like that and can spread you out by the way they shoot it and good enough to put the ball on the deck and get by you, it makes them difficult to defend. Certainly, again, hats off to them.”
Ochefu posted a double-double with a game-high 10 rebounds.
Bridges and Kris Jenkins scored 12 apiece. Brunson chipped in with 10.
Dylan Smith led UNC-Asheville with 14. The freshman knocked down one of his four 3-pointers on the day to pull the Bulldogs within two at 24-22.
Villanova moves on to play No. 7-seed Iowa on Sunday.
Leave a Reply