Villanova, Outplayed for Most of Game, Edges St. Joe

The talent on the floor last night at the Pavilion won't be confused with North Carolina-Duke, but Villanova and St. Joseph's played a great Big 5 game last night. St. Joe's outplayed Nova most of the way, leading by 9 deep into the second half with excellent outside shooting from Darrin Govens and the usual strong inside presence of Ahmad Nivins. Dante Cunningham had another solid effort for the home team and Reggie Redding hit several key shots down the stretch, but Scottie Reynolds was the offensive leader throughout the game, something he was not against Texas at Madison Square Garden.

St. Joseph's played a near-perfect 30 plus minutes. They slowed the game down on offense using at least 30 seconds of the clock but were still able to get high percentage shots frequently yielding three-pointers by Govens. But you had the sense that Nova was going to be around at the end and they were as St. Joe's began turning the ball over, something they had avoided in the first half. Ball handling looks like it's going to be an issue for St. Joseph's throughout the year.

It's also apparent that after Reynolds and Cunningham, Villanova's points are going to be hard to come by. They are going to have to depend on one or two of their role players to step up from game to game. To succeed in the brutal Big East this season, this team is going to have to overachieve.