By Zack Cziryak
The ghosts of Villanova past came to haunt the Seton Hall Pirates in an 80-54 drubbing on Super Bowl Sunday.
The Wildcats (13-11, 6-7) led by as many as 29 and saw four players reach double-digit scoring, including Eric Dixon with 18 and Brendan Hausen with 17 off the bench while Seton Hall (15-9, 8-5) was led by Al-Amir Dawes’ 14 points and 12 from Kadary Richmond.
Richmond, who exited the game with his second foul at the 13:38 mark of the first half, notched a 5-0 run himself with a floater and three-pointer after returning at the under 8 timeout to cut the Nova lead to its smallest since the onset of the game at 18-16. The Pirates would immediately give up a jumper and a Dixon corner three-pointer off an in-bound play, extending the Nova lead to 23-16.
Minutes later and down 28-21, Hall center Jaden Bediako, who was battling the flu, would have a shot stuffed into the rim for a jump ball that would head Nova’s way in time for the under 4-minute timeout. The ensuing possession would see Dixon knock down another three against a zone defense and Hausen follow it up with his own to extend the lead to 34-21 before heading into the break 39-24.
The second half was never close as the Wildcats at one point nearly doubled the lead from the half in front of nearly 14,000 fans at the Wells Fargo Center in South Philadelphia.
Villanova shot 53.6% from the field, including 46.7% from beyond the arc, where they finished 14-30, compared to Seton Hall’s 40% and 30%, respectively. The Wildcats also turned the ball over just 8 times to the Pirates’ 15, converting those into 19 points off turnovers. The Hall was also outrebounded 29-26 and were outscored in the paint 20-18.
The Hall, which fell into a tie for third place in the Big East with Creighton, returns home Wednesday night for the return game against Xavier in Newark, N.J. Xavier defeated the Pirates 74-54 in Cincinnati last month.
