ViILLANOVA, Pa– Villanova basketball may have finallty found the additional scorer it was loooking for in the wake of Justin Moore’s absence following achilles surgery.
Wing guard Jordan Longino, a 6-5 guard from Germantown Academy, had a breakout game, scoring 13 points on 5 for 5 shooting as the Wildcats defeated St. John’s 78-63, last night in their Big East opener before a sellout crowd at the Finn.
Longino had been penciled in as a starter in pre-season, but suffered a series of nagging injuries that slowed him down as the Cats got off to a disappointing 2-5 start.
But his re-emergence, along with that of freshman guard Mark Armstrong, who had eight points and five rebounds, has given the 7-5 Cats balanced scoring and a suddenly solld eight man rotation, making them part of the NCAA conversation again.
“There were times in pre-season when Jordan was healthy when he looked like he could be one of our best players,” Villanova coach Kyle Neptune said. “But then he was hobbled by injured. He’s gotten some time off recently.. We’ve got to continue to manage him. When he’s right, he’s one of the more talented players on our team in in this league.”
Junior center Eric Dixon led Villanova with 18 points and six rebounds. Fifth year senior Brandon Slater had 16 and fifth year senior guard Caleb Daniels added 13 as the Cats limited St. John’s to 27 of 75 shooting (.360). Freshman forward Cam Whitmore contributed 8 points and 10 rebounds.
“That was a great team win,” Neptune said. “St. Johnb’s is an extremely tough team to play against. They play a lot of different defenses and keep coming at you. I was really proud of how poised our guys played, especially in the back half of the first half into the second half.”
The Cats overcame early game jitters against a transition oriented Mike Anderson-coached St. John’s team that had won 11 of its first 12 games with an uptempo open floor style and full court pressure, pllaying the same 40 minutes of Hell his teams did at Missouri and Arkansas.
“there is nothing you can practice how they play,” Neptune said. “We don’t play like that and we don’t have those type of guys. The style takes you a second to feel it. We’ve got young guys whove never played that type of style. It took us a minute to get comfortable and under what they were doing. They at definitely a reason we stopped turning the ball over.”
To Villanova’s credit, the Cats never panicked, adjusting to the pressure, The veteran players provided a calming effort as Villanvoa rallied from a 29-18 defict to outscore the Storm 17-2 in the final six minutes take a 35-31 lead as the Storm missed 14 of its last 16 shots in the half. “We really rely on Eric and Slate, Chris (Arcidiancono) and Caleb to be that calming presence. That’s always the best way to go, leaning on the veterans.”
The Cats clamped down defensively in the second half, forcing St. John’s into an uncomfortable halfcourt offense and limiting the Red Storm, who got 17 points and 13 rebounds from 6-11 center Joel Soriano– to 12 for 37 shooting and 1 for 11 from the three. Villanova jetted to a 62-45 lead, — making 10 of 14 shots at one point– then coasted to the finish.
This was the Cats’ best performance to date.
