Villanova (29-4), looking to complete the sweep of both conference championships for the second straight year, awaited the winner of No. 2 Xavier/No. 3 Seton Hall.
Kris Jenkins led the Wildcats with 21 points, while Rodney Bullock scored a team-high 18 points for Providence.
Ryan Arcidiacono (15 points, seven rebounds, four assists) carried over his strong quarterfinal performance, scoring seven of the Wildcats’ first nine before adding a beautiful no-look assist.
The Friars relied entirely on perimeter shooting and trailed nearly the entire first half, settling for 15 of their 25 shots from outside, while Villanova kept attacking the paint, making as many passes as necessary to earn a clean look.
Providence (23-10) only trailed 32-27 at halftime, which was remarkable considering the Big East’s best 1-2 punch were packing cotton instead of concrete.
Kris Dunn (two-time Big East Player of the Year winner) and Ben Bentil (the Big East’s leading scorer) combined for four points in the first half, shooting 1-of-8 from the field and 2-of-5 from the foul line.
Jenkins put Villanova up 11 after opening the second half with a pair of 3-pointers, and soon after, the Wildcats caught a big break, with Bentil – who scored 38 points to match the second-highest scoring mark in Big East Tournament history the previous day – picking up his fourth foul just four minutes into the second half.
The Wildcats, electrified by Arciadiacono’s Derek Jeter-like dive several rows into the stands for a loose ball, soon turned a seven-point lead to 14, as Dunn (nine points, 1-of-8 from the field) failed to assert himself as an alpha dog and Bentil (three points, six rebounds) helplessly sat at the scorer’s table. Providence’s star sophomore came back with 11:47 to play, but fouled out just over two minutes later with the team trailing by 11.
The Friars fared better without their big man this time, locking down defensively and becoming more aggressively offensively to get within two, 55-53, following a Kyron Cartwright 3-pointer with 6:59 remaining.
But Providence’s momentum stalled with three turnovers, allowing Villanova to stretch the lead to nine on back-to-back layups by Daniel Ochefu.
Link : http://nypost.com/2016/03/11/villanova-silences-providence-stars-to-storm-into-big-east-final/
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