PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- The big star of the little West Coast Conference team was unstoppable. The little star of the Big East conference team was ice cold. And the result Saturday afternoon was that 10th-seeded St. Mary's knocked off second-seeded Villanova 75-68 in a second-round NCAA tournament game and became the first team to reach this year's Sweet 16.Omar Samhan, the 6-foot-11 St. Mary's center, scored 32 points, and Mickey McConnell's banked-in 3-pointer with 1:15 left in the game broke a 65-65 tie and propelled the Gaels into next week's South Region semifinals in Houston. Villanova senior guard Scottie Reynolds endured another brutal shooting day and couldn't help the Wildcats make good on a spirited second-half comeback attempt.
As Reynolds struggled badly with his shooting and Samhan dominated inside, St. Mary's roared out to an early lead and was ahead 38-31 at halftime. But Villanova showed improved defensive energy and intensity in the second half, hassling the Gaels better in transition and in the half-court. They still couldn't come up with an answer for Samhan, but when St. Mary's couldn't get him the ball, the Wildcats did a better job of taking advantage and producing points on the other end.
Villanova finally tied the game at 58-58 with 10:07 left when Antonio Pena converted a three-point play with a basket and a free throw, and the game was tight the rest of the way.
KEY ELEMENT
Scottie Reynolds' shooting, which was as dreadful Saturday as it had been in Thursday's first-round game. Villanova's senior guard ended his brilliant college career with a game in which he shot 2-for-11 from the field. Even a poor shooting day by Reynolds' standards could have made the difference, but a horrible one doomed the Wildcats. In the 2010 NCAA Tournament, Reynolds was 4-for-26 from the field, including 2-for-10 from three-point range.
GAME BALL GOES TO
Omar Samhan. The 6-11 senior center picked up two first-half fouls, but St. Mary's coach Randy Bennett sent him back out onto the floor anyway, and Villanova just couldn't get him in further foul trouble. It cost them. Samhan was dominating inside, imposing his physical presence under the basket and even hitting a couple of short jumpers. Every time St. Mary's needed a bucket, Samhan seemed to deliver one.
HEART GOES OUT TOMaalik Wayns. Villanova's perimeter defense was nonexistent in the first game against Robert Morris and for most of the first half Saturday. But once Wayns got into the flow, he totally transformed things, pressuring the ball the length of the court and making things difficult for the St. Mary's offense. Wayns did everything he could to will his cold-shooting teammates back into the game, and the Wildcats seemed to feed off him, showing increased intensity on defense during their second-half comeback.
WHAT'S NEXT
St. Mary's will play the winner of Saturday's Baylor-Old Dominion matchup on Friday in Houston in a Sweet 16 game in the South Regional.
Comments (Page 1 of 2)
To joseymilitary::: Hey Redneck yokall. Get back in your cabin and close the door, spare us ALL the stench inside...Its not who the best team is it's who plays the BEST...Bet we all KNOW who you voted for in the last election REDNECK...
and they were whining about not getting a 1 seed?
oh well, back to the big 5 at the palestra
This is a real stunner? Villanova has sucked for a month now. They should have never gotten out of the first round. Only fool would have thought nova was going to win this game.
Granted they havent played that well lately but St. Mary's doesnt advance without a considerable amount of help from the officials in that game. Kind of reminded me of most of the Duke games I saw this year. Dont have a horse in this race so dont label me as a Nova whiner, just unbiased observations from several Big 12 fans watching the games.
St. Mary's will run out of steam soon.
another over rated Big East team
this is not an upset. This is the West Coast kicking the east coasts ass again.
St. Mary's shouldn't even be in the tournament! Why, they're not from the ACC or Big East! How could they possibly qualify? Unfortunately, March Madness is all Eastern Hype!
It still amazes me that St. Marys is getting boardline respect after disposing of Richmond who was on the front page of USA Today Sports the day before they were defeated by SMC and even after reading some of the early articles of the Villanova game, sportswriters are acting as those this shouldn't have happened because of the cold shooting guard from Nova. George has it right. The west gets little respect and I am glad Saint Mary's put it to Nova. Maybe the writers will stay up past 10 pm ET.
Dick Vitale, what a joke! He thinks there is nothing west of the Mississippi River but Kansas & Texas! It's unfortunate that most eastern analysts are asleep when wetern teams play.
Of course, Dick Vitale is asleep when West Coast teams play. Hell, he's probably asleep when Miami plays. He's a joke.
To OU812- What's da matta homey, monkeys run out of banana gas.
St Mary's kicked a** even though there was no faith from anyone! Hell yeah go GAELS!!!!!!!!!! all i have to say is SWEET 16 BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ah! March Madness at it's finest--overall great tournament format even if your team loses.
just chill out it was a basketball game and no villanova is not over rated, they have been a good team for years, they started struggling end of season so what do you expect. For the Big East it does have a lot of very competitive teams. everyone has there own opinion though especially ted kramer haha
Two things; first it has now been proven what ever one but the sports mouths and writiers have known all year. The Big East is grossly over rated. Next, St Mary's has a very good team, and I think they will give Baylor a good game but I think Baylor will be to much for them.
....yet virtually no one from out west beat them during the regular season this year, proving my point that basically, everything out west sucks when it comes to basketball
thats stupid
Little East - So Overrated - Go Zags