Villanova heading to the Final Four

The Villanova Wildcats pulled out a win over top seeded Pitt, 78-76, on a Scottie Reynolds drive from half court that gave the Wildcats the lead with less than a second on the game clock. The Wildcats secured their spot in the Final Four for the first time since their dream run in 1985 after Pitt's Levance Fields missed a shot from 65-feet away. Fields shot was on target but bounced hard off the back board, sealing Villanova's win.

The game was the most exciting of the tournament, with 15 lead changes, six of them in the last six minutes of play. With both teams playing hard, Villanova responded to Pitt's physical play by making 22 of 23 free throws. However, Villanova almost gave the game away with eight seconds left when Reggie Redding attempted a full court pass to Dante Cunningham. The questionable play led to a Wildcats turnover and Fields making two free throws to tie the score at 76 with five seconds left.

However, Scottie Reynolds would not allow the game to slip away and quickly sealed the game for 'Nova with his last second drive, giving him 15 points for the game. In addition, Dwayne Anderson led the Wildcats with 17 points and Dante Cunningham contributed 14 points. Pitt's Sam Young led all scorers with 28 points and DeJuan Blair tossed in 20 points in the lose. The Panther's are the first No. 1 seed to be eliminated from the tournament so far this year.

Villanova will play the winner of today's North Carolina-Oklahoma South Regional final in next weekend's Final Four in Detroit.

For highlights of the Nova-Pitt game, check out the Sports Shorts video on the Philly Sports Post home page.

Wildcats Dominate - Advance to Sweet 16

Villanova dominated their game against UCLA on Saturday as they advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament, following an 89-69 drubbing of the Bruins.

Villanova began the game on fire and were more aggressive and physical than their sixth ranked opponent throughout the entire game. Two days after their sub par performance against American University, Villanova did what they said they needed to do; they put together a complete game and played aggressive for 40 minutes. The Wildcats led by 13 at halftime and never looked back. Dante Cunningham led the Wildcats with 18 points and helped lead them to their fourth Sweet 16 appearance in five years. The Wildcats, who shot 47% from the field, also dominated on defense, forcing 20 turnovers and grabbing 39 rebounds.

Who Gives a Hoot? Owls Done in One

The Temple Owls came up short in their bid to move past round 1 of the NCAA tournament, falling to Arizona State, 66-57. Temple, who backed into the tournament, was eliminated in the first round of the tournament for the second year in a row.


Temple was able to hold Arizona State's Pac-10 Player of the Year, James Harden, to only nine points but were unable to slow the rest of the Sun Devils down, who shot 51.3% from the field; compared to the Owls poor 37.3 team shooting percentage.
Temple senior Dionte Christmas led all scorers with 29 points, but that was just not enough to help the 11th seeded Owls upset the 6th seeded Sun Devils. The Owls have not won an NCAA tournament game since 2001.

Wildcats defeat upset-minded Americans

The Villanova Wildcats managed to erase a second half, 14-point deficit and defeated American University 80-67. Despite Nova's slow start and the Eagles early success from 3-point range, the Wildcats were able to outlast their 14th ranked opponent to advance to the 2nd round of the NCAA Tournament.

American University appeared to open the game much looser than the 3rd seeded Wildcats and used 8 of 15 shooting from 3-point range in the first half to take a ten point lead into halftime. However, it was not to be for AU. After going down by 14 early in the second half, Villanova tightened up their defense and slowly took control of the game. American led by 12 with a little over eleven minutes to play in the game but 'Nova continued to battle and it became clear that American was slowly wearing out. The Wildcats received 25-point performances from Dwayne Anderson and Dante Cunningham and in the end were able to outlast the Eagles and advance past the first round of the tournament for the fourth time in five years. Villanova will play 6th seeded, UCLA on Saturday in an attempt to advance to the Sweet 16.