COLUMBUS, Ohio _ Villanova came face-to-face with one of basketball's truisms Wednesday night: If you miss a large percentage of shots and your opponent makes a large percentage of shots, the result usually isn't good.
That's the way it went for the 10th-ranked Wildcats against No. 16 Ohio State in the opening 13 { minutes of their 76-51 defeat at Value City Arena in a Gavitt Tipoff Games matchup. The Buckeyes made 14 of their first 20 shots to take a 36-10 lead while the Wildcats sank only three of their first 19.
That set the tone for the night and the Cats (1-1) spent the rest of the game going for little victories here and there. For the game, they shot 30% from the field as compared to 58.3% for the Buckeyes (3-0).
The Villanova defense spent much of the first half trying to locate, mostly unsuccessfully, the Ohio State shooters. The Buckeyes made six straight shots in the opening three minutes. In fact, at the first television timeout, they were on a 170-point pace.
But after going down by 27 points with 2:26 left, Villanova went on a 9-0 run to close the gap to 40-22 by halftime, holding the Buckeyes without a field goal in the final 4:39.
The deficit proved to be too much for the Wildcats to overcome, and a 4-of-21 shooting start in the second half assured that. But as coach Jay Wright said Tuesday, "This Ohio State game is going to be great for us, just get on the road, another game situation, quality opponent, and learn from it, win or lose."
