PHILADELPHIA _ After grinding through two tough overtime games on the road, Villanova returned home for its Big East regular-season finale Saturday and hoped that seeing the basketball go through the basket will give its players confidence going into this week's conference tournament.
The fourth-ranked Wildcats, who had their two worst shooting Big East games in the last week, hit shots at a 57.4 percent clip and placed five players in double figures to capture a 97-73 victory over Georgetown at Wells Fargo Center.
Because of Xavier's 65-62 win over DePaul earlier in the day, the Wildcats (27-4, 14-4) saw their four-year run as regular season champions end and they will enter the Big East tournament as the No. 2 seed. Villanova will play its first tournament game at 7 p.m. Thursday.
The victory was the 413th at Villanova for head coach Jay Wright, tying him with Al Severance for the all-time lead at the school.
The Wildcats knocked down 14 3-point shots and had 25 assists on 35 field goals. Mikal Bridges led the way with 24 points, followed by Jalen Brunson with 16, Donte DiVincenzo with 15, and Omari Spellman and Eric Paschall with 13 each. Jessie Govan scored a game-high 30 points
The Wildcats shot nearly 53 percent from the field in the first half and got 14 points from Bridges for a 44-31 lead. The Hoyas were limited to 34.4 percent shooting and didn't make a 3-point basket in nine attempts. 'Nova shot better in the second half, hitting 63 percent of their attempts and keeping their margin in double digits for the entire period.
Villanova matched its largest margin at 15 when DiVincenzo sank a 3-pointer for a 59-44 lead with 13 minutes, 50 seconds left in the second half. Three-pointers by Paschall and Spellman gave the Wildcats a 69-53 lead with 9:25 remaining.
A quick 5-0 burst by Georgetown, including a 3-pointer by Jahvon Blair, brought the Hoyas to within 11 but Villanova gradually pulled away. Leading 74-62, the Cats scored 10 straight points, five of them by Bridges, to boost the lead to 84-62 with 5:47 remaining and coasted home.
After making just 1 of its first 6 shots and going down 8-2, Villanova got into the game with the aid of a 12-2 run that featured five points by Bridges. The Wildcats later hit three consecutive 3-pointers, by Spellman, Bridges and DiVincenzo, to increase their margin to 11, 26-15, with 9:46 to play.
The Hoyas cut the deficit to six, 30-24, on a basket by Govan with 7:23 left in the half but would miss their next 10 shots. The Wildcats took advantage with a 12-3 run that gave them their largest lead of the half, 42-27, following back-to-back baskets by DiVincenzo (layup) and Bridges (dunk), both off steals, with 1:27 remaining.
