VILLANOVA, Pa. — The excitement of Senior Night and the chance to win its seventh Big East regular-season championship in the last eight years Wednesday night made it an extra-special night at Villanova for its rematch against Creighton.
But the enthusiasm was significantly dampened with 6 minutes, 38 seconds left in the first half when Collin Gillespie, the Wildcats’ point guard and floor leader, injured his left knee in a knee-to-knee collision with the Bluejays’ Damien Jefferson.
And things looked like they were going to completely fall apart for the 10th-ranked Wildcats in the second half when their 22-point lead almost completely disappeared in a scoreless span of more than 8 minutes. But they regrouped in the final 3 minutes and defeated No. 14 Creighton, 72-60, to win the regular-season title.
The Wildcats (16-4, 11-3) were led by Justin Moore with 24 points and Jeremiah Robinson-Earl with 14 points and 14 rebounds. Mitch Ballock led Creighton (17-7, 13-6) with 14 points and Damien Jefferson added 13.
The Wildcats kept the heat on the entire first half, shooting 54.5% from the field with 13 assists on their 18 baskets. Moore hit all four of his shots, two of them from beyond the arc, and led the Cats with 10 points with Robinson-Earl adding eight points, six rebounds and four assists.
Villanova outscored Creighton 22-8 in the paint and outrebounded the visitors 22-16.
The ‘Nova margin grew to 22 points twice in the second half, the last time at 57-35 on a 3-point basket by Moore with 14:17 to play. But the Wildcats came up empty on their next 11 possessions and the Bluejays ripped off a 17-0 run, drawing to within five, 57-52, on a reverse layup by Shereef Mitchell with 6:42 remaining.
Robinson-Earl ended the Villanova drought on a layup at the 5:43 mark but Creighton got it back down to five when Ballock stole a rebound from Brandon Slater and sank a layup with 3:27 to play to get the gap back to five.
But Slater, not considered a 3-point shooter, knocked down a deep ball with just under three minutes to play and Moore followed with a conventional three-point play at the 2:07 mark. Cole Swider finished a 9-0 run with a three-point second-chance basket to give the Wildcats a 68-54 lead inside of a minute remaining.
Slater finished with 11 points, five rebounds and two steals.
Gillespie, the Wildcats’ second-leading scorer, watched much of the second half from the bench and carrying crutches. He finished with five points and two assists in 13 minutes.
The Bluejays, who sank 65% of their shots in the Feb. 13 meeting against Villanova in Omaha, Neb., connected on just 29% Wednesday night. Their starters went 6 of 22, with Marcus Zegarowski hitting 3 of 8 and scoring seven points.
Villanova turned the ball over on each of its first two possessions and Creighton raced out to a 5-0 lead, then scored two points in the next 7:54, including a span of 5:35 without a point. A run of 17-2 led by five points each from Moore and Gillespie gave the Cats a 17-7 lead with 11:29 to play in the half.
The Wildcats later scored seven straight points to boost their advantage to 16, 31-15, on Jermaine Samuels’ dunk with 5:46 to play. They scored the last two baskets of the period and led 42-23 at the half.
