Villanova spurns thoughts of an upset, recovers to beat Mount St. Mary's

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BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The thought crept into his mind.

Jay Wright admits it.

When his top-ranked and top-seeded Villanova Wildcats fell behind No. 16 seed Mount St. Mary's by eight points early in their NCAA Tournament first-round game, he couldn't help it.

A No. 16 has never beaten a No. 1 seed.

And the way his Wildcats were playing early, No. 1 seeds' 129-0 record in the first round looked like it was in jeopardy.

"It's in the back of your mind," Wright said. "It hits you for a second, 'This could be one of those games.' You've got to go knock it out and concentrate on the next play. But I'd be lying if I said it didn't pop up."

Villanova trailed by eight early and still trailed early in the second half before finally rolling to a 76-56 win over scrappy Mount St. Mary's, which opened the season 1-11 and had to win a First Four game in Dayton on Tuesday just to reach the field of 64 (see Instant Replay).

Freshman sixth man Donte DiVincenzo sparked a 21-4 run early in the second half to turn a one-point deficit into a 16-point lead, and the Wildcats rolled from there, building the lead as big as 24 late in the game.

And 129-0 is now 130-0.

Villanova, defending national champs, advanced to a Round of 32 game Saturday against Wisconsin, which beat Virginia Tech later Thursday night. That matchup is set for 2:40 p.m. on CBS.

"These teams are going to be prepared to play us," said DiVincenzo, who scored 15 of his 21 points in the second half and added a career-high 13 rebounds.

"Nobody's scared of us because we're an overall No. 1 seed. Nobody's nervous, and we have to keep that in mind. We know we have a target on our back as the overall No. 1 seed."

Villanova improved to 32-3 and 129-16 over the last four years -- the 10th-most wins in a four-year span in NCAA Division I history.

Mount St. Mary's, which has never won an NCAA Tournament game and lost its first three by an average of 36 points, dropped to 20-16 but not before scaring the Wildcats.

"Mount St. Mary's is a great team," Jalen Brunson said. "We knew going into the game that they have the ability to play the way they did. I mean, they came out shooting the ball, sharing the ball and just playing with great energy. You’ve got to give them credit. We just have to come out and play harder."

Brunson made 7 of 11 shots for 14 points to go with five rebounds and three assists, Mikal Bridges added 13 points, Josh Hart overcame early foul trouble to contribute 11 and Eric Paschall came off the bench to score 10.

After shooting 40 percent in the first half and 11 percent from three, the Wildcats shot 63 percent in the second half and 63 percent from deep.

"We knew we just had to play better," Hart said. "Mount St. Mary's is very talented, very well-coached, but we had to execute better. We didn't go out and set a tone and that's on us, the three seniors.

"We weren't looking ahead. Not at all. We respected them. We knew we weren't going to come in here and just walk into a 'W'. You've got to give them credit. They played their butt off."

In a game in which Villanova's three seniors -- Hart, Kris Jenkins and Darryl Reynolds combined to score just 18 points -- 'Nova's freshmen and sophomores scored 58 points, out-scoring Mount St. Mary's by themselves. 

But what really turned this game was energy. Once Villanova was able to match Mount St. Mary's energy, it was no contest.

"They came out with a lot of energy and they made shots and we really tried to stick to our attitude and eventually we fought back," DiVincenzo said. "But we didn't come out ready to play Villanova basketball."

How does the No. 1 team in the country get outworked and out-hustled in an NCAA Tournament game?

"This is our 35th game, and I didn't think we were capable of that," Wright said. "I thought we were capable of coming out and missing some shots, coming out and making some mistakes.

"But the level of energy we started the game with, I just didn't think we were capable of that. I'm in a little bit of shock myself.

"We tried to have our guys ready. That's on me, too. We didn't. I honestly don't have an answer.

"The beauty of the tournament is, if this was the [regular] season, I'd say, 'All right, we've got to address this right now.' I've got to say we've got to forget about it and we've got to get ready for [next] game."

Hart, Villanova's National Player of the Year candidate, was at a loss to explain the slow start.

"There's nothing we can pinpoint," he said. "We can't say, 'Oh, we have to do this, we have to do that.' We just have to play Villanova basketball from the start, and we didn't do that today."

After trailing 10-2, Villanova outscored the Mountaineers 70-38 over the next 32 minutes.

The Wildcats didn't lead until 1½ minutes left in the first half and didn't take the lead for good until half a minute into the second half. 

They know that if they're going to keep winning, they'll have to play 40 minutes.

"We have to come out with energy from the start," Bridges said. "If we don't play with energy, every team out there can beat us, no matter what they're seeded, and we have to understand that."

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