BUFFALO — How fitting that with a trip to Madison Square Garden at stake, two former Big East rivals slugged it out for the right to advance in the NCAA Tournament.
Connecticut has forsaken the Big East for something called the American Athletic Conference, but the Huskies continue to play a brand of ball that hearkens back to the days of coach Jim Calhoun and players Ray Allen, Emeka Okafor and yes, Kemba Walker, who hasn’t been cloned, but does have a modern-day replica in Shabazz Napier.
As a senior filling the role so many UConn studs did before him, Napier scored 21 of his 25 points in the second half as the Huskies showed who was boss with a 77-65 victory over Villanova at First Niagara Center.
The Huskies (28-8) had been banned from tournament play in 2013 for low Academic Progress Rate scores within the program. The Huskies, on Thursday night, gave second-year coach Kevin Ollie his first NCAA Tournament victory, edging St. Joseph’s in overtime. Now Ollie gets to go where Calhoun regularly took UConn. That the East Regional moves on to the Garden should be a great benefit to UConn, the No. 7 seed, a team that knows its way around winning in New York.
The Huskies will play the winner of Sunday’s matchup between North Carolina and Iowa State.
“At UConn we call the Garden our second home,’’ guard Ryan Boatright said, “because when we get to the Garden we take care of business.’’
As the No. 2 seed, Villanova (29-5) saw its brilliant season cut short. The undersized Wildcats could not overcome shaky offense that relied too heavily on long-range shooting. They hoisted up 31 3-point attempts, made just 11 and ended up shooting 35 percent from the floor.
Ryan Arcidiacono led the Wildcats with 18 points and James Bell, in his last game for Villanova, scored 14.
Napier hit three 3-pointers in a furious flurry to expand the UConn lead before leaving with 4:01 remaining. He grabbed his lower right leg and limped off the court with his team leading 56-49. His replacement, freshman Terrance Samuel of Brooklyn, made two free throws and Napier returned with 3:24 to play.
A minute later, Napier showed he was just fine, hitting the accelerator and banking in a spinning reverse layup to make it 60-51. After Napier found Samuel (11 points) inside for an easy basket, it was 62-53 and Villanova had run out of time.
Napier said he got an accidental knee to the lower leg from Villanova’s Darrun Hilliard.
“The pain was just excruciating,’’ Napier said.
Napier got his 25 points in only 25 minutes, as he was in foul trouble in the first half and limited to eight minutes. The Huskies didn’t fold without their best player, using a 14-1 run to take a 25-24 lead into halftime. Villanova failed to score on 15 consecutive possessions.
“That was probably the story of the game,’’ Villanova coach Jay Wright said. “Their defense and that period when Napier hit those three deep 3s. Napier was just awesome.’’