Villanova Loses To #1 Ranked Syracuse, 79-66

Filed under Game Recap on January 12th, 2012

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The Wildcats stumbled in Philadelphia on January 11th, losing to the Orange in conference action, 79-66.

A couple facts played into this matchup. Villanova was ranked much lower than Syracuse in the RPI (#109 to #1). The Wildcats are normally a strong team at home, but the Orange were coming into the game with 5 wins out of their last 5. A year ago Villanova went 1-1 against Syracuse. Over the last four years, the Wildcats have a record of 5-4. Since 1980, the Villanova record against Syracuse is 31-33.

Syracuse battled tough and came out ahead in shooting and defensive rebounding.

The Orange, shooting 44%, leaned on their defense to contain the Wildcats and limit them to 32%. Syracuse came down with many more defensive rebounds, 29 to 25, and that created more scoring opportunities.

More than two players had the high score against the Orange, each with 12 points. Yarou also contributed a game-high 12 rebounds.

SU Players Mins Pts Reb Ast Stl Blk TO A Dion Waiters 27 20 5 2 3 1 3 A J. Southerland 19 13 4 0 0 2 1 B+ B. Keita 19 2 7 0 0 2 0 B+ Scoop Jardine 21 8 2 5 1 0 2 B C.J. Fair 22 9 5 2 0 1 1 B R. Christmas 8 5 3 0 0 0 0 B Brandon Triche 22 6 5 3 0 0 2 B M. Carter-Williams 11 3 1 2 1 0 0 C+ Fabricio Melo 21 5 5 1 0 1 3 C+ Kris Joseph 30 8 3 0 1 1 1

Nova Players Mins Pts Reb Ast Stl Blk TO A Mouphtaou Yarou 26 12 12 0 0 0 0 B J. Pinkston 19 12 4 0 0 1 2 B Dominic Cheek 31 12 2 4 0 0 1 B James Bell 13 9 2 0 1 0 2 B- Darrun Hilliard 14 4 1 3 0 0 0 C+ Markus Kennedy 34 6 7 0 1 0 2 C Ty Johnson 25 8 5 2 1 0 5 C Maalik Wayns 34 3 3 3 1 0 2 - Achraf Yacoubou 3 0 0 1 0 0 0

The Wildcats now drop to 8-9. Their conference record drops to 1-4, still good enough for 14th place. They're now 0-6 against the RPI Top 50 (Syracuse #1). They've now dropped 4 of their last 5 games.

The next team up is Cincinnati on the road on January 14th.

• The top two rebounders (Mouphtaou Yarou and Markus Kennedy) accounted for 46.3% of the rebounds.
• Villanova has lost 100% of the time this season (0-4) after recording 20 or fewer free throws made.
• Villanova has lost 100% of the time this season (0-5) after recording 66 or fewer total points.
• Villanova has recorded fewer assists than their opponents for the past 5 games.
• Villanova has lost 100% of the time this season (0-5) after recording 20 or fewer field goals made.

• The bench recorded more rebounds (22) than the starters (18).
• Dion Waiters has led the team in scoring 8 times in 18 games this season.
• This marks the 2nd 20-point game of Dion Waiters's career.
• Dion Waiters has 6 straight double-digit point games.
• The top two scorers (Dion Waiters and James Southerland) accounted for 41.7% of the points.

Check out the complete Games Notes

Tags: Mouphtaou Yarou, Dominic Cheek