Villanova Tripped Up By Cincinnati, 82-78

Filed under Game Recap on January 14th, 2012

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On January 14th on the road, the Wildcats lost to the Bearcats, 82-78, in conference action.

Maalik Wayns led the Wildcats scoring with a big 39 points on 54% shooting in 38 minutes, 18 of those points coming from three-point range. Wayns also led both teams with 13 rebounds. Wayns had a remarkable game, his team-high scoring total easily surpassed his 17.8 point season average.

A couple facts played into this pairing. The Wildcats are usually not very good on the road, and the Bearcats were hot, having won 4 out of their last 5. Last season, Villanova won 72-61. In the last four years of the series, the Wildcats are now 3-2 with a record of 1-2 at Fifth Third Arena.

Cincinnati controlled the game by dominating turnover margin and also maintaining a statistical advantage in assists.

Assists were a factor for Cincinnati, with 16 compared to 13 for Villanova. The Bearcats were more aggressive on defense, with 17 takeaways compared to three for the Wildcats. The area where Villanova really struggled was steals, with only 1 for this game against a season average of 4.9.

Nova Players Mins Pts Reb Ast Stl Blk TO A+ Maalik Wayns 38 39 13 6 0 0 2 B+ Dominic Cheek 34 19 3 2 1 0 3 B- Mouphtaou Yarou 32 9 11 0 0 1 6 B- J. Pinkston 31 6 5 3 0 0 1 C Markus Kennedy 17 2 2 0 0 0 0 C- James Bell 14 0 4 0 0 0 1 D+ Achraf Yacoubou 29 3 3 1 0 0 3 - Ty Johnson 5 0 0 1 0 0 0

Cinci Players Mins Pts Reb Ast Stl Blk TO A+ Yancy Gates 34 16 9 3 1 0 0 A Dion Dixon 34 22 3 3 1 0 0 A Cashmere Wright 36 11 6 5 6 0 2 B+ Justin Jackson 26 8 3 3 2 2 0 B- Sean Kilpatrick 32 14 2 0 0 0 1 B- JaQuon Parker 17 7 0 1 0 1 0 C+ Jeremiah Davis 13 4 2 1 0 0 0 - Cheikh Mbodji 8 0 1 0 0 2 0

The Wildcats now find themselves at 8-10. They fall to 1-5 and 15th place in the Big East.

Next on the schedule is Seton Hall at home on January 18th.

• The Wildcats have lost 83% of the time this season (2-10) after shooting a field goal percentage of 43.9% or worse.
• Villanova has lost 80% of the time this season (1-4) after recording 1 or fewer blocks.
• Villanova set season lows for blocks and steals.
• The last time Villanova started the season 8-10 was 1997.
• Maalik Wayns had a career high with 6 three pointers, 13 rebounds, 39 points, 12 defensive rebounds, and 12 field goals made.

• This was the 1st foul out of the season for Yancy Gates.
• Cashmere Wright set a career high with 6 steals.
• The top two scorers (Dion Dixon and Yancy Gates) accounted for 46.3% of the points.
• This marks the 6th 20-point game of Dion Dixon's career.
• The Bearcats won this one, but have lost 3 times this season in games decided by 5 or fewer points. Since 2006, Cincinnati has lost 23 close games.

Check out the complete Games Notes

Tags: Maalik Wayns