VILLANOVA, Pa. -- No. 16 Villanova was in for its toughest matchup of the young season on New Year’s Eve at the Pavilion against undefeated No. 6 Xavier.
Nobody could have predicted that one injury could play such a crucial role in the Wildcats’ 95-64 beat down in the Big East opener (see Instant Replay).
Xavier’s star freshman point guard Edmond Sumner was the victim of a nasty fall less than two and a half minutes after tip-off that would knock him out of the game and knock the rest of the Musketeers off their game.
Sumner went up for an unbalanced layup in transition with Villanova’s Kris Jenkins trailing on defense. What goes up must come down, and when Sumner fell awkwardly to the floor, Jenkins fell too right on top of him. The Pavilion was silent for several minutes as Sumner was taken off the court on a stretcher.
“He kind of drives their engine, and overall we pray for him that he’s OK,” Villanova head coach Jay Wright said. “When he went down, that was scary.”
After the game, Xavier head coach Chris Mack said Sumner’s long-term outlook looked good but had no information on how long his point guard would be out. Sumner came into the game averaging 11.7 points and 3.3 assists, but he also has a largely intangible impact on the team, acting as the quarterback of the Musketeers’ offense and anchoring their perimeter defense.
“Edmond Sumner is a huge part of our team,” Mack said. “It was very, very tough for us to overcome his loss in the game and to have it weighing on our minds.
“That was the scariest thing I’ve ever been a part of. I just did my best. I didn’t know if the kid was paralyzed or couldn’t breathe.”
After Sumner’s exit, the Wildcats went on a 32-12 burst over the next nine minutes to build a 19-point lead. That lead would balloon to as many as 21 points before halftime, helped in large part by Villanova point guard Ryan Arcidiacono scoring 17 of his game-high 27 points in the first half and hitting his first five three-point attempts.
“We started well, even when Edmond was in there, with our pressure,” Wright said. “But you take out their starting point guard and the pressure works very well.
“I don’t want to take anything away from our guys — we got a great effort from all them — but Edmond is a big, big part of their team. Playing in an environment like that without your starting point guard, I think a lot of us would be in the same situation.”
With Villanova knocking off Xavier, there now remains three undefeated teams in the country — Oklahoma, Southern Methodist and South Carolina. Even with the Wildcats winning the first battle of Big East titans this season, Wright was hesitant to name his team the league favorite.
“I think it’s too early to say who the team to beat in the Big East is,” Wright said. “I think we all can say this league is really good.
“These guys are good. I don’t want to B.S. anybody, but if you take Arch off our team, and we’re playing in a tough environment especially when we’ve prepared and thought we had them, it would make a big difference in the game.”
The Wildcats (11-2, 1-0 Big East) live and die from beyond the arc, and on Thursday they thrived. Villanova hit 13 of its 25 attempts from deep, and Arcidiacono hit more than half of them with seven. The senior also dished out eight assists. With freshman Jalen Brunson battling the stomach flu to the point he needed to go to the hospital for an I.V. before the game, Arcidiacono knew he needed to step up in his roommate’s place.
“I just wanted to come out aggressive and make plays for everyone, not just myself,” Arcidiacono said. “After I hit a couple [threes], I took a couple crazy ones, but I think we settled down and as a team played well offensively and defensively.”
Villanova also got 15 points in the second half from Josh Hart, who scored the team’s first 13 points out of the locker room. Daniel Ochefu tallied a double-double with 12 points and 10 boards, while also handing out five assists and helping the Wildcats to a 38-16 advantage in the paint.
Xavier struggled to find consistency on offense with Sumner out. The Musketeers shot 39 percent from the field, while Villanova countered with 63 percent shooting. Trevon Bluiett, who came in leading the team in scoring at 14.7 points per game, finished with 11 points. And perhaps the biggest area a point guard impacts is turnovers — Xavier finished with 19.
“We knew that Villanova’s defense is tremendous,” Mack said. “They pressure the ball. We lose arguably our best playmaker, a guy who has the ability to create shots for his teammates, and with the emotions there … we weren’t able to overcome it.”