MILWAUKEE -- After battling through injury for a good portion of his senior season at Villanova, Daniel Ochefu appears to be rounding into form.
That’s good news for a Wildcats team with plans of a deep run in the NCAA Tournament.
With 18 points and 12 rebounds in No. 1 Villanova’s 89-79 win over Marquette on Saturday (see game recap), Ochefu recorded his first double-double since returning from an injury suffered in January.
“He’s been grinding for us and working really hard to get back to the form he was before he got injured,” Villanova junior forward Kris Jenkins said. “He’s getting back there.”
Ochefu was averaging 13.8 points and 10.0 rebounds over his previous five games before suffering a bruised tailbone after a dunk in the second half of Villanova’s 83-68 victory over Marquette on Jan. 13.
While he played in Villanova’s next three games, he averaged just 6.3 points and 6.0 rebounds.
Ochefu then suffered a concussion in practice that forced him to miss Villanova’s 68-53 victory over St. John’s on Jan. 31.
“Daniel was rolling,” Villanova coach Jay Wright said. “He was playing great then he got hurt in the (first) Marquette game. Since that game, he had a tough time coming back from that injury. He had the flu, then a concussion.
“We're just getting him going again and we need to use him. He's a force.”
Against Marquette, Villanova relied heavily on the pick and roll between point guard Ryan Arcidiacono and Ochefu.
“It's a big part of what we do so if it's working, we stick with it,” Wright said. “If it's not, we go away, but we always come back to it because him and (Arcidiacono) are our two seniors and we always try to get those guys involved as our decision-makers. It worked well for us today.”
The Golden Eagles have hedged against the pick and roll most of the season, especially against teams with solid guard play.
Marquette again focused on taking away the guards against Villanova, which afforded Ochefu space to finish inside. When Marquette big men Luke Fischer or Henry Ellenson collapsed on him inside, Ochefu passed to an open teammate.
"Ochefu's a really good player,” Marquette coach Steve Wojciechowski said. “He's a veteran, strong player. Because they surround him with four guys who are deadly open shooters, it's very hard to bring help so what you end up doing is having to play him one on one and that's difficult for anyone."
With Fischer in foul trouble for most of the second half, Villanova shot 57.7 percent from the field and 41.2 percent from beyond the arc in one of its finer offensive performances of the season.
“They were doing a good job of taking away our three-point guys,” Ochefu said. “Our guards were finding me inside. Then when they collapsed we were open for threes.”
Ochefu scored a career-high 25 points against St. John’s on Feb. 13 and 16 points against Temple on Feb. 17, but the senior hadn’t reached the double-digit rebound plateau since his concussion.
After battling foul trouble in each of Villanova’s last two games, Ochefu recorded his seventh double-double of the season during Saturday’s victory and his first since Jan. 6.
“I thought it was good that I was getting back on the glass like that,” Ochefu said. “I thought my defense could have been a lot better. My teammates kept finding me in good spots for easy, quick buckets.”