NCAA Tournament: Villanova cruises past Miami to advance to Elite Eight
Villanova puts together yet another dominant performance to top Miami in the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16.
The first team to punch their ticket to the Elite Eight is the Villanova Wildcats out of the South Region.
Jay Wright’s team is on a mission, especially after failing to reach the second weekend for seven years.
They were able to accomplish that goal and more.
2-seeded Villanova beat 3-seeded Miami 92-69 on Thursday afternoon in Louisville in the first of eight Sweet 16 games. Villanova will be waiting to face the winner of Kansas-Maryland.
The Wildcats never trailed on Thursday against Miami and have played very well in each of their first three games thus far in the tournament. Villanova defeated 15-seed UNC-Asheville 86-56, then two days later defeated 7-seed Iowa by a score of 87-68.
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The Wildcats have won each game in the 2016 tournament by a minimum of 19 points and the Wildcats seem to be on a collision course.
Four of Villanova’s five starters finished in double figures with Kris Jenkins and Ryan Arcidiacono each scoring 21. Jenkins also added nine boards and four dimes and stunned the crowd by knocking down a shot from near mid-court as the shot clock was set to expire.
Senior forward Daniel Ochefu contributed 17 points and senior guard Josh Hart chipped in 14 points as the Wildcats live to play another day.
The team who was ranked number one in the country earlier in the season has quite a chip on their shoulder and looks to get back to the Final Four for the first time since 2009, which was also the last time Wright’s team reached the Elite Eight.
The Wildcats shot a blistering 62 percent from the field including a 66 percent mark from beyond the arc. Jenkins was 5-of-6 from three to account for exactly half of Villanova’s made three-pointers.
Miami will head back to school with a bit of disappointment as they now fall to 0-3 in the Sweet 16 and 0-2 in this round under Jim Larranaga.
Angel Rodriguez had a down game by his standards with just 13 points on 5-of-11 from the field to go with eight assists after a brilliant 28-point performance against Wichita State in the Round of 32. Senior guard Sheldon McClellan led all scorers on Thursday with 26 points on 8-of-12 shooting.
The other three Miami starters combined to go 8-of-14 from the field for just 16 points as Kamari Murphy and Tonye Jekiri both fouled out against Villanova.
Miami as a team shot a decent 53 percent from the field and 58 percent from three-point territory, but just couldn’t contain Villanova’s offense and could never find a chance to make a big enough run to crawl back into the game.
Miami will look to replace their pair of senior guards who had played so well all season long, but the Hurricanes shouldn’t worry too much. Larranaga has re-established a winning culture at “The U” and has surely made it a threat in the all-powerful ACC.
Miami has a tough road ahead of them with replacing McClellan and Rodriguez, but rest assured Larranaga has a way to rebuild.
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For Villanova, they will hang around to scout their next opponent, whether it be Kansas or Maryland, the Wildcats have no easy task ahead of them.