Big East Basketball: Butler completes the sweep of Villanova
The Villanova Wildcats now have three losses for the entire season, with two of them coming against the Butler Bulldogs in Big East basketball play.
Coming off the bench has done absolute wonders for Butler’s Kelan Martin, and he came up huge against Villanova on Wednesday night. Martin finished the game shooting 7-for-11 from the field to add 22 monster points.
Entering the game, Villanova was rolling on a 48-game winning streak at home, and their seniors had never lost a game in the Pavilion. Yet, that changed when Butler came to town.
With this win, the Bulldogs went to 10-5 in the conference and prevented Villanova from clinching the outright conference title in the regular season. Villanova has to win just one more game in order to take the title, so it is very likely, but it is delayed for the time being.
Butler used a great night shooting from the floor (50.9%), including 10-for-25 from three to take the victory. In addition to Kelan Martin, both Avery Woodson (13 points) and Kamar Baldwin (15 points) scored in double figures. Then, in typical fashion, Andrew Chrabascz had a great all-around game, scoring four points while snagging seven rebounds and dishing out eight assists.
Jalen Brunson had yet another great game, leading the Wildcats with 24 points on 9-for-13 shooting. Over the past three games, Brunson is averaging 21.3 points on a total of 20-for-28 from the field, a remarkably good stretch. Josh Hart also dropped in 18 points, but it was not enough.
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With just over 10 minutes to play in the second half, Villanova opened up a seven-point lead and looked like they were going to pull away for a victory in front of their home crowd. But then, the Bulldogs retaliated with an incredible 18-0 run, behind the heroics of Kelan Martin, who scored nine points during the run.
In terms of Bracketology, this game has a much larger impact for Butler. The Bulldogs were already a four seed in Monday’s projected field, and this win will bring them much closer to the three line.
The Bulldogs finish with Xavier on the road and then Seton Hall at home. The team is already on three-game winning streak and if they can extend it to five, then they will likely be on the three line before the Big East Tournament begins.
As for Villanova, they will stay on the one line, despite the loss. It is very possible that they will remain the #1 overall seed, but it will be hard to argue against a team like Gonzaga for that position – even with their low strength of schedule. Moving forward, both of these teams are in excellent shape for the NCAA Tournament as the two top teams in the Big East.
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It is very difficult to defeat Villanova once in a season, but now the Butler Bulldogs represent 2/3 of Villanova’s total losses this year, a remarkable feat from a remarkable team in Butler.