Villanova’s second-half mistakes ‘snowball’ in humbling loss to No. 5 UConn

Kevin Willard has been pretty proficient when it comes to using his timeouts. The first-year Villanova coach has used them quite a few times this season to stop an opposing team’s run.

He called one 3 minutes, 27 seconds into the second half Saturday, his Wildcats trailing by 10. He called another, less than two minutes later, and another, the last one he had left in the holster, with 10:21 left on the game clock.

“I ran out of timeouts,” Willard quipped after Villanova’s 73-63 loss to No. 5 Connecticut at Xfinity Mobile Arena.

Ideas, too.

The final deficit was 10, but the Huskies led by as many as 21 inside of five minutes to play before Villanova chipped away in garbage time and put the lipstick on the pig.

It was — given the lead-up, the 20,261 sellout crowd, the six-game winning streak Villanova carried with it — the Wildcats’ worst performance of the season. When they were ran out of the gym on the road at No. 1 Michigan on Dec. 9, you chalked up a 28-point defeat to a young team still finding its way.

This time felt like more of a reality check.

Villanova is 21-6 and 12-4 in the Big East and well on its way to snapping a three-year NCAA Tournament drought. But if you were wondering if the Wildcats were in the same tier as UConn and No. 17 St. John’s, the answer to that query was delivered one beautiful UConn offensive set after another, and one Villanova turnover after another.

It was 30-27 Villanova with 4 minutes, 29 seconds until halftime. A Matt Hodge putback in transition off of one of eight first-half UConn turnovers caused Dan Hurley to call a timeout and had the rally towels waving. Unlike Willard’s later attempts at stemming the tide, this timeout was a turning point. UConn outscored Villanova, 40-16, over the next 20 minutes.

“Every once in a while you get your [expletive] kicked,” Willard said.

“Sometimes it’s just, when guys don’t have it going … or they got into us pretty well, and we missed a couple layups, missed a couple free throws … sometimes it just snowballs."

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Villanova made just 6 of its 28 shot attempts over those fateful 20 minutes and turned the ball over six times. The Wildcats shot just 40.7% on the night, including 6-for-24 (25%) from three-point range. They opened the second half trailing by just two points and proceeded to commit a few quick turnovers while also missing their first five attempts from the field.

“We were too soft in the second half to start,” said Hodge, who finished with 13 points. “They came out ready to go, and it’s been a problem a couple games now so we really have to take care of that.”

Willard referenced the slow start Villanova had to the second half against St. John’s on Jan. 17. Villanova eventually found its way back into that game, but on Saturday never cut the deficit lower than eight after UConn’s initial second-half surge. The Wildcats got beat to almost every loose ball. UConn’s rebound advantage was 37-24. The Huskies, who shot 55% from the floor and had six players with eight or more points, had nearly as many offensive rebounds (10) as Villanova did defensive rebounds (13).

The game was all but over quickly in the second half, and there weren’t enough timeouts for Willard to find a way to get his team out of it.

“It was very deflating,” Willard said. “Give them credit. They’re an older team, they kind of impose their will on you at times. The game there we did a really good job taking care of the ball.”

Willard is referencing his team’s 75-67 overtime loss at Connecticut on Jan. 24, a game the Wildcats could have one. Among the many differences this time around was Duke Brennan’s ineffectiveness. Villanova’s center had 16 points and 14 rebounds in the first meeting and was held to seven points and a season-low three rebounds Saturday night. Huskies big man Tarris Reed Jr. defended Villanova’s high post action and his pick-and-roll defense limited Brennan’s touches.

“We’ve been playing good basketball,” Willard said. “You just got to bounce back. It’s not the end of the world. That’s a good basketball team, and they’re coming off a tough loss against Creighton. I thought their defensive intensity was so much different than it was against Creighton.

“Sometimes you come off a tough home loss and you go on the road and you can really find a way.”

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Villanova won’t have the same luxury, though maybe hunkering down at home and practicing after a forecasted snow storm for much of the region will yield a bounce-back performance Wednesday night at home against Butler (7 p.m., FS1).

Tyler Perkins, who scored 10 points in the first 14 minutes of the game and finished with 15, said the Wildcats will draw on their experience from what they learned after losing to Michigan in December. They responded with an 18-point win over Pittsburgh. A similar result Wednesday night would be a confidence booster before next Saturday’s game at Madison Square Garden against a surging St. John’s team.

“We’ve been through it before,” Hodge said. “We played Michigan and got our [expletive] kicked and bounced back. We just got to stick together.”