NCAA Tournament: Villanova melts down late in first-round loss to Utah State

SAN DIEGO — Kevin Willard knew the blueprint.

If Villanova was going to beat Utah State and advance to the Round of 32, it was going to need to limit the ability of the Aggies’ guards to get into scoring areas and cause havoc.

Utah State goes as Mason Falslev and MJ Collins Jr. go. But stopping the duo proved easier said than done for Villanova. Falslev and Collins combined for 42 points to lift Utah State into the Round of 32 in a first-round West Regional matchup at Viejas Arena.

The Aggies advanced to face top-seeded Arizona. The Wildcats’ season ended in an 86-76 loss after a late-game collapse where the experience of Falslev and Collins, a junior and senior, showed against an inexperienced Villanova team.

» READ MORE: Virginia stops Wright State’s upset bid, earns its first NCAA Tournament win since 2019 national title

The Aggies used a critical 9-0 run to grab an 80-73 lead with just over two minutes to go. The run featured a pair of Villanova turnovers, one of them a five-second call when freshman guard Acaden Lewis failed to inbound the ball in time from the baseline in the offensive half.

On the ensuing possession, Falslev found Collins on a backdoor cut for a wide-open layup. A few possessions later, Collins picked off an errant Bryce Lindsay pass and turned it into an easy slam for an 84-74 lead.

Villanova had eight second-half turnovers after just one in the first half. Utah State outscored Villanova 15-3 over the final four minutes of the game. The Wildcats had a stretch of eight consecutive misses and were just 1-for-10 over the final six minutes.

“They just made more plays than us,” said junior guard Tyler Perkins. “They made more shots, we had some bad turnovers. They’ve been together longer than us. It’s not an excuse. They made more plays than us.”

A short-handed Villanova rotation, down power forward Matt Hodge, who would’ve helped nullify some of the struggles in the paint, ran out of steam. Perkins played 38 minutes. Lindsay and Lewis each played 37.

“I thought some of our turnovers late were a little bit of fatigue, a little bit of tiredness,” Willard said. “But you got to give their defense a little bit of credit, too. I thought they did a good job switching out in passing lanes.”

The nation’s 12th-best two-point offense by shot percentage showed why. How many guards combine for 42 points while making just one three-pointer between the two of them? Utah State needed just two three-pointers to advance. The Aggies scored at will around the rim.

“We got mixed up on switches, which I was a little shocked that there was three or four times we got mixed up on switches,” Willard said. “Especially in the second half, when we had a six-, seven-point lead.

“But, again, that’s going to happen sometimes when you’ve got freshmen and sophomores out there. It happens.”

While Falslev and Collins did the bulk of the scoring, Willard thought junior forward Karson Templin was the difference maker. Templin scored just four points and had five rebounds, but he was plus-18 in 24 minutes.

“I thought he did so many good things defensively,” Willard said. “And I thought he gave them energy that gave those other guys some driving lanes.”

» READ MORE: For Phil Martelli Jr. and Sr., an upset for the ages, and the aged

The Wildcats, whose season finishes with a 24-9 record, had plenty of chances to win. They led by 10 with 17 minutes left before going cold in crunch time.

Willard knew his team would need to make three-pointers in order to crack Utah State’s matchup zone, and Lindsay almost shot the Wildcats into the next round. He finished with 25 points and shot 6-for-11 from three-point range. Half of Villanova’s 28 makes from the field were from three-point range. The Wildcats, according to Basket Under Review, became just the second team in NCAA Tournament history to lose a game while making 14 or more three-pointers to an opponent’s two or fewer.

Perkins and Duke Brennan each scored 15 points for Villanova. Malachi Palmer added 11 on 3-for-5 shooting from deep.

Villanova withstood an early onslaught from Utah State, which spent the first 10-plus minutes of the game running a clinic on how to get easy baskets.

Willard even joked to TNT sideline reporter Lauren Shehadi that he was going to fire his staff and replace them because Utah State was getting such clean looks at the rim off its baseline-out-of-bounds sets.

The Aggies led by as many as nine in the first half before Villanova settled in, put together some stops, and cut into the lead before taking its first lead with five minutes until halftime.

Villanova outscored Utah State by 24 from the three-point line alone in the opening 20 minutes behind a 45% shooting effort. It outscored the Aggies by 36 from deep on the night.

The Wildcats led 39-37 at halftime and then opened the second half on a 9-1 run to extend their lead to 10. But Utah State rallied with a 14-4 run of its own to knot the score.

It was tied again, 73-73, with 3 minutes, 54 seconds to go. Then Utah State seized the final minutes and ended Villanova’s season.