Villanova’s Jeremiah Robinson-Earl and Jermaine Samuels lead way over Seton Hall, 80-72, for ninth straight win

It wasn’t exactly a form of the Penn Relays on display Saturday at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., but Villanova had its own form of baton pass going on with its two tallest starters, Jeremiah Robinson-Earl and Jermaine Samuels.

The 6-foot-9 Robinson-Earl came out hot early against Seton Hall before having to sit for more than 13 ½ minutes of the second half because of foul trouble. While he sat, the 6-7 Samuels took over as the Wildcats’ primary inside defender and also added his share of offense.

The third-ranked Wildcats (11-1, 6-0 Big East) never trailed, led by as many as 16 points and wrapped up the game with timely free-throw shooting to pick up their ninth consecutive victory, an 80-72 decision over the Pirates.

Robinson-Earl, a sophomore, led all scorers with 23 points. He had 12 in the first half and five more in the second before going to the bench with his fourth personal foul with 16 minutes, 24 seconds to play. He did not re-enter the game until 2:48 remained and contributed his team’s final basket and four free throws.

“It wasn’t disappointing going out,” he said. “Obviously I want to be out there and play, but I can still be out there on the sideline talking to the players in the game, bring some energy, just keep the game going.”

Asked if he had intended to put Robinson-Earl back in the game earlier, ‘Nova coach Jay Wright responded, “I was thinking about putting him back in every time they scored.”

“He scored 23 points but he is so good defensively and he’s the centerpiece of our defense. He can guard any position, but he also communicates out there. He’s always talking. So that’s what we really missed when he was out.”

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Robinson-Earl also broke out of a mini shooting slump. He had scored just 17 points and shot 7 of 23 from the field in Villanova’s two games after its 27-day layoff due to positive COVID-19 tests, but sank 8 of 12 attempts from the floor Saturday against the Pirates (9-8, 6-5).

Samuels, after a two-point, 1-of-2 shooting line in the first half, began the second half accounting for his team’s first two baskets, and went on to score 15 of his 17 points during the final 20 minutes. Eight of them came with Robinson-Earl on the bench.

“Coming into the second half, I was just worried about trying to make the right play for my teammates and just being aggressive,” he said. “My teammates got me opportunities to make plays and I took advantage.”

Justin Moore added 16 points for the Wildcats and Collin Gillespie established a career-high with 11 assists to go with 11 points, posting his second career double-double.

Wright said he knew Seton Hall coach Kevin Willard would want to take Gillespie out of the offense.

“They did a really good job,” he said. “If you’re not a smart player and mature, like Collin is, and you start forcing things, that makes a difference in the game. Instead, he just got shots for everybody else and controlled the tempo of the game. They pressured him the whole game.”

The Wildcats scored 13 points off eight first-half turnovers to run out to a 16-point lead late in the first half. They re-established their 16-point margin at 60-44 after Caleb Daniels hit the last of three straight three-point baskets with 8:27 remaining and put the game away on 12-of-14 shooting from the foul line in the final 2:48.

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