Villanova upset by St. Mary's

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Villanova packed the uniforms, the basketballs, and the sneakers for its trip to the 2010 NCAA tournament, but, unfortunately, lost Scottie Reynolds' shot on the way.

After persevering through Reynolds' first subpar shooting day of the dance, the Wildcats could not overcome a second such showing yesterday and suffered a 75-68 second-round upset by 10th-seeded St. Mary's in the NCAA South Regional at the Dunkin' Donuts Center.

For the No. 2-seeded Cats, it was an awful way for Reynolds, an all-American, to close out his distinguished career. He tied his season low with eight points and finished his four years with 2,222 points, 21 shy of Kerry Kittles' career scoring record.

Reynolds connected on just 2 of 11 field-goal attempts, 1 of 3 from three-point range. In the tournament, he shot just 4 of 26 (15.4 percent) and 2 of 11 (18.2 percent) from deep, almost polar opposites of his numbers of 50.0 and 42.0, respectively, during 'Nova's Big East schedule.

Fighting back tears at times in the locker room, Reynolds summed up his trip here by shrugging and saying, "That's basketball."

"I had great looks, probably the best looks I've had all season," he said. "I don't remember having so many wide-open jumpers. I don't know, it was just me. It was those couple of games that I never had all season that I had today and the first game.

"There's no shame in that. I work my butt off, I work my tail off every day, so my teammates know it's not even about that."

Despite coach Jay Wright's assertion that his team was a work in progress throughout the season, even when it was 20-1, the Wildcats (25-8) ended their season much earlier than expected, especially given the trips to the Sweet 16 and the Final Four in the last two seasons. Even President Obama had them returning to the Final Four.

While Reynolds struggled, the Wildcats still had their chances against the Gaels (28-5), champions of the West Coast Conference, who advanced to the regional semifinals Friday in Houston against Baylor.

St. Mary's received a dominating 32-point performance from 6-foot-11 fifth-year senior Omar Samhan, who made 13 of his 16 shots from the field against a variety of Villanova defenders and defensive styles.

But when Corey Fisher knocked down two free throws with 1 minute, 35 seconds to play, the game was tied, 65-65, and the Villanova faithful in the sellout crowd anticipated a second straight successful close call, matching Thursday's win over Robert Morris.

It didn't happen.

With Reggie Redding guarding him, the Gaels' Mickey McConnell did everything he could to launch a three-point shot from the left wing, finally letting one go that thumped off the backboard and through the hoop to give the underdogs the lead for good at the 1:16 mark.

"Reggie did a great job; he couldn't have done a better job, and [McConnell] banked it in," Wright said. "He just threw it up and banked it in. It happens."

Villanova went on offense, but Redding's driving shot was blocked by Samhan. After McConnell hit both ends of a one-and-one, Maalik Wayns, who provided a terrific spark off the bench, got to the baseline but lost the ball out of bounds.

St. Mary's hit five more free throws and celebrated, with Samhan blowing kisses into the CBS camera and the players gathering in front of their cheering section to salute their fans.

Corey Stokes led the Wildcats with 15 points, and Wayns added 10. Fisher (nine) made his first two shots, then suffered through a 1-for-11 ordeal the rest of the way.

Villanova took 21 more shots than the Gaels, making one more, and tied a season low with seven turnovers. The Wildcats pulled down 15 offensive rebounds, outscoring St. Mary's, 10-4, on second-chance points.

But they had no answer for Samhan, and no one other than Stokes and Wayns to pick up the slack for Reynolds.

"I hate to sit here and say, 'We got our shots,' but we did," Wright said. "Scottie got good shots. Scottie did a better job in this game not forcing shots. He had good ones; he just didn't make them. That's when you've got to make up for it defensively, get a couple of offensive rebounds. It could have gone either way."

It didn't, though, and Reynolds tried to keep a brave front in explaining what he thought was a premature end to the season.

"There's no shame in losing," he said. "We came up against a good opponent in St. Mary's that just had our number. We're going to hold our heads up high. It's disappointing that the seniors didn't get this team like we wanted, but that's the way it goes."