BOSTON — It was out of character for Jay Wright, but he had to do it.
With 11:04 remaining in No. 1 Villanova’s East Regional semifinal matchup with No. 5 West Virginia, Wright called a timeout knowing the under-12 break was on its way.
The Wildcats had fallen behind 60-54 and started the second half just 2-for-11 from the field. But Wright didn’t need to yell or lash out at his team, he just needed to look in their eyes.
He liked what he saw.
“It was right before the, I think, the 12-minute timeout, which we don’t normally like to do,” Wright said. “I just thought it was really –we just thought it was really necessary at that time because they were getting on a good run. And I wanted to make sure we kept our confidence and stayed committed to our game plan.
“That’s our leadership,” Wright continued. “I just looked at Jalen (Brunson), Mikal (Bridges) and Phil (Booth), and I could see in their eyes we were good. We were good.”
Wright’s impression proved right.
After the timeout, Brunson got to the free-throw line and hit one of two. But Villanova secured the miss on the second free throw, leading to a Brunson and-1 over Esa Ahmad. It was Villanova’s first points in the paint of the game and the free throw cut the lead to two just like that.
Then the floodgates opened.
Villanova went on a blistering 22-6 run over the next five-plus minutes to take a 76-66 lead. The Wildcats, who turned the ball over nine times in the first half against West Virginia’s tenacious pressure defense, didn’t turn the ball over once during that span.
Freshman Omari Spellman scored 13 of his 18 points in the second half, while Brunson (27 points), Bridges (16 points) and Booth (six points, six rebounds, four assists) solved Bob Huggins’ patented pressure defense.
When the dust settled, the scoreboard read: Villanova 90, West Virginia 78.
After blowing past its first two opponents, the East’s top seed took punch after punch from one of college basketball’s toughest teams and came out one win away from the program’s second Final Four in the past three seasons.
“In this tournament, to be down six against a team like that in the second half and battle back, you know in the next game that’s going to happen. So you don’t want it to happen for the first time in a final eight game. And just the physicality, the toughness of (West Virginia), that’s what a final eight game is going to be like. I think that’s a really valuable game for us, really valuable.”
Wright and Villanova faced an unrelenting opponent Friday in the Wildcats’ first real test of the 2018 NCAA Tournament. West Virginia hounded them from the opening tip. Jevon Carter turned them over, Daxter Miles sped them up and Sagaba Konate tried to demoralize them at the rim.
The schoolyard bully tried to impose its will at TD Garden, but Villanova and its leaders never blinked or flinched. They just fought. And they’ll have one more fight in Boston to get to San Antonio, Texas.
