Coming into Wednesday's game against Penn, Corey Stokes' career high was 22 points which he reached on two occasions. He was also 30 shy of the 1,000 point mark as a Villanovan. On Wednesday night both of those milestones would be passed.
Behind Stokes' 34 points and his 11-for-15 shooting, Villanova downed the Quakers 65-53 at The Palestra. The win was the Wildcats' 8th straight against the Quakers and moves the Main Line school to 2-0 in Big 5 play.
The Ivy League squad kept the game close, being down 7 at the half and within single digits inside of three minutes. But Penn had no answer for Stokes who was 5-9 from behind the arc.
In an unbalanced scoring distribution fellow senior Antonio Pena contributed 16 points and 8 boards as the Wildcats out-rebounded the Quakers by a dozen, 32-12. Besides the pair of seniors, no other 'Nova player scored more than 4.
Going with mainly a 7 man rotation, the 'Nova squad outside of Stokes shot 11-30 and made no 3-pointers.
Villanova (7-1) head coach Jay Wright sat senior Corey Fisher on the bench due to "a disagreement at practice." Sophomore Dominic Cheek tallied his first career start for the Wildcats.
The game saw limited minutes for sophs Isaiah Armwood and Mo Sutton who are returning from back and foot issues respectively. A promising fact to bolster Jay Wright's bench.
Stokes is the 53rd Villanovan to reach the 1,000 point milestone.
Villanova next takes on LaSalle on Sunday in their third Big 5 game of the season.