Scarlet Knights vs Wildcats coverage
The Villanova Wildcats won their 44th straight game at The Pavilion today by beating the Rutgers Scarlet Knights 81-65 to send the 'Cats off to a 1-0 start in the BIG EAST conference while the Knights fell to 0-1 in conference play. Corey Stokes led a the win with a big second half, scoring 21 of his 23 points in the 2nd half to ensure the victory. The 81 points 'Nova scored were the most points Rutgers has allowed all year.
Corey Fisher helped out with 19 points and 6 assists while Maalik Wayns had 9 points, 9 assists, and 8 rebounds to nearly record the triple-double. Jonathan Mitchell led Rutgers with 17 points and 5 rebounds.
The Wildcats started off this game slowly, allowing Rutgers to hang around until the middle stages of the 2nd half before they turned up the defense, causing Rutgers to record more turnovers than field goals in the final period.
The game got chippy towards the end with Rutgers freshman Gilvydas Biruta getting ejected for a blatant swinging closed-fist attack on Dominic Cheek.
We'll have more on this game later. Villanova returns on Thursday when they take on the South Florida Bulls.