St. John’s Red Storm at Villanova Wildcats, Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, PA
Saturday, February 26, 2011, 2:00 pm Eastern, TV: ESPN
Opening Line: Villanova -5.5
Current Line: Villanova -6
Opening Total: 133.5
Current Total: 134.5
Money Line: Villanova -270 / St. John’s +230
The 15th-ranked Villanova Wildcats (21-7, 9-6 Big East) hope to close out the home part of their schedule with a victory on Saturday when they host a team they are looking up to in the conference standings – the 23rd-ranked St. John’s Red Storm (18-9, 10-5). The Wildcats (-6) have lost their last two home games and finish the regular season with four consecutive games against ranked Big East opponents, with the last two coming on the road at #9 Notre Dame and #4 Pittsburgh after their home finale.
Villanova is coming off a 69-64 home loss to Syracuse on Monday despite a successful return for senior guard Corey Stokes, who was the only player on his team to make a 3-point shot. Stokes scored a game-high 24 points after missing three games with a toe injury, sinking 5 of 10 attempts from beyond the 3-point arc. The rest of the Wildcats went 0 for 16 from 3-point range en route to shooting just 32.3 percent from the field overall (21 of 65).
Fellow senior Corey Fisher struggled mightily with his shooting, making 3 of 16 from the field and missing all eight of his 3-point attempts. Fisher finished with eight points after scoring a career-high 34 points in a 77-75 overtime win at DePaul last Saturday. Villanova’s leading scorer will now try to rebound against St. John’s after being held to single digits for the fifth time this season.
While the Wildcats seem to be fading down the stretch, St. John’s is definitely on the rise under head coach Steve Lavin. Like the Wildcats, the Red Storm are also loaded with key seniors and have really come together under Lavin in his first year with the team. They have won their last five games both straight-up and against the spread since losing against Lavin’s former team UCLA on February 5. Dwight Hardy has averaged nearly 24 points in those games.
St. John’s is riding a six-game winning streak in Big East play overall, upsetting Cincinnati and Marquette on the road during that stretch. Four of the team’s last five wins have come as underdogs, as the Red Storm have risen to the upper echelon of the conference standings. The top four teams in the league will earn a double bye in the Big East tournament, making this game even more important for both teams.
Villanova has won the last six meetings with St. John’s, covering the past three games between the teams. The OVER has cashed in the last two meetings, although the UNDER is 3-1 in the past four games for each team overall.
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