No. 1 seed Villanova rolls past Alabama and into Sweet 16

PITTSBURGH – In the March spotlight, Villanova showed how a No. 1 seed takes cares of business.

Mikal Bridges hit five 3s, scored 23 points and helped Villanova put the field on notice that it’s the team to beat with an 81-58 win over ninth-seeded Alabama on Saturday.

The Wildcats (32-4) are in the Sweet 16 for the first time since they won the 2016 national championship.

Villanova plays Friday in Boston against the Marshall-West Virginia winner.

“My good vibes are coming from how this team’s playing, how unselfishly they play,” Villanova coach Jay Wright said.

After a tense first half in a round that has given the program fits, the Wildcats hit their first six 3s in the second and put on a thrashing that was among the most dominant under Wright.

Bridges, who averaged 17.9 points and played his way into a likely NBA draft lottery pick, scored 1 point and missed all five shots in the first half. He found his groove once the second half tipped. Bridges scored the first 5 points of the half and then finished a thunderous alley-oop on a pass from Booth that made it 41-27 and sent the Wildcats wildly waving their arms in celebration headed into a timeout.

Bridges hit his first three 3s in succession to cap an 18-1 run and a Sweet 16 berth was in sight.

“I just had to play aggressive, play tougher,” he said

Brunson added a 3 – one of a school-tournament record 17 3s – to make it 56-31 and the rest of the half was simply a countdown to Boston.

“There’s a youthful exuberance with this team that is exciting me,” Wright said.

The Wildcats’ toughest nemesis was more the round than the team: Villanova lost in the first weekend as a 1 or 2 seed in 2010, 2014, 2015 and 2017.

Villanova got a brief scare that it might add 2018 to the list against Alabama.

The Wildcats missed eight of their first 11 3s in the first half and Alabama briefly grabbed the lead.

“We sometimes get away with some out-of-control shots, but we know that we don’t really care about offense,” Bridges said.

Donte DiVincenzo steadied Villanova with three straight 3s that brought a gasp from the crowd and gave the Wildcats a 22-15 lead. He threw in a fast break layup off his own steal and hit his fifth 3 of the half to make it 32-27.

DiVincenzo – the redheaded guard nicknamed “The Big Ragu” – scored all 18 of his points in the half. Villanova attempted 20 3s (made seven) out of 27 shots.

“We just had to withstand that first initial hit, and then once we got comfortable out there with each other, we started defending at a higher rate,” DiVincenzo said. “I just think we wore down their men.”