The Villanova Wildcats pulled away from the West Virginia Mountaineers midway through the second half for a 90-78 victory in the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16. With the win, Villanova moves on to the Elite Eight for the second time in the last three seasons. Villanova was a 5.5-point favorite in this one, covering with the late push. The game went well over the total of 168.
Villanova will face either the Purdue Boilermakers or the Texas Tech Red Raiders in the Elite Eight for the right to go to San Antonio for the Final Four. The betting odds for that showdown will be released soon by BetDSI Sportsbook. Villanova is going to be a favorite no matter which team it faces, but the Wildcats would be bigger favorites against Texas Tech than against Purdue.
Through 30 minutes, West Virginia was hanging in with Villanova and even took a decent lead early in the second half. However, Villanova responded by hitting a barrage of threes to get past the Mountaineers.
As a team, Villanova shot 54.2 percent from beyond the arc this game. Incredibly, all but one player hit 50 percent or better from three-point range for the Wildcats.
Jalen Brunson led the way for Villanova, going 8-15 from the floor and his 27 points were tops in this game. Coming into the NCAA Tournament, Brunson was the favorite to win the Most Outstanding Player award with odds of +600 to win at BetDSI. He was overshadowed by teammate Mikal Bridges in his first two games, but Brunson stepped up big here.
At the start of the NCAA Tournament, Villanova was the overall favorite according to the oddsmakers at BetDSI. The Wildcats were just +400 to win their second title in three years. Purdue was a trendy pick to win it all at +1250, but that was before the injury to Isaac Haas. Texas Tech was +4500 to win March Madness.
