Pittsburgh Panthers at Villanova Wildcats, The Pavilion, Villanova, PA
Saturday, February 12, 2011, 9:00 pm Eastern, TV: ESPN
Opening Line: Villanova -2.5
Current Line: Villanova -2.5
Opening Total: 139
Current Total: 139
Money Line: Villanova -145 / Pitt +125
While the fourth-ranked Pittsburgh Panthers (22-2, 10-1 Big East) are learning to play without their leading scorer, the ninth-ranked Villanova Wildcats (19-5, 7-4) are trying to figure out how they lost at Rutgers heading into Saturday’s conference showdown. The Wildcats (-2.5) figure to have an edge in the backcourt with Pitt’s Ashton Gibbs sitting out again with a knee injury but could also be without one of their top scorers.
The Panthers were able to rally back without Gibbs in an impressive 71-66 road win at West Virginia on Monday. Brad Wanamaker ran the point in his place and finished with 11 points, nine rebounds and three assists while Nasir Robinson bullied the Mountaineers inside en route to 15 points and eight boards.
Pittsburgh will likely need to use its strength in the frontcourt again here at Villanova. The Panthers have outrebounded 12 of their last 13 opponents since suffering an 83-76 loss to Tennessee back on December 11. They are the top rebounding team in the Big East and have alternated wins and losses in the last six meetings with the Wildcats.
Villanova lost the last meeting 70-65 at Pitt a year ago following the biggest matchup of all-time between the two schools the previous season. The Wildcats advanced to the 2009 Final Four with a 78-76 win over the Panthers, which still sits in the back of Wanamaker’s mind.
“That’s something that’s always going to be inside of me,” Wanamaker said. “It’s something I don’t think I’ll ever forget, unless I get the chance to play them again in the Elite Eight for another chance to go the Final Four and we come out with the win.”
Of course Villanova will need to try hard to forget a shocking loss to the Scarlet Knights in order to beat Pittsburgh for a seventh straight time at the Pavilion and extend its winning streak there to 47 games. The Wildcats surrendered a four-point play with less than a second left to lose 77-76 at Rutgers and may be without guard Corey Stokes due to a turf toe injury.
Stokes played just 26 minutes against the Scarlet Knights and finished with 10 points on 4 of 7 shooting. He has scored less than his average of 14.6 points in the past five games and has topped that mark only once in the last eight. The last game was the first in the past five to go OVER the total, and the UNDER is also 7-1 in the last eight meetings with the Panthers.
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