Villanova was able to continue their steady climb up the Big East standings with a decisive 71-50 win over Cincinnati yesterday.

Dante Cunningham went 8-of-11 from the field and finished with a game-high 21 points, the seventh time this season that the senior forward has scored 20 points or more. Cunningham and Dwayne Anderson (9 points) each brought down a game-high 8 rebounds.

The Bearcats earned a 26-19 lead with under 4:30 minutes to play in the first half, but Villanova battled back. A Scottie Reynolds (11 points) layup with 4 seconds remaining in the half gave the Wildcats a lead which they would not surrender.

Neither team shot well from beyond the arc (Villanova went 2-for-12 and Cincinnati shot 8-for-31), but Villanova won the game by shooting over 50 percent from the field as compared to Cincinnati’s 28 percent.  

Alvin Mitchell scored a team-high 15 points for the Bearcats, and also added 3 assists and 2 steals. Teammate Yancy Gates contributed 9 points and 7 rebounds.

Mitchell and Gates helped keep Cincinnati in the game, but Villanova pulled away by going on a 12-0 run with under 8 minutes remianing in regulation.

Villanova has now won 25 consecutive games at the Pavilion, a streak that goes back to January of 2007. The Wildcats are currently ranked #21 in the country and are in the midst of a three game winning streak.

With a 94-61 shellacking of Providence yesterday, UConn has all but locked up the #1 ranking for week 12.

Hasheem Thabeet recorded a triple-double with 15 points, 11 rebounds and a school record tying 10 blocks. 

A.J. Price had a game-high 19 points, including his 1,000th career point in the first half. Price went 8-of-12 from the field, including 3-for-4 from the arc.

Stanley Robinson added 18 points, 7 rebounds and went 7-of-11 from the field.

Thanks mainly to Thabeet, the Huskies finished with an incredible 17 blocks.

Randall Hanke led Providence with a team-high 16 points, while teammate Sharaud Curry recorded 10 assists.

UConn will meet Louisville on Monday night, in a match up of two teams that are both on 9 game winning streaks. Is this a great basketball conference or what?

The #7 Cardinals captured their 9th consecutive victory with a 69-63 win over WVU yesterday.

Louisville’s Jerry Smith had a season-high 20 points and teammate Terrence Williams was just one rebound and a field goal shy of a double-double. Freshmen Terrence Jennings went 5-for-5 from the field and finished with 13 points.

The Cardinals hit the court running and put up a 20-point 45-25 halftime lead. The Mountianeers came back in the second half and put the pressure on late, but never closed the gap to within 6 points.

The Mountaineers fought back thanks to strong efforts by Da’Sean Butler (game-high 23 points, 8 rebounds), Alex Ruoff (16 points, 5-of-9 from the field) and freshmen Devin Ebanks (14 points). A complete lack of offensive rebounding combine with a collective 3-for-14 performance from behind the arc resulted in WVU’s 4th conference loss, however. 

Expect to see Louisville climb in the rankings this week. We’ll have to wait and see if the Cardinals can make it 10 consecutive wins as they face the likely new #1 UConn Huskies on Monday.

Another spectacular performance by DeJuan Blair lead to yet another Notre Dame loss.

The sophomore center put up a double-double with 23 points and a career-high 22 rebounds in a 93-80 win over the Irish. Five Panthers scored in double figures; Levance Fields had 17 points and 7 assists, Jermain Dixon went 3-for-3 from beyond the arc and finished with 16 points, Ashton Gibbs and Brad Wanamaker both added 13 points. 

Luke Harangody had a game high 27 points, but the Irish were manhandled on the glass as Pitt out rebounded Notre Dame 49-30 and had 22 offensive rebounds compaired to 9 for the Irish.

The 13 point loss is the fifth consecutive for Notre Dame as the Irish have lost 6 of their last 8 games. To be fair, their last 4 losses came against opponents ranked in the top ten.

Box Score

Maybe head coach Fred Hill Jr.’s decision to shake up the Rutgers men’s basketball team’s starting lineup was a smart move. The two newcomers in the starting lineup in the 75-56 win over DePaul were senior forward Jaron Griffin and sophomore forward Earl Pettis.

The two combined for 26 points in the win as Griffin led Rutgers with 16 points. More importantly, however, was that the Scarlet Knights won their first Big East game since last year’s win over Seton Hall to end the 2007-08 campaign.

The next stop for Rutgers is Georgetown Tuesday and Griffin thinks that he has earned the chance for increased minutes in the game after his impresve performance tonight.

“By me doing what I did tonight, maybe I might earn more playing time, whether starting or off the bench,” Griffin said after the game.