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Clark's career night leads Villanova over Stony Brook

Nov 10, 2007 - 4:46 AM VILLANOVA, Pennsylvania (Ticker) -- Shane Clark stole the spotlight from Scottie Reynolds.

Clark scored a career-high 25 points to help Villanova to a season-opening 86-64 victory over Stony Brook on Friday.

Reynolds, who took home Big East Rookie of the Year honors last season, scored just 13 points on 5-of-11 shooting and Malcolm Grant added 16 for Villanova, which shot 58 percent (31-of-53) from the floor.

Villanova has now won 40 consecutive home openers and is 7-0 in home openers under coach Jay Wright. Its last loss in a home opener was an 82-66 loss to USC in 1967 at the Palestra.

"We prepare for every team the same way, like they're UCLA," Wright said.

"It wasn't pretty, but that was a good start for us," Villanova coach Jay Wright said. "We have a lot of work to do."

The Wildcats, who lost three starters from a season ago, will need more than just Reynolds to compete, and Clark looks ready to step up. The junior forward was 8-of-10 from the floor and hit 4-of-5 from the arc.

"We expect that out of Shane, because we've watched him over the years and he has accepted a role in the last couple of years," Wright said. "I don't think (his performance) has surprised anybody."

Clark scored 13 of his 25 in the first half and hit three 3-pointers to help the Wildcats take a 41-29 lead over the feisty Seawolves into the break.

"We need (Shane) to be that kind of player for us," Wright said. "I think it's good for him and it's good for us that he did it the first night. I think that's important for our team. We've got some experienced people, (but) we need to be a balanced team."

Clark said he's ready to help fill the void this season.

"I was just looking for some shots (and) be aggressive," Clark said. "(I tried to) help my teammates when I possibly could. Over the last two years we had great leadership and it's carried over to us now."

Michael Tyree scored 13 of his 18 points off the bench in the first half to keep Stony Brook competitive.

"Stony Brook had tough, gritty guards and I thought in the first half, they did a good job of controlling the tempo," Wright said. "They were a little too quick for us. But we gutted it out and it was good for us."

Mitchell Beauford and Lucas added 13 apiece for Stony Brook, which shot 9-of-17 from the arc but could never pull closer than nine points at 45-36 with 15:10 left in the game.

"It was a tough opener for us," Stony Brook coach Steve Pikiell said. "The first 10 minutes we kind of hung around, then turned up the heat and we struggled."