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Wildcats continue home dominance, upend No. 5 Georgetown

Mar 7, 2013 - 4:46 AM Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) - The Wells Fargo Center continues to be a house of horrors for Top 5 teams.

JayVaughn Pinkston had 20 points with five steals, Darrun Hilliard scored 14 and the Villanova Wildcats improved their NCAA Tournament resume by closing out their regular season with a 67-57 win over the fifth-ranked Georgetown Hoyas.

Ryan Arcidiacono finished with 11 points and six assists for Villanova (19-12, 10-8 Big East), which also topped then-No. 5 Louisville and then- third-ranked Syracuse at the Wells Fargo Center in the span of four days back in January.

"I think we're in a good spot right now, but we're not going to worry about that," Villanova head coach Jay Wright said. "We're just going to keep getting better, focus on the next game. I just feel good about how we're playing right now."

The Wildcats pulled off the upset Wednesday despite making just six second- half field goals, including only one after Pinkston's 3-pointer put them up eight with 14:19 remaining. Villanova was 20-of-26 from the free-throw line over the final 20 minutes and forced 23 turnovers in the game.

"Out of all the numbers in the stat sheet that number jumped out at me the most," Hoyas head coach John Thompson III said. "Our turnovers hurt us."

Otto Porter, Jr. supplied 17 points for the Hoyas (23-5, 13-4), who had their winning streak snapped at 11 games and squandered an opportunity to clinch at least a share of the Big East regular-season title.

Down 44-36, Georgetown responded with seven straight points as two Porter baskets followed a D'Vauntes Smith-Rivera trey. The Hoyas, however, were never able to regain the lead.

Hilliard drained a 3-pointer to make it 54-48 with 5:43 to play, and two Arcidiacono foul shots stretched the lead to 61-52 inside the final minute.

The teams began the contest by trading runs. After Georgetown scored the game's first seven points, the Wildcats countered with a 10-2 flurry.

A Pinkston free throw put Villanova up 23-14, but the Hoyas battled back to tie things up at 25-25. The Wildcats led 33-29 at halftime.

Game Notes

Villanova held a 30-4 edge in made free throws ...Mouphtaou Yarou grabbed 12 rebounds. The senior forward became only the 10th Wildcat with 1,000 points and 800 rebounds in his career ... Smith-Rivera had 14 points.