Player of the Game: Corey Fisher: 23 points, 3 ast, 4 reb, 2 stl
Nova was really struggling offensively in the first. They were taking too many difficult shots and missing the easy ones as well. As a result Nova trailed by three at the half, and things didn't look too much better early in the second as Temple jumped out to an eight point lead. Then Corey Fisher took over. He reminded everybody that he was the same guy who scored 37 points on O.J. Mayo in high school. After struggling from the outside all season long, Fisher caught fire hitting 4 of 4 from downtown. He also did a great job driving to the basket, making a couple of his signature double-clutcher lay-ups. His 23 points were a season-high and tied his career-high. Fisher couldn't have picked a better time to break out of his slump as Big East play starts this week.
It Was a Cold Christmas
Nova did a good job containing high-scorer Dionte Christmas. The defense forced 15 misses from Christmas(4-19) , holding him to 13 points. Also cold were Scottie Reynolds and Corey Stokes. Scottie was 0-6 in the first half, although he did regroup in the second to finish with 8 points. Stokes on the other hand never got it going (1-7 fg, 0-3 3pt), and the one shot he made took a very lucky bounce high off the rim. He took some difficult shots and seemed to be forcing too much. Dante Cunningham scored 10 of Nova's 22 in the first, but he struggled in the second half. He scored 12 points total on 15 shots.
Other Notes
Antonio Pena had another strong night on the boards, grabbing a game-high 9, including 3 offensive.
Dwayne Anderson had a quiet night only playing 13 minutes, and uncharacteristically had no hustle stats. (0 reb, 0 stl, 0 blk)
Big 5 Champions
With the win, Villanova secures another Big 5 title. Nova has dominated the city series of late, winning 18 of their last 19 Big 5 games- the lone blemish coming last season against St. Joe's.
More: Official, Nova Notebook, VUhoops, IBBW, VBTN, LGN, ESPN: recap, ESPN: Dana O'Neil
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