Harold Pressley remembered seeing Providence's Billy Donovan go up - 9,710 Providence Civic Center fans leaving their seats with him - for what looked as if it would be a game-winning, buzzer-beating layup Saturday night.
Then he remembered feeling his hand touch something he knew wasn't Donovan's arm.
"I just took one big step and just jumped as high and far as I could," said Pressley, referring to the first of two game-saving blocked shots in Villanova's double-overtime, 78-77 victory.
Pressley came to the rescue in the first overtime with his 10th block of the game with two seconds left.
Clutch free throws by Harold Jensen and freshman Kenny Wilson - who scored 11 points in the two overtimes - made Villanova a winner in the second OT.
Pressley finished the game with 19 points, 15 rebounds and a Villanova- record 10 blocked shots, becoming the first player in Big East history to achieve a triple-double. His 10 blocks also tied a Big East mark set by Georgetown's Patrick Ewing last season.
Mark Plansky scored 14, with Wilson and Dwight Wilbur adding 13 for the Wildcats (10-7, 2-1).
* "I just came back from my son's pee-wee game and I only saw the little kids miss a couple. We missed five wide-open, uncontested layups. And we're a major college basketball team."
That about summed up Lefty Ervin's feelings 24 hours after La Salle's 61-57 loss to Fairfield (9-4, 3-0 in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference) Saturday night at the Palestra. The Explorers committed just three turnovers, but were outrebounded, 36-22.
"You can't win at this level getting just six offensive rebounds, and allowing 16," Ervin said.
La Salle (6-8 overall, 1-2 in the MAAC) got 21 points and eight rebounds
from Chip Greenberg.
* St. Joseph's center Rodney Blake would like everyone to think of him as more than a shot-blocking, rebounding machine.
"I take pride in my defense, but I can score when I have to," said the sophomore center, who scored 27 points, swept 11 boards and blocked 6 shots in the Hawks' 87-72 blowout of George Washington Saturday.
* Penn got 22 points and 11 boards from center Bruce Lefkowitz, but the Quakers (7-3, 2-0) received a major scare before edging no-quit Dartmouth, 72-66, for their second Ivy League victory of the weekend. Dartmouth, behind former Monsignor Bonner star Joe Kilroy's 10-for-11 second half shooting (22 points for the game), closed a 13-point gap to 66-64 with 3:47 remaining before Penn shut down the upset bid.
* Temple (10-2, 2-1 in the Atlantic 10) won ugly Saturday at McGonigle Hall in a scuffle-marred 68-59 victory over troubled Rutgers behind Tim Perry's 13 points, 13 rebounds and 3 blocked shots and Nate Blackwell's 19 points.
"We just played stupid, that's the only word for it," Temple coach John Chaney said.
