Nov. 14, 2008

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VILLANOVA-ALBANY SERIES NOTES
Tonight's meeting was the second ever between Villanova and Albany and the second straight win for the Wildcats. The first meeting also took place at The Pavilion and resulted in an 86-72 win for Villanova on December 22, 2004.

AMERICA EAST OPPONENTS
With tonight's victory the Wildcats are now 21-1 (.955) all-time against opponents that currently make up the America East Conference. The lone loss to a current America East team came to Vermont all the way back on February 12, 1924. Vermont was the home team in that game and won by a 25-19 score.

200TH PAVILION WIN
Villanova won its 200th game in The Pavilion with tonight's win over Albany. This is the 24th season of basketball in the venue and the Wildcats have an all-time record of 200-54 (.787) in their home facility.

MORE PAVILION NOTES
Tonight's game marked the 16th consecutive victory in The Pavilion for Villanova, which has not lost a game here since falling to DePaul, 73-65, on January 6, 2007. Last season the Wildcats went 11-0 in the building to mark just their second undefeated season on campus since the venue opened. Villanova is now 102-15 (.872) against non-conference opponents at The Pavilion, including a mark of 41-3 (.932) under eighth-year head coach Jay Wright.

SEASON OPENERS
Over its long history Villanova has had an extraordinary rate of success in season openers. The Wildcats are 81-8 (.910) all-time in season openers after tonight's victory and hold a record of 62-3 (.954) when their season opener is a home game. The Wildcats won their sixth consecutive season opener tonight and also won their home opener for the 18th consecutive season. The average margin of victory in the six straight season-opening wins is 28.3 points. The last time Villanova lost its home opener came in an 81-77 loss to Seton Hall on December 12, 1990.

NOVEMBER SUCCESS
Under head coach Jay Wright, the Wildcats are now 22-7 (.759) in games played in the month of November.

VILLANOVA QUIETS ALBANY RUNS
A pair of 8-0 runs in the second half of the game were key to tonight's victory for Villanova. After Albany had closed to within 49-37 with 14:10 remaining, the Wildcats scored eight straight points and pulled back out to a 57-37 lead with 12:01 to play. Over the next five-plus minutes from that point, however, the Great Danes went on a 14-5 run of their own to close to within 62-51 with 6:29 left. Once again, Villanova scored eight straight points and led 70-51 with 4:47 left.

SIX IN DOUBLE FIGURES
All five starters and six of the 10 players used by Villanova in tonight's game scored in double figures. Senior Dante Cunningham, junior Scottie Reynolds and sophomore Corey Stokes all tied for the team lead with 13 points scored. Sophomore Antonio Pena had 12 points, junior Reggie Redding had 11 points and sophomore Corey Fisher added 10 points. Eight of the 10 players used by Villanova had at least two points.