Dec. 29, 2008

On an evening when the basket looked ever so small, Villanova sophomore Corey Fisher came up big.

While the rest of his teammates connected on just 13-of-42 from the field (.309) on Monday night in their final Philadelphia Big Five City Series contest of 2008-09, the 6-1 native of the Bronx, N.Y., drained a sizzling 7-of-8 field goals, including 4-of-4 from beyond the 3-point arc, to tie a career high with 23 points in a 62-45 victory over Temple that was not nearly as routine as the final score may indicate.

"I think they're really a good basketball team," stated Temple coach Fran Dunphy after the contest that the Owls led, 25-22 at halftime. "Jay does a really good job of coaching them. You get a game like tonight where, overall I thought our defense was pretty good, with the exception of letting Corey Fisher go in the second half like he did. He was terrific in the second half. Every time he got an open look he buried it. He made a couple of great drives to the basket, one getting a 3-point play for them.

"I think that's the sign of a good team. Maybe (Scottie) Reynolds is not knocking them out. (Dante) Cunningham really didn't do much in the second half. But Corey Fisher just arrives on the scene. I think that's a great credit to their team, to Jay and how they play. They did what they needed to do to find a way to win the game."

In the first half, Villanova's starting trio of guards - Dwayne Anderson, Corey Stokes and Reynolds - did not score a single point. Yet stout defense and 10 points from Cunningham allowed the Wildcats (12-1) to stay within striking distance of the Owls. Then came the flurry from Fisher.

"He hit a couple of difficult shots that were hard to make and he made them," said Dunphy, whose club fell to 5-6 on the season. "He just decided that he was going to do something over the course of that game and he did it. Obviously, much of it was in the second half."

Wright often encourages Fisher to be aggressive offensively and the skills the guard often flashed at St. Patrick's (N.J.) High School en route to becoming the New Jersey Player of the Year in 2007 were on display before the sellout crowd of 6,500 at the Pavilion.

"We know that for a lot of teams we play against, they are going to try to shut Scottie down," said Fisher. "They are going to try to do that to Dante too. Those guys are our captains. Other guys have got to make plays.

"Scottie kept talking to me, telling me to be aggressive. I've learned so much from him and I look up to him. He just gave me more confidence and I tried to give my team more confidence in me."

Wright was another who has continually stressed the importance of Fisher having a mindset to be on the attack when he has the ball in his hands.

"I didn't tell him tonight to be aggressive," stated Wright. "I'm always telling him that. Of course, I'm very biased. He's the greatest kid in the world. He's as coachable as (you'd want). He's really had some great practices.

"That's what we need him to do. Sometimes he just defers to the older guys - too much respect and that's not a bad thing. But we needed that tonight. What he was able to do was create his own shot and get in the lane. He got open threes because he was in the lane before that. No one else on our team was really able to break them down and he sparked us big time."

Wright said Fisher's ability to make plays off the dribble is especially important to this team, which has a different makeup than the 2005-06 squad led by guards Kyle Lowry and Randy Foye (both now in the National Basketball Association).

"This group is better jump shooters so they'll take the jumpers, which we did in the first half," explained Wright. "We were relying on jump shots and we had good looks. But when you're not making them, you've got to be able to create shots. Fish is great at that. Scottie can do it and Reggie Redding can do it. I thought we did a better job of that in the second half."

It all added up to a 17-point win over the Owls and Villanova's third perfect 4-0 campaign in the Big Five in the last four seasons.

- MIKE SHERIDAN