Anderson, Redding Team Up for Winning, Rattling Layup at Buzzer, as #4 Villanova Escapes #5 Marquette, 76-75, in Big East Quarterfinals!!!

To the Wildcat faithful!!!-

(Note: The article has been updated - in order to read the full recap of today's thrilling game, click here.....)

Dwayne Anderson made the biggest basket of his career, on the biggest assist of Reggie Redding's career, as the basketball gods permitted Anderson's layup - after a lengthy, agonizing rattle (and "rattle" is the only term that could describe it) around the rim at Madison Square Garden... and #4 Villanova advanced to the semifinals of the Big East tournament, stealing a 76-75 victory from #5 Marquette. The shot will immediately be ranked as among the most exciting buzzer-beaters in Villanova's 29 Big East tournaments, and the sight of that ball finally dropping through the net just after the buzzer, will never be forgotten by anyone in attendance this afternoon, whether they were fans of Villanova or Marquette...

Within the blue-and-white Villanova partisans at the Garden, a sea of euphoria erupted... Simultaneously, while the gold-with-blue-trim-clad Marquette fans - having travelled far further, both geographically and on the scoreboard, than the Wildcat crowd - had to endure one of the cruelest heartbreaks that college basketball has to offer - a shorthanded team coming back from a large deficit, retaking the lead, and holding that lead with less than ten seconds to play... only to be vanquished. Marquette was magnificent today, under very adverse conditions, and they will be dangerous in the NCAAs after their name is - with the highest justification - called on Selection Sunday... Good luck to the Golden Eagles and their fans the rest of the way...

Thanks to the intervention of the aforementioned basketball gods, the Wildcats escaped the ignominious fate of entering the Big East record books, as permitting the greatest second-half comeback in the three decades of the conference tournament. Villanova had led 37-21 at halftime; the still-thankfully-existing record belongs to Georgetown, which had lost a 15-point halftime lead and fell to Syracuse in the 2006 tournament.

Full recap as soon as possible...

Preliminary Various Viewpoints

for other Villanova/Marquette recaps, please check out the following sites---

VUHoops.com is already up with the scoreboard headline - Marquette 75: : 76 Villanova... and write in their lead:

Oh. Wow.

Villanova outscored Marquette by 16 in the first half.

Marquette outscored Villanova by 17 in the first 19:59 of the second.

It took a dish from Reggie Redding to Dwayne Anderson who converted a layup with 1 second remaining to secure a Wildcat matchup with Louisville tomorrow.

Pete's Let's Go 'Nova site

I Bleed Blue and White site

Villanova By the Numbers (VBTN)

'Nova News

And for a valuable opponents' perspective, take a look at Cracked Sidewalks for an outstanding Marquette site...

Go Wildcats!

There are two ways you can contact Villanova Viewpoint. One is by commenting on this blog. Comments are encouraged. Also, you can e-mail villanova.viewpoint@yahoo.com (Important note: This is a different e-mail address than before. Please use this new one.)