It was Madness for any Nova fan who sweated through their team's March Madness opener.
Guard Scottie Reynolds struggled to make his shot Thursday unless he was at the line. And in the end he hit the shots when they counted most.
Reynolds responded to his benching with a solid performance at the foul line as second-seeded Villanova survived a scare from Robert Morris in a 73-70 overtime win in opening round of the NCAA tournament.
Nova coach Jay Wright benched his senior star and junior guard Corey Fisher to make a “teaching point.” The response was mixed for most of regulation as Reynolds missed 13 of 15 shots from the floor and Fisher only managed six points in 24 minutes.
But, Reynolds stayed harp at the stripe making seven of eight free throws in the final 3:06 of regulation to send the game into overtime.
Reynolds finished with 20 points for the Wildcats (25-7), who hung on as they try and make the Final Four for the second straight season.
Karon Abraham scored 23 for Robert Morris (23-13), which appeared on the brink of becoming only the fifth No. 15 seed to beat a No. 2 and the first since 2001. Abraham let fly a 25-footer in OT that cut it to 71-70 with 10.2 seconds left, but an off-balance 3 at the buzzer was no good.
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The Colonials, who were 18-point underdogs, left the court to a standing ovation.
