Villanova won the Gildan Charleston Classic championship with a strong victory against University of Central Florida by the score of 67-57.
Early speculation of the game fixated on the Wildcats’ potential difficulty guarding against the Knights’ gargantuan 7-foot-6 sophomore center Tacko Fall. If ‘Nova was apprehensive about facing UCF’s physicality, they certainly didn’t play like it. Opening the game with an early steal and dunk, Mikal Bridges proved his perimeter advantage for the Wildcats. Nailing a career high of 19 points against Nova’s previous game against Wake Forest, Bridges was quick to bring the heat against UCF—this time, Bridges focused his skill on maintaining rebounding efficiency (and, later on, even more fantastic steal and slams).