Soft Pretzel Logic

-- Photo gallery by the Inquirer's Ron Cortes
-- Video highlights of Phil Martelli and Jay Wright's postgame remarks
-- Audio of Phil Martelli's full press conference
-- Audio of Jay Wright, Dante Cunningham and Scottie Reynolds

When it was over, Phil Martelli said that "the team with the best players always wins," and that Villanova has "guys on that team that are better players than I have."

Yet it was Martelli's team that not only came out on top, but did so in as convincing a fashion as you could possibly come up with.

The final score was 77-55, and as I wrote during the game, it barely seemed even that close. Just as importantly, it wasn't an upset.

The margin of victory was a surprise, but the fact that St. Joe's won the game was not at all. I get emails from midmajority.com whenever an "upset" occurs, a function that is defined almost entirely by how much money a conference has to throw around.

But I bet that even the text-messaging machine paused for just a moment and wondered whether it was really worth the effort this time around.

Because the real reason why St. Joe's won tonight was the exact opposite of what Phil Martelli said: they were the better team.

The Hawks played better defense, committed fewer turnovers, dished seven more assists and generally made life miserable for a Villanova team that seemed out of sorts for large chunks of the game.

The final stats were as follows.

For Villanova: 21-for-51 from the field (41.2%), including 4-for-17 from three-point range (23.5%) and 17-for-34 (50.0%) from two-point range, and 9-for-15 from the free throw line. Fourteen offensive rebounds, 16 defensive rebounds, seven assists, 17 turnovers, three blocks, five steals and 20 fouls committed.

That adds up to 61 possessions and 0.900 points per possession.

For St. Joe's: 23-for-47 from the field (48.9%), including 11-for-23 from three-point range (47.8%) and 12-for-24 (50.0%) from two-point range, and 20-for-25 from the line. Ten offensive rebounds, 20 defensive rebounds, 14 assists, 11 turnovers, eight assists, six steals and 13 fouls committed.

That adds up to 59 possessions and 1.316 points per possession, and thanks to Eric for noting that I forgot to post those numbers initially.

We pull out assists and turnovers as the key stats: 7 and 17 for Villanova, 8 and 6 for St. Joe's.

Individually, this was a night where Garrett Williamson took no shots whatsoever but still had a huge impact on the game: four rebounds, five assists, four blocks and two steals in 29 minutes.

It was a night where Pat Calathes' 20 points, nine rebounds and three blocks stood out, and only bolstered his growing case for Big 5 Player of the Year.

(I would still vote for Dionte Christmas, but let's see what happens when the two meet at the end of this month.)

But the line of the game goes to the one guy who I felt coming in could truly decide the game for the Hawks. If I was on the other side, the guy who would scare me the most is Rob Ferguson, because if you don't put the clamps on him he's capable at any time of uncorking a performance as remarkably efficient as what he did tonight:

Scottie Reynolds had his moments from beyond the arc, but he finished the night 3-for-12 from the field. Corey Fisher's Palestra debut included five turnovers and a 2-for-7 shooting night.

It is no stretch to say that when those two next play on 33rd Street they will almost surely do better. But for tonight, they lost to the better team, and when last I checked, that's how basketball usually works.

With that, I'm off to sleep. I've been up since 5 a.m. working, and I'd rather not make it the full 24 hours. I'll be back early in the evening with a new edition of the College HoopsCast, and if you're into politics be sure to check out Philly.com's extensive Super Tuesday coverage. I have a bit of a hand in that as well.

If nothing else, we know Phil Martelli will be paying attention.