Villanova beats Oklahoma by Final Four-record 44 points

HOUSTON — Villanova had a night to remember on both ends of the court.

Buddy Hield had a night to forget.

The Wildcats, setting a record for margin of victory in a Final Four semifinal, held Hield to his second-fewest points of the season in a 95-51 victory over Oklahoma on Saturday night.

"That was just one of those nights," Villanova coach Jay Wright said. "I feel bad for Oklahoma."

He can feel good for his Wildcats (34-5) as they advanced to Monday night's national championship game against the winner of the late North Carolina-Syracuse game.

Josh Hart scored 23, and his 10-of-12 shooting performance was part of Villanova's 71.4 percent (35-of-49) effort. Villanova made 17 of 22 shots in the second half.

The margin topped the 34-point Final Four wins by Cincinnati over Oregon State in 1962 and Michigan State over Penn in 1979.

The Wildcats have four wins in the tournament of at least 19 points, the only close game a five-point win over overall No. 1 seed Kansas in the Elite Eight.

Villanova dominated the Sooners (29-8) after an opening seven minutes that had the teams trading the lead almost every possession.

The Wildcats broke it open with a 21-4 run. The stats about NRG Stadium being a horrible place to shoot went out the window, along with the Sooners' chances at playing for their first title.

"I definitely think it helped," Wright said of practicing shooting in the dome. " 'We're going to be good,' we keep telling them, and I think they believed that."

The Wildcats, with Hart going 7-of-8, shot 66.7 percent in the first half and made 6 of 11 3-pointers in taking a 42-28 halftime lead.

"I wouldn't say it's easy, but when you have guys like (his teammates) you can go off any night," Hart said. "When they're aggressive, it helps me. The driving lanes, able to get a couple of shots to fall, when that happens, able to kick out and get some guys some shots."

As the Wildcats, who won it all in 1985 with an upset of Georgetown, kept making shots, Hield kept missing.

The unanimous All-America selection made 3 of 8 shots in the first half, including 1 of 5 3-pointers. Hield went into the game shooting 46.5 percent from 3-point range. He finished with nine points on 4-of-12 shooting.

"Just playing defensively as a team … we contained him," Hart said.

Hield kept putting on and off his familiar white sleeve on his right arm. It didn't matter as the Sooners absorbed their worst loss of the season.

The Sooners finished 31.7 percent (19-of-60) for the game.

"Just credit them for what they were doing. Made it tough on me throwing multiple bodies at me," said Hield, who had six points against West Virginia. "They just played terrific tonight."

Hield called Villanova "one of the best teams I've ever played in college."

Several Wildcats got credit for the great defense against Hield.

"We were just loading into him," Mikal Bridges said. "We just tried our best to limit his touches and load to him when he had the ball."