Butler topples No. 1 Villanova, ending Wildcats' 20-game win streak

College basketball’s longest winning streak is no more, and the cause of its demise is a familiar one. It’s Butler.

The No. 18 Bulldogs took down No. 1 Villanova Wednesday night at Hinkle Fieldhouse, grinding out possession after possession and stymieing the second-most efficient offense in the country to claim a memorable 66-58 win.

Butler officials had sent a notice to the student body on Tuesday asking them not to storm the court in the event of an upset. That request, of course, was not heeded, as fans spilled onto the floor as they so often have over the past decade:

The top-ranked Wildcats and Bulldogs went back and forth all game, but in the final minutes, “Hinkle Magic” seemed to take over. Butler got stop after stop, and with the undefeated visitors threatening to make a customary late charge, freshman point guard Kamar Baldwin picked the pocket of National Player of the Year frontrunner Josh Hart and spun in an acrobatic layup to push the Bulldogs’ lead to six.

Butler also made every single one of its 15 free throws, including 11 in the second half to seal the upset.

The Wildcats had won 20 consecutive games dating back to last year’s national championship run, but fell to 14-1 with Wednesday’s loss.

They were frustrated all night by a stifling Butler defense. The Bulldogs held Villanova, who had been averaging 1.20 points per possession on the season, to just 0.97 per trip, and became the first team to hold the defending national champs to under a point per possession since Kansas in the Elite Eight last year.

The Wildcats’ frustration seemed to boil over during a four-minute first-half drought. After Mikal Bridges missed a foul-line jumper, Jay Wright, either thinking that the ball was tipped or that Bridges was fouled, went ballistic. He had to be corralled and held back by players and coaches as he fumed at the refs. He was assessed a technical foul.

Villanova shot just 6-for-26 from three, well below its season average of 38.7 percent. It made just one field goal over the final 3:22 of the second half as the home team made its move.

Jalen Brunson was the focal point of Villanova’s offense for the second-straight game. The sophomore poured in 23 points four days after downing Creighton with 27. But Hart, who came in averaging 20.3 points per game, was held to just 13 on 3-of-11 shooting, and only five Villanova players scored.

Butler didn’t have a single player tally more than 13 points, but was balanced offensively, and got massive buckets from Baldwin, Kelan Martin and Kethan Savage down the stretch as it pulled away in the game’s final four minutes.

The two teams had been locked at 47 for nearly three minutes until Josh Hart broke the tie with a three-point play with under five minutes remaining. But the Bulldogs scored 15 points in the last four minutes as Hinkle’s seemingly incessant roar crescendoed.

The Bulldogs, who became synonymous with Cinderella when they made back-to-back Final Four runs in 2010 and 2011, have now beaten eight top 10 teams since 2012/13. In doing so, they’ve eschewed the underdog role for a place in the top tier of a major conference. Despite a loss earlier in conference play to St. John’s, they proved Wednesday that they can play with anybody in the Big East.