Eric Paschall scored 21 points, Phil Booth added 18 and Joe Cremo tallied 11, including three 3-pointers during a 19-0 run in the second half as the Villanova Wildcats routed the UConn Huskies 81-58 in a nonconference game at Madison Square Garden on Saturday.

Paschall scored 16 points of his points in the second half to go with Cremo's nine for Villanova (9-4), which pulled away from a 30-30 tie at the break to outscore UConn 51-28 in the second half.

Booth, running the point, finished with seven rebounds and seven assists. He made all six of his field-goal attempts.

Cremo, playing in place of starting point guard Collin Gillespie, who missed the game because of a concussion, went 4 of 5 from the field, including hitting all three of his treys.

Christian Vital led UConn (9-4) with 18 points, Alterique Gilbert scored 14 and Jalen Adams added eight.

Neither team led by more than five points until Villanova's run, which began with the Wildcats trailing 36-35 with 17:07 to play in the second half.

The scoring spree began with Cremo's first 3-pointer and included four straight points by Booth, a Paschall trey and two more 3-pointers from Cremo to give Villanova a 54-36 lead with 10:39 to go.

Gilbert finally ended the drought by hitting two free throws for UConn, but the Huskies ended up going more than eight minutes without hitting a field goal.

Villanova shot 57.4 percent from the floor and 52.2 percent on 3-pointers (12 of 23), while UConn shot 40.7 percent and 38.9 percent (7 of 18), respectively.

In the first half, Booth scored 10 points on 4 of 4 shooting, including hitting both of his 3-pointers.

The Wildcats' 12 turnovers in the first half were as many as they have averaged per game this season, and UConn turned it over nine times before intermission. Each team finished with 17 turnovers.

--Field Level Media