Villanova vs. Miami: Score and Twitter Reaction from March Madness 2016

The Miami Hurricanes' efficient offense took them far this year, but their defense met its match against the Villanova Wildcats in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA men's basketball tournament. The third-seeded Hurricanes fell to the second-seeded Wildcats 92-69 on Thursday at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Kentucky.

It was a wire-to-wire victory for Villanova. The Wildcats averaged 1.58 points per possession, which is the highest for any team in the last five years, per SportsCenter.

Senior guard Ryan Arcidiacono was excellent from start to finish, shooting 7-of-11 from the field, including 4-of-7 from three-point range, to tie for the team lead with 21 points. He also picked up three rebounds, four assists and three steals.

Sporting News' Mike DeCourcy will be sad to see Arcidiacono go when he graduates:

Junior forward Kris Jenkins finished a rebound short of a double-double, grabbing nine boards and scoring 21 points. Senior forward Daniel Ochefu added 17 points.

Miami guard Sheldon McClellan led all scorers with 26 points in a losing effort. He was one of two Hurricanes to score in double figures.

The first half saw momentum swing from one team to the other as Miami and Villanova each went on a series of runs. The Wildcats led the entire way, going up by as many as 15 points, 29-14, largely because of a stretch in which they outscored the Hurricanes 14-3.

Everything was going right for Villanova, including this fadeaway by Arcidiacono at the 11-minute, 58-second mark of the first half:

After falling behind by 15, though, Miami went on a 12-0 run of its own. McClellan's three-pointer closed the gap to six points with 7:09 left in the half, with senior guard Angel Rodriguez adding another to cap off the offensive blitz:

The Wildcats stopped the bleeding with a 7-0 run shortly after Rodriguez's bucket and took a 43-37 lead into halftime. Neither team had much trouble offensively, with Miami and Villanova combining to shoot 65.2 percent from the field. According to ESPN Stats & Info, it was the highest first-half field-goal percentage between two teams in the NCAA tournament over the last seven years.

Yahoo Sports' Pat Forde was particularly surprised by the Wildcats' strong shooting from beyond the arc; they were 6-of-8 from three-point range through the first half:

Included in those six made shots was a three-pointer by Jenkins that would have made Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry envious, as CBS Sports' Matt Norlander captured:

Teams tend to get more tense as the tournament goes on. ESPN.com's Jeff Borzello didn't think that was the case Thursday:

Somewhat predictably, Villanova and Miami cooled off in the second half, with the Hurricanes being the worse for wear. They struggled to break down the Wildcats' zone defense. Villanova's determination on the offensive end was also causing headaches for the Hurricanes in the eyes of the Palm Beach Post's Matt Porter:

The Wildcats' lead quickly grew to 10 points, 47-37, with 18:37 left in the game, and from that point forward, Miami never got closer than within eight. Arcidiacono continued to have the hot hand, laying it in as the shot clock expired at the 16:02 mark, as NCAA March Madness shows:

With the game slipping away, Miami head coach Jim Larranaga deployed a full-court press, which only hastened the Hurricanes' demise, as the Wildcats were able to set up easy shots on the other end. Their passing was a thing of beauty:

ESPN.com's Brian Bennett provided a piece of advice for the Wildcats' opponents in the next round:

ESPN's Kevin Negandhi was also impressed by how Villanova continued to keep its foot on the gas despite owning a sizable advantage:

Villanova will be making its 12th appearance in the Elite Eight, and it will be the third time the Wildcats have reached the regional final under head coach Jay Wright.

They'll face either No. 5 Maryland or Kansas, the tournament's No. 1 overall seed. The Terrapins are the more favorable of the two matchups, but they would be far from pushovers should they upset the Jayhawks.

Kansas has strong balance on both ends of the floor, and the experience of juniors Wayne Selden Jr. and Frank Mason III and senior Perry Ellis can be invaluable at this time of the year.

Much of Maryland's hopes will ride on the shooting stroke of Melo Trimble. The sophomore guard struggled near the end of the regular season and in the Big Ten tournament, but he averaged 21.5 points per game in the Terrapins' last two wins. If he's on, Maryland can hang with any team in the country.

Based on Thursday's performance, though, Villanova will like its chances of reaching the Final Four, no matter whom it plays in the Elite Eight.

Postgame Reaction

According to ESPN's Jeannine Edwards, Villanova isn't going to spend long basking in the glory of Thursday's win:

"They only took 15 threes. Seemed like they took 30 and made 25 of them," said Larranaga, per Gentry Estes of the Courier-Journal. "Seemed like every opportunity we had to get a stop, especially like at the end of the first half, it's a three-point game, they throw it out to [Jenkins] and he buries a 35-footer like it's a layup."

Rodriguez was blunt in his assessment of the game, per Estes: "I don't even know what to think about right now. They shot great percentages. We did, but I feel like at the end of the day they outplayed us. Every loose ball, they got to it first. They got off to a great start. We seemed to make a comeback, but overall they just outplayed us."