PHILADELPHIA -- Josh Hart has a saying at every Villanova practice, the kind that keeps his unbeaten team focused on the big picture of a potential championship season. We need to create habits that are going to make us successful in April, the sophomore guard tells the Wildcats. April? The only two games played in April are the ones that decide the national championship. The Wildcats have grandiose ambitions and closed out their latest win with a ferocious 6-minute stretch that showed why they are legitimate NCAA championship contenders. JayVaughn Pinkston had 25 points and 10 rebounds and Darrun Hilliard scored 23 points, keeping No. 7 Villanova undefeated with an 82-77 overtime win over Syracuse on Saturday. The Wildcats (11-0) never led until overtime and rallied from a 15-point hole to beat their former Big East rival. Hart hit a 3-pointer and Pinkston tied the score 69-all with 4.2 seconds left in regulation on a basket off a turnover. Hilliards two free throws 57 seconds into OT gave Villanova its first lead of the game 71-69. He was kicked in the face during a scrum and was on the bench when Daniel Ochefu made two free throws that pushed the lead to 74-71. Hilliard was tested for a concussion and not allowed back in the game. Pinkston scored a late bucket, then added a monster block that preserved the lead with 15 seconds left. Hart added 21 points in the most gutty win of the season for the Wildcats. Wed like to come in and win by 15, 20 every game, but its not going to happen, Hart said. We need these kind of games to prepare us for conference, prepare us for April. Rakeem Christmas and Michael Gbinije each scored 18 points for Syracuse (6-4). The Orange never trailed in regulation and the Wildcats could only get as close as one point late in the second half. Pinkstons three-point play with 1:14 left cut the lead to 63-62. Christmas followed with a three-point play off a goaltending call that stretched the lead to four and had the Orange in position to play spoiler for the second straight season -- Villanova was 11-0 last season when it lost at Syracuse. But Pinkston and Hilliard did enough down the stretch against an Orange team that was in foul trouble all game. The Orange had seven players with at least three fouls and three fouled out. The Wildcats were 26 of 32 from the free-throw line; Syracuse 13 of 18. Pinkston was clutch in the final minutes of regulation/OT, just as he was in a win last month against Michigan when he had the go-ahead basket and game-saving block in the final minute of a 60-55 victory. The Orange scored with ease in the first half against a Wildcats defence that failed to make any consistent stops. Gbinije and Trevor Cooney hit consecutive 3s for an 11-point lead. The Wildcats scored six points in 37 seconds to make it a 10-point game, but it was just a blip in an otherwise dismal half. We didnt come into the game with the focus that we should have, coach Jay Wright said. But, over a season, thats going to happen some games. Cooney, who scored 17 points, steadied the Orange with his third 3-pointer of the first half and helped them earn a 43-31 halftime lead. Syracuse just got by Louisiana Tech 71-69 on Sunday, leaving coach Jim Boeheim wondering about his team. While the Wildcats have their aim on March Madness, Boeheim refused to think about the NCAA tournament. Im not worried about that, he said. Im not even thinking about that. Im thinking about playing Colgate. March is a long ways away. TIP-INS Syracuse: Christmas is a Philly native and played for Academy of the New Church. ... The Orange have four nonconference losses for just the second time in Boeheims tenure, and hes in his 39th season. ... Kaleb Joseph had 10 points and 10 assists in 45 minutes. Villanova: The Wildcats trailed at halftime for the third time this season. They had not allowed more than 30 points in the first half this season. ... Hart left the game in the first half with a bloody nose and returned wearing a nameless No. 44 jersey instead of No. 3. He had gauze stuffed inside his nostrils. He made all three shots in the first half and scored 11 points. ... Villanova missed 7 of 8 3s in the first half. RIVALY RENEWED Syracuse and Villanova continued their home-and-home rivalry even though the Orange have played the last two seasons in the ACC. Always one of the hottest basketball tickets in town, 18,369 fans packed the Wells Fargo Center. The teams arent scheduled to play each other next season, though the possibility still remains of a matchup down the road. When Villanova plays someone else here, theyre not going to get 18,000, Boeheim said. UP NEXT Syracuse hosts Colgate on Monday. 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With the league projecting financial growth, there has been speculation that players will take that option in three years, especially since a new national TV contract will be in place by then.Twenty-nine years ago yesterday, 39 supporters who had set off for a football match in Brussels, Belgium would not return home to their loved ones. I remember it vividly. A Wednesday evening, home in London watching the TV with huge anticipation for the annual showpiece event of the Euro soccer calendar - the 1985 European Cup Final between Liverpool and Juventus. The 1984 Italian Champions team included Paolo Rossi, the striker who singlehandedly slayed the might of Brazil when scoring a hat trick against them in the quarterfinals of the 1982 World Cup. Rossi wasnt even the star player. That was Michel Platini, the current UEFA President. Italys Brazil 2014 manager, Cesare Prandelli was on the bench. The 39 innocent supporters were killed in cold blood as they attempted to flee from the onslaught of hooliganism initiated by so called fans of Liverpool. It occurred on the terrace behind the goal where Juventus supporters were in the majority. A wall which prevented the Juventus supporters from escaping collapsed with devastating consequences an hour before the game had been scheduled to kick off. Thirty-eight died instantly, a 39th victim succumbing in hospital three months later. Thirty-two were Italians, four Belgian and two French nationals, even a supporter from Northern Ireland. Reports at the time stated over 600 fans were treated for injuries they suffered. The victims came from a whole cross section of society. Included a couple of mailmen, a pair of chefs, three doctors, several students and store workers, a car mechanic, a soldier, a school boy, a farmer, a fashion photographer , a construction worker, a taxi driver and a school janitor. The youngest of whom was only 11-years old. The Heysel Tragedy. One of soccers darkest moments. In the aftermath, UEFA deemed it acceptable for the match to go ahead. Their reasoning concluded it was in the public safety to do so. Cancelling the match they believed would have led to further mayhem. For the record, courtesy of a second half Michel Platini penalty, Juventus won its first European title. The subsequent investigation into the Heysel Tragedy brought no comfort to the grieving families. The stadium was ill equipped to deal with such an occasion. In the weeks leading up to the final Juventus and Liverpool complained to UEFA, stating their concerns for the stadium. Crumbling infrastructure, inadequate policing and security were key factors in preventing such a tragedy. All that separated the Liverpool and Juventus supporters on that fateful terrace was a chicken wire. Criminal charges werre made.dddddddddddd Convictions for involuntary manslaughter were bought against 14 Liverpool fans in a court case that took over four-years to bring. They served very little jail time. Civil charges against those resulted in a scant award of $7 million to the victims families. The Belgian Football Union was put in the dock too. The BFUs most senior official given a suspended prison sentence for "Regrettable Negligence." UEFA itself was not immune - their president and another senior official receiving conditional discharges. Two days after the tragedy and under severe pressure from Margaret Thatchers government, the English Football Association announced it was banning its clubs from playing in Europe. Within a week, UEFA announced that with immediate effect they were banning English clubs indefinitely. It would be five years before they would be permitted to enter European competitions. Additionally Liverpool were banned for a further three-years but 12 months later that ban was lifted. In a highly moving pre-match ceremony on the pitch before their April 27th match against Chelsea, Liverpool recognized the 25th Anniversary of Hillsborough. Brendan Rodgers led the tributes. Yesterday the club placed a floral tribute beneath the Heysel Memorial Plaque which adorns the Centenary Stand at Anfield. Juventus marked the anniversary late last month in a ceremony at their memorial site for the victims. Yesterday a poignant statement was posted on the clubs website - Heysel, the Day of Silence. Hillsborough has always remained in the public consciousness. Heysel however has not. Look at UEFAs website today and you wouldnt even know such an inhumane tragedy occurred at their showpiece club event. If anything positive came out of Heysel, it was that it signified the beginning of the end of wide scale rioting and hooliganism that had wrought havoc across the English game in the preceding decade. That is not to suggest that today the so termed "English Disease" has been completely eradicated. As millions of supporters begin gathering in the 12 host cities staging this summers World Cup, they do so against a backdrop which includes construction worker fatalities and anti-World Cup protests similar to those which occurred at last summers Confederations Cup where an estimated 1,000,000 Brazilians took to the streets. Come July 13th when the world gathers around its TV sets for the World Cup Final let us hope during these upcoming weeks the world doesnt lay witness to 1 more death in the `name of football. ' ' '