NEW YORK -- Villanova's second win over Syracuse in less than a week could be the one that ended the Orangemen's chances of an NCAA Tournament at-large bid.

Gary Buchanan scored 21 points, and Villanova closed the game with a 14-3 run to beat Syracuse 78-64 Wednesday night in the opening round of the Big East tournament.

The loss was the fourth straight for Syracuse (20-11) and ninth in its last 13 games, weak numbers for the NCAA selection committee to mull over as the field of 65 is settled.

Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim didn't even wait for the question about his team's chances to finish before he started answering it.

"It's out of my hands. It's out of my hands," he said. "Whatever I think doesn't matter."

The Wildcats (17-11) advanced to Thursday's quarterfinals and will play No. 19 Connecticut (21-6), which won the conference's East Division.

"This was a very rewarding win for our team, to beat a team with 20 wins in Madison Square Garden in the Big East tournament," Villanova coach Jay Wright said. "We've been playing good ball and this was a good win for us and our program."

Buchanan hit the first of three 3-pointers the Wildcats made on consecutive possessions for a 46-45 lead with 10:34 to play. Derrick Snowden's 3 with 9:39 left gave Villanova a 49-47 lead. After DeShaun Williams tied the game on jumper with 9:17 left, Reggie Bryant hit the last of Villanova's 3-pointers and it had the lead for good, 52-49 with 8:51 to play.

Preston Shumpert's turnaround jumper with 4:00 left brought Syracuse within 64-61, but Buchanan hit a jumper 48 seconds later to start Villanova's game-closing run.

"Gary made some great plays, not just great shots," Wright said. "It's his job to make plays and he did."

Snowden finished with 13 points for Villanova, while Ricky Wright and Bryant each had 11. Wright grabbed 12 rebounds for the Wildcats, who were 8-for-19 from 3-point range, with Buchanan going 4-for-10 and Bryant 3-for-6.

The Wildcats beat Syracuse 67-61 in Philadelphia last Thursday.

Shumpert had 21 points for the Orangemen, while Williams had 12, and Craig Forth 11 points and 10 rebounds. It was Syracuse's first loss in five opening-round tournament games.

Syracuse shot 51.9 percent from the field in the first half (14-for-27), but that fell off to 31.6 in the second (12-for-38).

"I don't know if they did anything different but we certainly did," Boeheim said when asked about the difference in shooting percentages. "We got the same or better shots than we had in the first half."

Syracuse started the Big East season by winning six of its first seven conference games, but finished 9-7 in league play, including losing its last three home games.

"This is the way we played the last 11, 12 games," Boeheim said. "We haven't played well enough to win. We got great effort and good opportunities but I just don't think we've played well over the last 12 games."