STORRS, Conn. -- Alex Oriakhi has been telling Kemba Walker since the preseason that he is the best player in the country. After Walker's latest effort, there will be a lot more believers.

Walker went by his man and drove through the lane for a 10-foot floater with 2.5 seconds left that gave No. 8 Connecticut a 61-59 victory over No. 7 Villanova on Monday.

The winning shot capped Walker's worst shooting performance of the season (6 of 18), but he still finished with 24 points, just off his 25.6 average that is second in the nation.

"I want the ball in my hands being the leader of this team," Walker said. "I wanted Shabazz [Napier] to run down some time so we would get the last shot. I got it and I knew another guy was going to come and I tried to go before he came, get by my man and get the shot off."

He made it sound a lot easier than it was.

"They ran two guys at him, so Kemba did what Kemba does," Huskies coach Jim Calhoun said. "He split the two, and got to where he wanted to be. That's an amazing play."

Villanova, and all 10,167 people in Gampel Pavilion, knew who was going to get the ball for the last play. It didn't matter.

"We wanted to double him but he's so fast we couldn't catch him," Villanova coach Jay Wright said.

"He's fast but he's really fast with the ball and he stops on a dime to get space for those shots."