WASHINGTON — Yes, there was contact. No one disputes that Villanova's Corey Stokes bumped Georgetown's Jonathan Wallace in the backcourt with the score tied and less than one second to play.

But was it the time and place to call a foul? That one could be debated a while.

In this case, the whistle did blow, and Wallace sank the two free throws with 0.1 seconds remaining Monday night to give the No. 8 Hoyas a 55-53 victory.

"At first I thought I stepped out of bounds — because I was trying to make a play with the time running down," said Wallace, who was dribbling some 70 feet from the basket when the call was made. "But I did kind of (feel a) nudge when I was trying to turn the corner."

"So," Wallace shrugged, "a call's a call."

Wallace scored 15 points for the Hoyas (20-3, 10-2 Big East), who have won seven of eight and bounced back from a loss at Louisville on Saturday. Georgetown also broke an 0-6 skid in Washington against Villanova, beating the Wildcats at home for the first time since a 78-67 victory at the US Air Arena in 1997.

Georgetown blew a 12-point second-half lead and scored only two field goals over the final 8 minutes, but Stokes' foul — the 48th in a frustrating, stop-and-start game — was the break they needed to avoid the upset.

"Wallace was dribbling, and the ref called a foul," said Stokes, who became the game's fourth player to foul out on the play. "What are you going to do?"

Scottie Reynolds scored 24 points to lead the Wildcats (14-9, 4-7), who have lost six of seven.

Reynolds tied the game with a running layup in traffic with 1:05 to play. After Georgetown's Austin Freeman missed a 3-pointer, the Wildcats set up a final shot. There was no doubt the ball would be in Reynolds' hands.

"I just tried to stay in front to him and do the best I could so he couldn't get a shot off," Georgetown guard Jeremiah Rivers said. "When he drove baseline, he ran out of places to go."

Damion James scored 12 points and grabbed 13 rebounds in the second half, and Texas held off visiting Kansas.James missed most of the first half with foul trouble, then provided the muscle the Longhorns (20-4, 7-2 Big 12) needed to counter the Jayhawks' size and strength under the basket. James finished with 14 points. Connor Atchely led Texas with 16 points and A.J. Abrams added 14 points.Darrell Arthur scored 22 to lead the Jayhawks (23-2, 8-2), who lost for just the second time in 33 regular season games dating back to last season. Mario Chalmers missed a final 3-pointer in the final second that would have sent the game into overtime.

Diamon Simpson made two free throws with 24.4 seconds left to give visiting Saint Mary's (21-3, 8-1 West Coast Conference) the lead and finished with 12 points and seven rebounds.