Just 12 days ago, Villanova upset No. 9 UConn to earn its eighth win in its last nine games. The win seemingly validated the improved basketball the Wildcats had been playing over the prior six weeks after a shaky start to the season and had them looking like a dangerous team that was heading back towards NCAA Tournament contention.
Since that win, Villanova has gone 1-3 and has not only destroyed the goodwill generated by the UConn win and previous six weeks of strong play, but also any remaining margin for error despite six weeks to go in the season. It gets worse. In one of those three losses, Villanova led Xavier by six with under five minutes to play and lost by six. In another of those losses, Villanova trailed St. John’s by one with 2:35 to play and lost by 12. And yet, what we saw Monday night might have been the worst yet.
On Monday, at home, Villanova led Georgetown by eight with 4:52 remaining. The Wildcats did not score again in the game and lost 64-63.
“Lot of credit goes to Georgetown,” Kyle Neptune said. “I thought our guys battled, Georgetown just stuck in there the entire game and really locked up defensively the last couple minutes and we just didn’t have enough in the end.”
“Turnovers,” Neptune added. “I give them a lot of credit. They came after us, they were physical, they forced us into some turnovers. They executed, we didn’t.”
It was a bit of a strange first half. Villanova opened the scoring with a Wooga Poplar three, then proceeded to not score for nearly four minutes. Fortunately for the Wildcats, Georgetown was just as cold and had only managed five points of its own during Villanova’s drought, so when Eric Dixon hit a three to break said drought, it put Villanova back in the lead.
Then Wooga Poplar was ejected from the game with 12:27 to go in the first half. The sequence started inconspicuously enough, with some light trash talk as Georgetown was preparing to inbound the ball. Things escalated slightly, but then the officials stepped in and seemed to calm things down. But then Thomas Sorber decided to join the cluster of players, bumping Poplar while doing so. Poplar exploded, throwing a quasi-punch, open-handed shove type maneuver in Sorber’s direction. He didn’t connect, but the intent was apparently enough, as he was shown the door following a replay review. Sorber also received a technical.
Neptune declined to offer details on the Poplar incident.
“I didn’t see it,” Neptune said. “They said he threw a punch.”
Amid all of that, it was a half of runs. ‘Nova produced runs of 7-0, 5-0 and 8-0. Georgetown had runs of 7-0 and 10-3. When the dust settled, the Wildcats had a seven-point lead.
The start of the second half played out similarly. After Georgetown opened the scoring, ‘Nova ripped off an 8-0 run to push the lead to 13. The Hoyas responded a few minutes later with a 6-0 push to pull back within five, but ‘Nova came right back with a 7-0 spurt to reestablish a 12-point lead with 9:21 to play. Alas, back-to-back threes from Jayden Epps cut the ‘Nova lead in half with just over eight minutes left. Eric Dixon answered with a three of his own as the teams combined for six straight baskets coming from beyond the arc. As the series of traded baskets seemingly put an end to the streaky nature the game had had up to that point, ‘Nova maintained what felt like a fairly comfortable six-point lead with 6:12 to go. When the lead had grown to eight with 4:52 to play, it legitimately felt like the ‘Cats were in complete control. And then it happened.
Villanova was suddenly unable to put the ball in the basket. Despite this, the ‘Cats still led by eight with under three to play as they were able to prevent the Hoyas from scoring and making any inroads. But Georgetown would eventually find a way, ending the game on a 9-0 run over the game’s final 2:34, including 7-0 over the final 1:24, with the final blow coming with two seconds remaining. Villanova managed to get a surprisingly good look at a potential game-winning basket considering it had less than two seconds, but Dixon’s jumper was off the mark.
Over the final 4:52, Villanova went 0-5 from the floor, missed a free throw and had one wiped off because of a lane violation and committed three turnovers.
Villanova shot better than Georgetown while holding the Hoyas to 36% overall, outrebounded Georgetown by 11 and won second chance points 22-10, made the same amount of threes at a better efficiency and led for 35:19. But the ‘Cats committed 16 turnovers to just eight for Georgetown, leading to a 16-8 Hoya advantage in points off turnovers, and once again could not find a way to make a play down the stretch.
“We held them to 64 points, decent splits in terms of percentages, so it’s the small things,” Neptune said. “When you talk about a game like that it’s the small things that matter. Unfortunately for us we just didn’t get it done in those moments.”
Ultimately, it was a nearly unfathomable loss, and one that likely dooms Villanova’s tournament hopes.
