Villanova and Xavier played a rollercoaster game on Tuesday night and the Wildcats found themselves at a low point in the progression when the final buzzer sounded, falling to the Musketeers 69-63.
It was a rough start for the ‘Cats, as Xavier made its first five shots while racing out to a 13-4 lead six minutes in. But ‘Nova quickly responded, ripping off a 9-0 run to tie the game and extending it to 14-3 to take its first lead of the game at the 9:41 mark. Xavier would retake the lead briefly, only to see the ‘Cats go on a 12-1 push late in the half to take a 10-point lead. The Musketeers went without a field goal from 6:51 until the period’s final second, when a Xavier layup moved the halftime margin to eight.
Much like the first half, Xavier got the better of things early in the second half, erasing Villanova’s lead in the first 3:38 of the period. Once again, ‘Nova responded, scoring seven of the next eight points to retake a six-point lead. The ‘Cats would maintain that six-point lead inside the five-minute mark, only to see the wheels completely fall off down the stretch.
‘Nova still held a lead of three with 1:51 to go, but Xavier proceeded to go on a 9-0 over 1:07 to take a six-point lead and essentially end the game. ‘Nova would pull within four a couple times over the final 33 seconds, but the damage was done. From the 4:57 mark to the 0:16 mark Villanova was outscored 19-6, watching a six-point lead turn into a seven-point deficit. Over the final 1:51, the Wildcats were outscored 14-5.
‘Nova didn’t play particularly well. The ‘Cats shot just 14-30 (46.7%) on two-point attempts and a dismal 6-14 on layups. They allowed Xavier to shoot 40% from three and committed 14 turnovers, leading to 18 Xavier points. The Wildcats committed an astonishing number of shot clock violations and the offense looked disjointed for much of the game, failing to counter Xavier’s double-teams of Eric Dixon or its coverage of Villanova dribble hand-offs.
“They did a good job getting into our guys, forced us into some areas we didn’t want to be in,” Kyle Neptune said in a brief postgame press conference. “I thought they were very physical and they forced some key turnovers.”
It's a tough loss considering there were several times it looked like the ‘Cats had the game under control combined with how poorly the final five minutes went. The loss is also a massive blow to Villanova’s NCAA Tournament hopes. Villanova will look to get back on track and start a run at attempting to salvage the season on Friday when it hosts Providence at Wells Fargo Center.
