After a stunning last-place finish in the Big Five last season, Villanova entered Saturday’s game against Temple with a chance to claim significant improvement in this year’s battle of the Philadelphia schools. The Wildcats took advantage of that chance, beating the Owls in emphatic fashion to claim third place in the Big Five with a 94-65 win.
“I thought our guys came out really focused defensively in the first half, made it tough for them to get easy shots,” Kyle Neptune said. “They present a unique challenge because they have multiple players who can isolate and go score on their own. Give our guys a lot of credit. I thought we came in and kind of took them out of what they wanted to do, and then we made shots which didn’t hurt.”
It was as good a first half as Villanova could have asked for.
Temple hit just one of its first 10 field goal attempts, and Villanova took advantage, building a 15-4 lead. The Wildcats would essentially maintain a double-figure lead the rest of the half. The surge, unsurprisingly, was led by Eric Dixon, who scored 11 points over the game’s first 6:19.
The Owls did you six straight points to pull within six just over halfway through the period, but Villanova responded with an 8-0 run, powered by back-to-back threes by Tyler Perkins, to extend the advantage right back to 14. Temple wouldn’t get within single digit for the rest of the half, and a thunderous dunk from Wooga Poplar just before the halftime buzzer sent the ‘Cats to the locker room with their biggest lead of the evening.
‘Nova outshot Temple 59 percent to 30 percent, including 8-14 from three to Temple’s 4-14. The ‘Cats had a 20-14 edge on the glass and an 8-0 advantage in second chance points. The only real area of concern for Villanova was turnovers, as the ‘Cats committed seven in the half against a Temple team that entered the game ranked 309th in the country in opponent’s turnover percentage.
The second half proved to be a continuation of things. ‘Nova got right to work extending the lead and continued to do so almost all the way to the final buzzer, taking a 32-point lead with 31 seconds left before a Temple old-fashioned three-point play cut the final margin to 29.
Villanova shot 57.7 percent to Temple’s 45.8 percent. The ‘Cats shot a scorching 69% from deep in the half, outscoring the Owls by 24 from beyond the arc in the second half and by 36 for the game. ‘Nova cut down on the turnovers a bit, committing five in the second half, but did a good job limiting Temple’s ability to turn those giveaways into points. The Owls turned Villanova’s five second-half miscues into just five points and for the game had nine points off 12 ‘Nova giveaways. The ‘Cats meanwhile, had 13 points off seven Temple turnovers.
It was the three-point shooting that really stood out, with ‘Nova connecting on 19-30 from deep (63 percent). Seven Wildcats hit at least one three-pointer. Five of those seven hit multiple threes.
Going back to Tuesday’s win over Cincinnati, Villanova has put together arguably its four best halves and most complete performances certainly of the season and likely dating back to early last season.
The ‘Cats will look to keep the run going Wednesday when they host Fairleigh Dickinson on Wednesday.
