Cats fall to rival St. Joe's 83-76

On Tuesday, the Wildcats fell to St. Joe’s 83-76 in the latest iteration of the rivalry, and have now lost consecutive battles to the Hawks after losing 78-65 last year. It’s the first time Villanova has lost consecutive matchups to the Hawks since the 2002-03 and 2003-04 seasons and just the fourth time that has happened since the 1978-79 and 1979-80 seasons.

Kyle Neptune summed up the evening succinctly.

“We couldn’t get stops at some key moments,” Neptune said. “I thought they played harder than us tonight.”

It was a back-and-forth first half worthy of the rivalry’s moniker.

St. Joe’s opened the scoring and kept ‘Nova at arm’s length throughout the early part of the game, leading by as many as six before a pair of Wooga Poplar free throws extended a Villanova run to 7-0 and gave the Wildcats their first lead of the game. That run would get to 9-0 before Dasear Haskins three ended it and re-tied the game.

After St. Joe’s took a two-point lead minutes later, ‘Nova landed another sizeable punch with a 10-0 run to build an eight-point lead with just under five minutes to play in the half, but the Hawks would close the period with a 9-3 push to pull within one at the break. In a scene that was eerily reminiscent of last season, that run was capped by a St. Joe’s three at the buzzer (and right after Eric Dixon had buried a three at the other end).

Villanova was saved by the free throw line in the first half, as the Wildcats hit 11-13 attempts and built an eight-point advantage from the stripe. Conversely, ‘Nova was -9 in the three-point battle and committed five turnovers against a St. Joe’s team that doesn’t force a ton of miscues. Both teams struggled overall offensively, with ‘Nova shooting 36.7% and St. Joe’s connecting on 41.9%.

St. Joe’s landed the first big blow of the second half, ripping off a 15-0 run to turn a four-point deficit into an 11-point lead. To Villanova’s credit, it kept battling and used an 18-6 run to retake the lead with 6:38 to play. But St. Joe’s answered with six straight points to go back up five. ‘Nova would get within two with 3:39 to play, but that would be as close as it would get, as, in another scene reminiscent of last year, the ‘Cats looked out of gas after working hard to erase a double-figure deficit. In the final minute, Villanova gave up a key offensive rebound that led to two Hawks’ free throws and two fast break dunks. Each of those incidents occurred with the Wildcats trailing by three, allowing the Hawks to push the lead back to five. St. Joe’s would ice the game by going 4-4 from the line.

“I thought our intensity dipped as the game went,” Neptune lamented.

We’ll dig into specifics more in our further postgame coverage, but among the many concerns arising from the loss is that Villanova allowed St. Joe’s to perform well and build an advantage in areas of the game that it had not been excelling at to start the season, particularly both forcing and committing turnovers and three-point shooting (especially in the first half for the latter.)

Villanova committed 16 turnovers leading to 16 points for St. Joe’s, which also helped the Hawks pile up 21 fast break points. The Wildcats assisted on just nine of their 27 made field goals.

“I thought they got into us, I thought their pressure affected us,” Neptune said. “I thought they got us a little out of sync. Defensively they came after us. We gotta shore that up, we gotta get the ball moving a little bit more, we gotta share the ball a little bit more.”

“We just have to do what we do,” Neptune added. “That’s what a team like that is trying to get you to do, not be able to make those extra passes. They did what they did defensively better than we did what we did offensively.”

It’s only four games into the season, but it already feels like Villanova is desperately fighting for its tournament hopes.