It wasn’t easy, but Villanova got back in the win column Monday afternoon with a 77-73 win over Georgetown.

The first half was ultimately defined by two big blows, one from each team.

Villanova jumped out to a 9-4 lead, hitting its first four shot attempts of the afternoon, but Georgetown would respond and get back within one. An 8-2 spurt for the Wildcats would push the lead to seven, but consecutive threes from Georgetown quickly pulled the Hoyas back within one.

It was then that ‘Nova delivered the first big blow, a 10-0 run to push the lead to 30-19. Georgetown, however, would hit right back, ripping off an 8-0 run of its own to pull within three. The Hoyas would extend that push to 14-4 to get within a point at 34-33 with 2:14 to play in the half. A Mark Armstrong three would extend Villanova’s cushion to two possessions heading into the break.

It was a good half offensively for ‘Nova, who shot 52% overall and 50% from three. All eight Wildcats who saw first half minutes scored, with Cam Whitmore leading the way with eight. Caleb Daniels added seven, while Brandon Slater and Armstrong had six each. Villanova also committed just four turnovers, a welcome number after some of the recent performances.

Defensively it was a mixed bag. ‘Nova had some good moments and forced Georgetown to take some tough shots. The Hoyas deserve credit for knocking down some of those shots. However, there were also some breakdowns. For the half, Georgetown shot 48% overall and 43% from three. The Wildcats did do a nice job being disruptive, causing seven Georgetown turnovers, six of which were steals by the ‘Cats.

One other note of interest about the first half: Villanova made a concerted effort to run more. Early in the game, coach Neptune was imploring his players to run after defensive rebounds, and you could see the ‘Cats advancing the ball faster and looking for early opportunities to score. ‘Nova scored seven points off the fast break in the first half, and even when they didn’t score off early offense, it’s conceivable that the improved pace helped the halfcourt offense find success.

Despite the rather slim margin, the Wildcats played pretty well in the first half. The second half was not nearly as smooth.

Things started off well enough, with the ‘Cats scoring five of the first seven points in the period to push the lead to seven. Then, in a scene that is becoming familiar to ‘Nova fans, the wheels fell off. Georgetown ripped off a 9-0 run to take a two-point lead. That run would extend to 15-2 and the Hoyas would hold a six-point advantage with 13:05 to play. A pair of Slater free throws at 12:11 stopped the bleeding, but the damage was done and Villanova was in a fight.

‘Nova struggled mightily at both ends during that stretch. Through the first eight minutes of the half, Georgetown hit 8-12 shots while ‘Nova was just 2-10. That’s a recipe to see a seven-point lead turn into a six-point deficit if ever there was one.

The Wildcats steadied themselves following Slater’s free throws, pulling within two a couple of times before Georgetown responded to push the lead back to six with 8:16 remaining. Unlike in some other close games this season, however, this time Villanova had a response.

The ‘Cats got to work chipping away, tying the game at 63 with 6:17 to go and retaking the lead on a pair of Dixon free throws with 5:42 to play. A free throw from Daniels and a layup from Armstrong would cap a 12-1 ‘Nova push and put the ‘Cats in front by five with 4:19 left.

Georgetown, sensing an opportunity for its first Big East win in nearly two years, wouldn’t go away and was able to retake the lead with a 6-0 run. It would hold a two-point lead with 2:22 to go after that push extended to 8-1. That punch by Georgetown was powered by Primo Spears, who hit two really tough jumpers in the stretch.

“He’s unbelievable at those pull-ups,” Neptune said of Spears’ display.

A Slater layup tied the game with 1:53 left. Georgetown went back to Spears and the same set that had worked the last two trips down the court, but this time Dixon ended up on the guard and blocked yet another mid-range jumper attempt. The ‘Nova big man proceeded to score a layup on the other end and draw a foul, which he converted to put the ‘Cats up three.

After a questionable foul on Slater followed by a questionable travel call on Slater, Georgetown had the ball trailing by one with 30 seconds left. At this point, Slater decided he had had enough of the officials having a say in things and proceeded to steal the ball from Spears and pass it ahead to Whitmore for a dunk and a three-point lead with 11 seconds left.

After a Georgetown timeout with seven seconds left, Brandon Murray attempted a difficult, drifting, fading three-point attempt immediately upon receiving the inbounds, which missed, and Dixon secured the rebound and hit one of two at the line to ice the victory for ‘Nova.

Georgetown shot 60% in the second half, which certainly isn’t ideal, but the ‘Cats were able to dig in and get the stops when they really needed them, an encouraging sign.

“We told our guys the offense is fine, we gotta get stops,” Neptune said. “We’re a work in progress in that regard but we just gotta continue to get better.”

It wasn’t a perfect performance, but we’re not really in a position to nit-pick wins at this point. Outside of the defensive struggles in the first half, Villanova was dominated on the glass, getting outrebounded 33-21 and securing just one offensive rebound all game. The offense going ice-cold to start the second half also served to highlight the inconsistency that has come to haunt the ‘Cats this season.

But unlike in other close games this season, Villanova was able to make the necessary plays to close the game and executed well down the stretch. That’s huge. But there were some other things we really liked about the performance. One, the scoring was balanced. All eight players that saw the court scored, and five reached double figures: Daniels (16), Slater (15), Armstrong (14, ties career high), Whitmore (13) and Dixon (12). In addition, Villanova both took care of the ball (seven turnovers) and forced turnovers. Georgetown had 13 giveaways and nine of them came via Villanova steals. Finally, and this might go hand in hand with the forced turnovers, Villanova looked to get out and run a bit more. Even early in the game, before the steals started piling up, Neptune was imploring the ‘Cats to get up the court after a defensive rebound, and they obliged. The result was 13 fast break points and a rare advantage in that category for the ‘Cats.

I asked Neptune about the seemingly concerted effort to get out and run but he declined to give a straight answer. He did, however, comment on the steals.

“We’ve been talking about how can we get into guys and force some turnovers,” Neptune said. “I think our guys did a good job.”

They did do a good job in that area and the impact on the game was clear. We noted that we’d be looking for improvement, and we saw some in some key areas Monday afternoon. Getting the win and snapping the three-game losing streak was the cherry on top.

The ‘Cats will look to build on the performance on Friday night when they travel to St. John’s.