Things did not go well for Villanova against Butler on Sunday. The Wildcats were ice cold from beyond the arc and the defense regressed a bit after the last two games, and as a result ‘Nova suffered a frustrating 73-61 defeat at the hands of the Bulldogs.

“Obviously a disappointing game for us but I think most of the credit goes to Butler,” Jay Wright said. “They were really in us, very physical, and it affected us.”

Things started off well enough. Justin Moore opened the scoring with a dunk, and Villanova was having success getting into the paint and scoring. The teams traded blows and exchanged the lead for much of the half, finding themselves deadlocked at 20 with just under five minutes to play in the half. That’s when things went south for the ‘Cats.

The Bulldogs ripped off an 11-0 run over the next three and a half minutes and ultimately took a 10-point lead into the break.

Villanova had a stretch of over six minutes without a field goal and at one point made just one of its last 12 attempts. For the half, the ‘Cats shot 30.8% overall and just 11.1% from 3. They were outscored by 15 points from beyond the arc and by six in second-chance points.

The Wildcats wouldn’t go down without a fight and mounted several comeback attempts. They pulled within five just over five minutes into the second half, but Butler responded with a 12-2 run to push the lead right back to 15. Villanova also got within seven with 6:13 to play but Butler again answered with an 11-4 push to retake a 14-point lead. The Wildcats wouldn’t get closer than eight the rest of the way before ultimately losing by 12.

“The consistency defensively,” Wright said about the team’s inability to get any closer than it did in the second half. “We put some good possessions together, got it back to five, got it back to seven, and then broke down. We were just a step behind. We’re just not there yet defensively where we can do the things that we want to do. We just gotta keep working on it, trying to keep getting better.”

By the time the final buzzer sounded, the offensive numbers were dismal. The Wildcats shot 37% overall and just 2-27 from 3 (7%).

“I thought we did get some good looks,” Wright said. “I think that when you’re a really good team you find ways on those nights, you find other ways, you get to the foul line, you get some offensive rebounds, you play good defense, and we just hadn’t gotten there yet as a team. I think we can.”

“When we were putting the ball in the post we were getting good looks but guys were doing a good job staying on their line, staying with their man, making us shoot tough twos, contested threes,” Collin Gillespie added.

Despite the poor shooting, Jeremiah Robinson-Earl didn’t think the execution was bad. “I think we did a good job on the offensive end just some shots didn’t go in,” Robinson-Earl said. “Their guards are very talented and their bigs are very physical. They did a good job playing interior defense and then also taking away shots we normally get on the perimeter.”

Butler made some solid adjustments and was able to slow Villanova’s early success in the paint without compromising what it was doing on the perimeter.

Sometimes the shots aren’t going to fall, although we haven’t seen anything quite that bad from 3 in the Jay Wright era. Still, the more disappointing factor was that the defense lacked the sting it had in the two previous games.

Butler has struggled mightily on offense this season but was able to hit 50% of its field goals and 42% of its 3s on Sunday, both well over its season averages. In addition, it was just the fifth time this season that Butler has eclipsed the 70-point mark. As Wright noted, Villanova just couldn’t get stops consistently enough and it ultimately cost them the game.

“They were outstanding, their guards just dominated the game,” Wright said. “We just couldn’t control them.”