Basketball isn’t a beauty pageant, something Villanova is grateful for following Friday night’s 57-49 win over St. John’s.

The two teams set basketball back about 100 years in the first half. It was UGLY.

You could say Villanova got off to a slow start, but does it qualify as a slow start if it lasts the whole half? Anyway, the ‘Cats hit just one of their first nine attempts while committing four turnovers and suffering through a 6:22 drought. Proving just how astoundingly bad both teams were offensively, the game was tied at six despite those atrocious numbers by Villanova.

Neither team ever really heated up, and with 12 minutes elapsed the game was tied at 12. With 3:44 to go, the teams had combined for 14 made field goals and 17 turnovers. At that point, Villanova was just 1-8 from two-point range and 0-5 on layups. By the time the halftime buzzer sounded, ‘Nova was shooting 35% (20% from two-point range) and St. John’s was shooting 31% (33% from two, 29% from three). Villanova had 10 turnovers while St. John’s had nine.

One final illustration of the offensive struggles for Villanova: at one point the Wildcats were playing offense 5-on-4 as Andre Curbelo laid on the ground complaining to the official at the other end and not only did they not score, they failed to even get a shot up. Instead, they turned it over. Sums up what we saw in the first half pretty well.

The second half wasn’t much better, at least for much of the period. 12:30 into the second half Villanova had hit just 4-16 attempts and 1-6 from three. For the game to that point, the ‘Cats had 13 made field goals and 16 turnovers which led to 17 points for St. John’s.

Still, St. John’s wasn’t faring much better offensively. The Johnnies did manage a 6-0 run to take a six-point lead with 10:58 to play. The lead was still six at the 8:32 mark, but Villanova got to work chipping away. An Eric Dixon bucket put ‘Nova back in the lead with 4:31 to go, 47-46. That bucket produced the fourth and fifth points in what would become a 9-0 ‘Nova run that pushed the ‘Nova lead to five with 2:23 to play.

St. John’s would cut the lead to three on the ensuing possession, and then there was no scoring for a minute and a half before Villanova made some clutch plays down the stretch. First, Eric Dixon did a wonderful job pivoting to draw a foul just before the expiration of the shot clock with 25 seconds to go. He split his free throws to put ‘Nova up four. On the ensuing possession, Dixon got a steal that led to a Brandon Slater dunk, and that would be all ‘Nova needed.

“I think it was just us staying on the attack, looking for each other a little bit more, things opened up as we got in the paint a little bit more, kick-outs and extra passes and that’s what got us going,” Mark Armstrong said of the dominating stretch to end the game.

It wasn’t pretty, but it was a much-needed win. Villanova really turned it up over the final eight and a half minutes, ending the game on a 19-5 run. The ‘Cats didn’t commit a turnover over the final seven minutes after committing 16 over the first 33 minutes of the game, and they made the big plays down the stretch. Also, despite the offensive struggles, ‘Nova did a great job staying with it defensively and produced one of their better defensive efforts of the season.

St. John’s shot 32% overall and 25% from three and committed 17 turnovers.

“I thought start to finish defensively we were really good and that’s really what we ask our guys to do,” Kyle Neptune said. “Win, lose or draw if we play like that defensively we’ll be proud of our guys.”

‘Nova also got great contributions from the older leaders once again. Caleb Daniels led the way with 16 points. Brandon Slater had 14 points, all in the second half, to go with four rebounds, an assist and a steal as well as strong work on the defensive end. His efforts earned him a team-high +18. Eric Dixon struggled offensively, failing to reach double figures for the first time this season and shooting just 1-10 from the field for seven points. But he pulled down 11 rebounds, dished two assists and had a steal and made several key plays for the ‘Cats late on both ends. Neptune praised his leaders after the game, particularly Slater.

“He’s been our rock defensively, I’m really proud of his effort,” Neptune said of Slater.

Armstrong also praised Dixon for sticking with it despite the offensive struggles and for contributing in other ways and making those key plays late.

For the second straight game Villanova made plays down the stretch and was able to close out a tight game, an important step forward after some struggles in that department throughout the season. The win got the ‘Cats back to .500 at 10-10 and to 4-5 in the Big East, good for a sixth place tie and just a game-and-a-half out of fourth.

The ‘Cats will get a long layoff before getting the opportunity to keep things rolling when they host Providence on January 29.