It was the dawn of a new era on Monday night at the Pavilion as the Wildcats kicked off the 2022-23 season without Jay Wright on the sidelines. With Kyle Neptune at the helm, things felt pretty similar by the end of the night as the ‘Cats walked away with an 81-68 win over Big 5 rival La Salle.

Villanova set the tone early, scoring the first points of the game and never trailing. The lead reached double figures on a Caleb Daniels three with 11:58 to go in the first half, and despite a few La Salle runs, the Explorers would never get within single digits again.

Daniels and Eric Dixon led the way for a red hot ‘Nova offense in the first half with the former scoring a team-high 14 first-half points and the latter adding 11 of his own. Each also had three assists in the half, helping ‘Nova to 53.8% shooting and a scorching 66.7% from three.

The ‘Cats also put together a strong performance on the defensive end, holding La Salle to 23 points on 31% shooting. The result was a 37-23 Villanova lead.

Nine Wildcats logged first-half minutes, with Mark Armstrong, Trey Patterson, Angelo Brizzi and Brendan Hausen coming off the bench in support of starters Dixon, Daniels, Brandon Slater, Jordan Longino and Chris Arcidiacono. Six of those nine scored in the period.

Villanova tried to deliver the knockout blow in the second half, but La Salle continued to respond. The ‘Cats pushed the lead to 16 early in the second half, only to see the Explorers pull within 10 just over a minute later. ‘Nova got back to work, taking its largest lead of the game of 21 with just over 10 minutes to go, but once again La Salle hit back, clawing to within 11 with 5:04 to play. La Salle also got as close as 11 with 3:01 to go, but ‘Nova wouldn’t give any further, pushing the advantage back to 18 before settling on the final margin of 13.

“We knew they were gonna make a run,” Neptune said. “Playing for a great coach, it’s a Big 5 game. You know they’re gonna make runs at you, it’s just part of the game. We didn’t feel like the game was over, we knew they were gonna play to the end so throughout a game things happen, you have to have a great attitude and move on. To our guy’s credit we withstood that and we were able to come out with a win.”

Daniels and Dixon were the offensive stars, finishing with 24 and 20 points respectively. Daniels added 10 rebounds and four assists, while Dixon added four assists, two rebounds and three blocks. Daniels shot 8-11 overall and 6-7 from three, while Dixon was 8-17 overall and 2-4 from deep.

“Nothing surprised me about what these guys did,” Neptune said of his offensive stars. “Eric was a freakish scorer in high school and just wasn’t in this role early on in his career. Caleb was a really good scorer in high school and a really good scorer at Tulane, and he played a different role his first couple years here so we had no doubt what they could do offensively.”

After a rough first half offensively for Slater in which he shot just 1-7 and scored two points, he rebounded in the second half, hitting four of seven attempts and finishing with 12 points. Slater added eight rebounds, an assist, a steal and a block. Longino chipped in 12 points of his own.

Rounding out the starting lineup, Arcidiacono had five points, four rebounds and an assist.

Villanova also got some encouraging play from a group of youngsters. Freshman Mark Armstrong went 2-2 from beyond the arc, contributing six points, two assists, a rebound and a steal. Fellow freshman Brendan Hausen didn’t attempt a shot, but had an assist and a steal in his first eight minutes of college action. Redshirt freshman Angelo Brizzi made an immediate impact, executing an excellent shot fake before stepping in around his defender and knocking down a pull-up jump shot on his first offensive possession. That ended up being his only shot attempt, but he also pulled down four rebounds and swiped a steal. He showed a great understanding of Villanova principles, not only with the shot fake but also getting on the floor after loose balls. Trey Patterson grabbed a rebound in 11 minutes of action.

“I think those guys all did a great job,” Neptune said of his young players. “It looked like they played confident. We felt confident with them out there. I thought they all made great plays. They all looked like they’ve been out there a while.”

For the most part, the team looked like a typical Villanova basketball team under Jay Wright. Monday’s opponent didn’t see much of a difference between those Wright teams and the one it played Monday night.

“I wouldn’t say a lot of differences,” La Salle guard Josh Nickelberry said. “They basically played the same game.”

La Salle head coach Fran Dunphy, someone who is plenty familiar with the Villanova program under Wright, agreed with his player.

“Not a lot,” Dunphy said. “There’s gonna be subtle differences. Kyle’s got the right mentality, the right maturity. It looks like he’s really got the way he wants to play down pat. I was very impressed.”

Overall, a night that began with a combination of excitement and uncertainty ended with plenty of optimism. From the strong play by the team’s leaders to the flashes shown by some of the young guys, there was a lot to like about the first game under Neptune.

“I was really proud of our team,” Neptune said. “They made a bunch of runs, we’re trying to figure it out also with a bunch of new guys, guys hurt. I thought by the end we were playing Villanova basketball so I’m proud of what we did.”