New-look Cats open season with win over Lafayette

The game didn’t go the way many expected, with the ‘Cats leading by just one at halftime and even trailing early in the second half. But Villanova was able to rebuff each Lafayette push, including a final one that saw the Leopards pull within six late in the second half after ‘Nova had opened up a 13-point lead. That would be as close as Lafayette would get, with the Wildcats pushing the lead back to double figures and earning the 12-point win.

There were a couple times where it looked like Villanova might pull away in the first half. One of those times was derailed by a rather bizarre sequence. About six minutes into the game, Nnanna Njoku was grabbing a rebound when he lost control of the ball, only to see it fall into the basket for two points for Lafayette. After a Villanova turnover on the ensuing possession, Wooga Poplar got a steal and cruised the other way for a dunk, sending a jolt through the Pavilion crowd. However, there was a whistle on the play, with a double dribble call taking the basket off the board. Lafayette proceeded to knock down a three on its next possession, turning what looked like it was going to be a momentum-shifting sequence that pushed Villanova’s lead to nine into a 5-0 Lafayette run the cut the ‘Nova advantage to just two. The teams would stay within two possessions of each other for the remainder of the half.

It was just a strange turn of events that hampered the Wildcats in the first half, however. Villanova shot a dismal 9-21 from two-point range and committed nine first-half turnovers, including three in a span of 2:46. The defense was generally good, but there was a pair of egregious breakdowns in the span of a minute late in the half that helped the Leopards keep things close.

As we noted, ‘Nova trailed by a point early in the second half and the game was tied with just over 16 minutes to play. But that’s when the Wildcats land the first truly big blow of the game, ripping off an 11-0 run to open up a double-figure lead. ‘Nova would lead by as many as 13, and while a feisty Lafayette team would pull within six with five-and-a-half minutes left, it would get no closer as the ‘Cats had the answers the rest of the way.

‘Nova was much more efficient on two-point attempts in the second half, hitting 18-26 tries. After losing the points in the paint battle in the first half (18-14), the ‘Cats outscored Lafayette 26-16 in the paint in the second half. Meanwhile, while the defense was solid in the first half, it was better in the second half. ‘Nova limited Lafayette to 38.7% shooting overall, including 33.3% from three and just 8-19 (42.1%) on two-point attempts.

“I thought both teams came out and played extremely hard,” Kyle Neptune said. “They got into us to start the game, forced a couple turnovers. I thought we kind of battled through that, weathered that storm and started to put our imprint on the game. Then they still hung around, made some runs. I thougth we were gonna separate a little bit and then they made another run. A lot of credit to those guys, they played hard.”

“I thought our guys just settled down,” Neptune added. “This is the first game of the season, so you don’t know how teams are gonna play. You’re anticipating they might play a certain way, they don’t play that way, you gotta adjust at halftime. I thougth we adjusted well, calmed down a little bit, were a lilttle bit more under control and stopped turning the ball over as much as we did in the first half.”

The game didn’t follow the script many expected it to, but Villanova was playing without its best player (Eric Dixon serving a one-game suspension) and was integrating a ton of new pieces. The ‘Cats showed some nice flashes, got solid contributions from a lot of the roster (seven Wildcats scored, five in double figures) and handled adversity to get the season started on the right foot.