While Villanova was expected to easily handle DePaul Friday night, ‘Nova Nation has seen this season that things don’t always work out the way it appears they will on paper. This time they did, as the Wildcats cruised to a 94-69 win over the Blue Demons.

It was kind of a quirky first half.

Villanova scored the first four points and six of the game’s first eight, with Eric Dixon showing some nice moves in the paint and Justin Moore getting right back to it upon his return from a knee injury. The teams proceeded to trade jabs, fueled by an unusual amount of offensive rebounds. Nine minutes and three seconds into the game, DePaul had pulled down six rebounds, three of which came on the offensive end. The Blue Demons had pulled down 60% of their misses at that point. Villanova, meanwhile, had more offensive rebounds (four) than defensive rebounds (three) at this point, pulling down 57% of its misses. The ball was taking some weird bounces, with several ‘Nova players getting hit with the ball in their face, chest, torso and legs after it didn’t go where they expected it to.

While the rebounding drifted back toward more normal numbers after the strange start, the final 11 minutes would be characterized by points coming in bunches. A 7-0 push from ‘Nova opened the largest lead of the game at six, and the ‘Cats would score another six straight around a DePaul three too push the overall run to 13-3 while establishing a nine-point advantage.

But DePaul scored the next five points, prompting a timeout from Kyle Neptune. ‘Nova responded with five-straight of its own, only for DePaul to respond with a 7-0 push to cut the Wildcat lead to two. Villanova proceeded to land a haymaker with a 13-0 run to take a 15-point lead with 1:40 to go in the half, but DePaul would score the final five points of the half to trim the lead to 10.

There was a lot to like about Villanova’s first-half performance. It was incredibly clean, as the ‘Cats didn’t commit a single turnover and generally communicated and rotated well defensively. Eight Wildcats scored, and Brendan Hausen nearly set a new career high, hitting 5-6 from beyond the arc for 15 points. However, Villanova did allow DePaul to shoot 52% overall and 56% from three, both well above its season averages. There has been a stark difference in opponent field goal percentage in Villanova’s wins vs. its losses (38.4% in wins with no opponent better than 41.3%, 50.6% in losses with no opponent worse than 48%), so there was some concern with DePaul’s marks in the first half.

In the second half, there would be no trading of runs like we saw in the first half. Villanova scored five of the first six points of the half and never looked back, building the lead up until the last minute of the game, when it reached 27 before settling at 25. Villanova continued to play solid defense, and this time it paid dividends, as DePaul shot just 41% overall and 27% from three.

“I thought our guys came out really focused,” Neptune said. “I thought they did everything we asked them to do. I think we defended, especially in the second half, much better. I thought that was key for the victory.”

The Wildcats won virtually every statistical category, but a few in particular stand out.

One is points in the paint, where the ‘Cats outscored DePaul 50-32. 39 of Villanova’s 59 shot attempts came from two-point range, with the ‘Cats connecting on 64% of those attempts.

The second is points off turnovers. Here Villanova had an 18-2 advantage, committing just four turnovers all night.

“That was good for us,” Neptune said of taking care of the ball and executing on offense. “I think as we go, we’ll only get better offensively. We’ve been a defensive minded team throughout the year, we’ve really battled to get to where we are defensively. I think we’re in a decent spot, I think we can get better. I think we knew as a coaching staff offensively we would probably be behind and would have to catch up, and I think we’re starting to do that.”

Hausen had a quiet offensive second half overall, but the one basket he did score was a loud one as he slammed home a fast-break dunk to the delight of the Finneran Pavilion crowd.

“I had a little bounce in high school, I haven’t got to really show it here,” Hausen said. “Got one tonight, it was exciting.”

Of course, his limited production in the second half did little to diminish his scorching hot first half.

“My teammates, my coaches did a good job of getting me shots,” Hausen said. “My teammates did a really good job of finding me.”

“We had a couple sets that we went to, but I thought the guys did a good job of sharing the ball, I thought the ball really moved,” Neptune said of getting his sharpshooter shots. “It’s hard to lock on him when the ball moves that way.”

“Lots and lots of reps, I feel like it’s going in every time,” Hausen added.

Hausen finished with 17 points on 6-7 shooting, including 5-6 from three. He was also a +20, the second-best mark on the team.

Hausen also had plenty of help from his teammates, as eight Wildcats scored and five reached double figures.

Dixon was fantastic, posting a team-high 24 points on 9-12 shooting. He added four rebounds, three steals and an assist.

Mark Armstrong posted a new career-high with 15 points. Tyler Burton added 14 points, 10 rebounds and four assists. TJ Bamba rounded out the double-figure scorers with 10, chipping in three rebounds and three assists as well.

The other big storyline was the return of Moore. While he was quite statistically (two points, three assists, two rebounds), it was obviously huge for ‘Nova to have him back and to start to get him back into the flow with a tough stretch of the schedule approaching.

“I’m getting back in shape,” Moore said.” But it was fun.”

“It sucks having to watch,” Moore continued. “Of course, you want to play every game. But it’s part of the journey of the season, so just excited to come back on the court and compete again.”

Villanova is back at it on Monday with a trip to Marquette.