Wooga Poplar, Eric Dixon and Tyler Perkins were catalysts in Villanova’s win over Xavier on Sunday afternoon.
Hold up, wait a minute, you thought Eric Dixon’s player of the year case was finished?
After a quiet first half, the senior forward kicked it into overdrive and scored 22 of his 24 points in the second half, including a stretch where he scored 15 straight points for the Wildcats in just under a five-minute span.
It sparked a late second-half push where the Wildcats were able to pull away from the visiting Xavier Musketeers to win, 80-68, on Super Bowl Sunday at the Wells Fargo Center.
Dixon shot an efficient 7-of-12 after halftime to help the Wildcats pull away.
“You look at the game, and you’re seeing other guys really get it going — he only had four shots in the first half — but that’s partially because we were calling other guys’ numbers based on them having it going,” Villanova coach Kyle Neptune said. “But you know Eric Dixon at some point is going to get going and he kept it.”
Wooga Poplar was also impressive in the win, finishing with 23 points, including a 5-of-9 clip from deep, with eight boards and four steals. He had 13 first-half points to keep Villanova in the game, while Dixon was kept at bay to start the game.
Tyler Perkins was a weapon off the bench, adding 20 points in the winning effort while shooting 7-of-9 overall, with four made 3-pointers. He had his best outing as a Wildcat this season.
“I just try to do whatever I can to help the team, whether that’s energy, talking, bringing the juice — I just try to do whatever,” Perkins said.
It was a closely-contested battle for most of the game. After a back-and-forth start, Xavier went on an 8-0 run, with Dan Maddox Jr. topping things off with a three-pointer to give the Musketeers a 28-23 lead with 3:23 remaining in the first half.
Perkins and Poplar immediately responded with back-to-back threes, and both teams traded baskets until Perkins was able to bury a jumper at the buzzer to tie things up at 33 apiece heading into the half.
As good as Dixon’s scoring streak was, it was until shortly after that the Wildcats would pull away for good.
Poplar went 2-for-2 from the free-throw line to begin a 14-2 run late in the game. During this scoring spurt, Dixon and Perkins each drilled three-pointers, before Dixon came back to finish off the run with a layup to make it 78-62, with 2:31 left in the game.
Villanova was solid defensively down the stretch once again, holding Xavier to just three made shots over the final six minutes of action.
“We made some tough shots, but I think we locked in defensively and got some timely stops,” Neptune said. “Something we’ve talked about these last few weeks is that really good teams get it done defensively in those moments. That’s what we want to be and that’s what we continue to strive for. I think our guys did that.”
For Xavier, Maddox never cooled off throughout the game. He paced the Musketeers with 24 points off the bench on 7-of-10 shooting, including a 4-for-6 shooting clip from long range. Zach Freemantle added 18 points and five boards. Marcus Foster finished with 10 points and six rebounds.
The Wildcats have now won two-straight, but they will be facing a St. John’s team that is surging hot. The Red Storm are riding a 10-game winning streak and coming off of an impressive week that featured wins over Marquette and UConn.
Last time Villanova faced St. John’s, it was a defensive battle until the Red Storm pulled away in the second half to win 80-68 on Jan. 11. The rematch is scheduled to tip-off from Finneran Pavilion on Feb. 12 at 6 p.m. ET.