It was a true team effort as the Wildcats held off No. 9-ranked UConn on Wednesday night.
Through the ups-and-downs of Villanova’s season, head coach Kyle Neptune called for the need to keep getting better, shifting the focus to each day in a process-driven approach.
Perhaps it was coachspeak, but approximately two months after painful losses to Columbia and Saint Joseph’s, there is definitely some merit to Neptune’s words.
The Wildcats acquired their second victory over a ranked opponent, this time staving off two-time national champion UConn, 68-66, in a dramatic win at Finneran Pavilion on Wednesday night.
The victory marks the Wildcats’ eighth win out of the last nine games.
“I was proud of the way our guys came out defensively in the first half, then we took a bunch of punches from them in the second half and down the stretch there,” Neptune said. “I thought it was fitting that we got stops down the stretch, I thought that propelled us to the win.”
Villanova led by as much as 12 points early in the second half, but the Huskies were unrelenting in their effort to snatch the lead.
They were able to get in front for a brief moment, when Solo Ball drilled a three in transition to give UConn a 57-55 lead with 8:38 remaining.
However, Eric Dixon and Jordan Longino responded with back-to-back buckets to regain the lead for the ‘Cats.
UConn remained in hot pursuit and had several opportunities in the closing minutes of the game. Villanova went the final 2:21 without making a single shot, but it held firm defensively.
“I thought our guys took on the challenge and just tried to pressure them as much as we could,” Neptune said. “Our guys played hard, physical and they rebounded. There was nothing tricky, you’re not going to trick (UConn), you got to go out there and play hard and I thought they did that.”
Jaylin Stewart followed up with a layup after an Alex Karaban three to make it a 67-66 game with 1:20 left.
Villanova got a stop and came close to getting a couple more, but it was unable to reel in UConn misses cleanly and the ball would bounce off of a Wildcat to give the Huskies added possessions.
Jordan Longino appeared to have a crucial block on UConn’s Karaban, but it was whistled a foul on Longino, much to the dismay of the Villanova bench and fans in attendance.
With three seconds left in the game, Karaban had an opportunity to tie or give UConn the lead, as he was granted two free throws in a one-point contest.
Karaban, an 81.4% free-throw shooter, missed both.
“He’s the winningest player in college basketball. The biggest winner in college basketball,” Hurley said about Karaban afterwards. “When you’ve had the fairy tale, back-to-back national champion coming back for a third, it’s a like life — sometimes you gotta eat s—t. Sometimes you’re going to have bad moments. His first two years in college have been a fairy tale. My advice to him is I love the way he attacked the game. I love the way he wasn’t passive. He wanted the ball at the end of the game, make plays and be that guy for us.”
Wooga Poplar went 1-for-2 from the free-throw line to give Villanova some added breathing room and seal the game.
Despite UConn shooting 27-of-50 (54.0%) and 10-of-27 (37.0%) from deep, don’t let the numbers fool you — it was a hard-nosed defensive effort by Villanova all throughout. The ‘Cats also forced 13 turnovers, which turned into 15 points the other way.
The Wildcats had stretches where they clamped down on UConn, especially towards the end, but also in the first half as they went on to build a 32-25 lead at the break.
Another impressive detail was, it was not Dixon’s strongest performance and while he’s carried the ‘Cats in the past, the rest of the team was able to step up during Dixon’s slow start.
“There’s a lot of talented guys here and they showed it today,” Dixon said. “They picked me up.”
Dixon started the game shooting 1-of-8 and had five points in the first half, and yet, the ‘Cats were still leading at the break. Dixon went on to finish with a game-high 23 points, as he got into a groove offensively after halftime. Wooga Poplar added 18 points on 6-of-10 shooting. Jordan Longino had 12 points on 5-of-9 shooting.
“Credit ‘Nova for finding a way to win it,” Hurley said. “Obviously, you shoot 54.0% from the field, you make 10 threes, 23 assists — the turnovers hurt us because we were pretty efficient when we didn’t turn the ball over. We knew it was going to be a tough game. … I was proud of the effort. I don’t think many teams are going to win (at Finneran Pavilion) or beat this team at home this year, I think that’s a really good team.”
For UConn, Solo Ball had 16 points, four boards and four assists. Jaylin Stewart finished with 14 points. Hassan Diarra added 11 points, four rebounds and nine assists. Alex Karaban chipped in 10 points.
Villanova improves to 11-5 overall and 4-1 in Big East play. The Wildcats will return to action on Saturday at Madison Square Garden, when they take on St. John’s. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET.
Even after a big win, the message and goal remains the same.
“We just gotta continue to get better,” Neptune said. “The season is not even halfway over yet, so we just got to lock in and have a growth mentality. I told our guys we have 15 hours to enjoy this, then we’ll come back, watch film and get better in whatever practice we have.”