Villanova Beats Seton Hall, Advances to Big East Quarterfinals

They didn’t play a full 40 minutes of quality basketball, but Villanova Men’s Basketball took down the Seton Hall Pirates 67-55 regardless in the first round of the Big East Tournament, weathering a second half comeback attempt at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday, March 12.

Eric Dixon didn’t score a single point in the first half but Villanova still managed to build a 35-17 lead. Wooga Poplar stepped up for ten points in the first 20 minutes, while Jhamir Brickus nailed a pair of three-pointers and Tyler Perkins contributed seven more points off the bench during that time.

Leading 8-4 after the first four minutes and change, the Wildcats reeled off an 18-2 run to take a commanding lead. After a Poplar triple pushed their advantage to 28-10, Villanova went more than seven minutes without making a shot from the field — although they made 4-of-7 free throws in the span, just enough to stay one step ahead of the pitiful Pirates — until Brickus snapped the cold streak with a step back three with less than a minute to play in the half.

The Wildcats remained rusty out of the break, allowing a 12-2 Pirates run that provoked a timeout call from head coach Kyle Neptune. The streak ended when Eric Dixon came alive, scoring 11 of the Wildcats’ next 13 points and pushing the lead to 50-27.

Dixon went on to score 19 points in the second half, maintaining a comfortable lead and climbing to 2,227 points in his Wildcats career, good for sole possession of the No. 2 spot on Villanova’s all-time scoring leaderboard.

Villanova will next take the court at 9:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 13, facing the No. 3 seeded UConn Huskies as their run at a Big East Championship continues.