Villanova Men's Basketball
Villanova Men’s Basketball Begins Big Five Play With Heartbreaker

Villanova Men’s Basketball suffered their second deflating loss in the past seven days on Tuesday, November 12, falling 83-76 to Saint Joseph’s University to open Big Five pool play.
Although he suffered a comparative down night, Eric Dixon once again led the field, scoring 24 points and making 8 of 22 shots.
While the Hawks only made 43.3 percent of their shots, marginally better than the Wildcats’ 40.9 percent, they used their passing prowess to crack Villanova’s stingy defense. Villanova managed just nine assists to the Hawks’ 20; they also turned it over 16 times to the Hawks’ 10.
Starting with Derek Simpson three-pointers on two of their first three possessions, St. Joe’s held the lead for much of the first eight minutes.
A Jhamir Brickus and-one put the Wildcats up 32-24 with just over four minutes to go in the first half, their largest lead of the game. The Hawks promptly reeled Villanova back in with a 9-2 run, then Eric Dixon and St. Joe’s Xzayvier Brown (a Philadelphia native and Roman Catholic alumnus) traded threes—the latter at the buzzer—on the way to the half, the Wildcats clinging to a 37-36 lead.
Both the Wildcats and the Hawks struggled to make shots after the break, with Villanova bearing the brunt of the shooting woes. Anthony Finkley, another Philadelphia native and a high school teammate of Brown’s, nailed a three to put the Hawks ahead 46-42, prompting a timeout from Villanova head coach Kyle Neptune.
The brief respite didn’t allow the Wildcats to slow things down. St. Joe’s embarked on an immediate 7-0 run, going ahead by double digits. Villanova managed to claw their way back in it, with Wooga Poplar scoring seven points in barely more than two minutes to reclaim a 60-59 lead, but the Hawks snatched the advantage back and never relinquished it. The Wildcats trailed by as little as three points in the final minute, but needing to foul, they couldn’t come any closer.
Villanova Men’s Basketball falls to 2-2 on the season. Up next is a neutral site clash with the Virginia Cavaliers set for 5pm on Friday, November 15 in Baltimore, Md.