Villanova Men’s Basketball Can’t Close the Gap Against St. John’s

PHILADELPHIA— Villanova Men’s Basketball couldn’t keep up with St. John’s in the second half of their 86-79 loss at Xfinity Mobile Arena on Saturday, Jan. 17, allowing the Red Storm to bury them with 27 points in the first nine minutes out of the break.

The loss drops the Wildcats (14-4, 5-2 Big East) to third place in the conference, the Red Storm leapfrogging them into second.

St. John’s converted on 51.7 percent of their shots and dominated down low, outscoring the Wildcats 42-20 in the paint and winning 31-28 on the glass. While Villanova struggled to make shots early, threes and free throws kept them in the game: after a Zion Stanford layup put the Wildcats ahead 18-16, they Wildcats made just one shot over the next eight minutes of play.

Sixth man Devin Askew added 21 points off the bench, snapping the cold spell with an off-balance three in the corner. He sank another inside the one minute mark to cut St. John’s lead to 36-35 at the break. The Red Storm took command with a 16-2 run early in the second half: while Villanova head coach Kevin Willard called two timeouts in the first five minutes, the Wildcats couldn’t cut into the visitors’ momentum.

Villanova Won’t Go Away

Threes from Malachi Palmer and Tyler Perkins (23 points) broke Villanova out of their funk. While the Wildcats’ shooting began to heat up, St. John’s came up with a timely basket to slow their momentum each time. Bryce Lindsay sank a triple to cap a 6-0 run, forcing a Red Storm timeout, but Zuby Ejiofor completed an and-one out of the break; St. John’s Joson Sanon responded to a Perkins’ three that made it 66-59 with a three of his own.

St. John’s pushed their lead back to double digits after Villanova went more than three minutes without a basket. Again the Wildcats woke up in time to take one last swing at a comeback, threes from Lindsay and Askew making it 78-73. Askew couldn’t finish at the rim with a chance to make it a one possession game with 1:03 remaining, and Villanova drew no closer.

Up next, Villanova will host Georgetown at the Finneran Pavilion beginning at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 21.