Big East Basketball
Villanova Runs Out of Gas Late, Loses 80-68 to St. John’s

The Villanova Wildcats cut their deficit to 66-65 with 2:35 to play in the second half of their Saturday, Jan. 11 loss to St. John’s when Wooga Poplar threw down an emphatic slam dunk. From there, St. John’s closed the game out, ending on a 14-3 run as their No. 7 ranked defense blanked Villanova on each of their last five shot attempts.
Villanova (11-6, 4-2 Big East) appeared to be in the drivers’ seat for much of the second half, taking a 54-50 lead with 8:29 to go after a Poplar and-1. The senior guard went on to finish with a team-high 20 points as the Red Storm limited star forward Eric Dixon to 18 points, his second-lowest scoring output of the season.
While the Wildcats committed just eight total turnovers against a Red Storm team that entered play forcing 18 per game, the 21st-best mark in the country, St. John’s ability to draw fouls and work the offensive glass prevented Villanova from cutting into the lead late.
Wildcats’ Successes… and Failures
The Wildcats limited St. John’s to a 40 percent success rate from the floor, but 17 offensive rebounds helped the Red Storm pick up 15 second chance points. Villanova finished with a whopping 29 fouls, leading to 29 made free throws for St. John’s… including 16 from junior guard RJ Luis Jr., who led the field with a 30 point double-double.
The Red Storm made four three pointers in the first eight minutes in what looked like a continuation of a troubling trend for Villanova’s defense this season. The Wildcats rebounded to limit St. John’s to just 3-of-15 threes made for the rest of the game. Despite the early sharpshooting from the Red Storm, Villanova led for much of the first half in a game that saw six ties and 18 lead changes, aided by 11 early points from Jhamir Brickus. As in the second half, however, the Wildcats unraveled late: a 15-5 St. John’s run sent Villanova to the break trailing 36-31.
Out of the half it was the Wildcats’ turn to go on a run, surging ahead 41-38 thanks to a 10-2 span. Jordan Longino and Luis Jr. traded the lead soon thereafter with dueling three-pointers, then Villanova pulled ahead until the final, fateful slump.
Up next for the Wildcats is a road matchup at Xavier, set to begin at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 14.