Villanova is cruising toward March Madness, but a tough test awaits on Saturday when the Wildcats host No. 5 UConn in Philadelphia.
The Wildcats (21-5, 12-3 Big East) have won six games in a row, capped by a 92-89 overtime road win against Xavier in their most recent contest. Acaden Lewis scored five of his 21 points in OT, while Tyler Perkins contributed 17 points.
Duke Brennan added 10 points and 13 rebounds for Villanova, and Bryce Lindsay had 15 points, including a clutch 3-pointer in overtime.
“I’m proud of him,” Lewis said of Lindsay, who finished 4 of 8 from long distance. “It’s not easy to go through big slumps like this when you’re playing on national TV and everyone expects so much of him.”
Lindsay had totaled only 12 points in his past four games but is averaging 12.3 points a game for the season.
The Wildcats won despite allowing the Musketeers to shoot 50.7% from the floor and 43.5% from the 3-point line.
“We didn’t get many stops out there, the starting five,” Lewis said. “The speed of the game kind of got to us. A bunch of guys (including Malachi Palmer and Devin Askew) just came in and changed the whole game. It got us into a rhythm when we came back into the game.”
In addition to its defensive struggles, Villanova shot just 14 of 22 from the foul line while getting outrebounded by Xavier. The difference in the game was the Wildcats’ ball control and decision-making.
“We’re going to take a lot of 3s,” Wildcats first-year coach Kevin Willard said. “We had 24 assists and only six turnovers, which was great.”
Villanova has not lost since a 75-67 overtime defeat at UConn on Jan. 24. The Wildcats led at halftime before the Huskies rallied to win behind Solo Ball (24 points) and Alex Karaban (17).
UConn has won seven of the last eight meetings between the teams.
The earlier matchup came in the midst of an 18-game winning streak by the Huskies (24-3, 14-2), who have since lost two of their last four games. They fell at home to Creighton 91-84 on Wednesday despite 25 points from Braylon Mullins.
UConn shot just 43.7% from the field and 11 of 18 from the foul line, but Huskies coach Dan Hurley said he is concerned with much bigger issues. For starters, his team allowed the Bluejays to shoot 49.1% from the floor and 10 of 21 from 3-point range.
“The defense has been a joke,” Hurley said. “It was a game of just really bad individual defense. Our defense has been so bad. We’ve been playing with fire. Obviously, our overall defense was just dreadful.”
Ball managed just eight points on 3-of-10 shooting from the field, with one rebound and no assists in 19 minutes.
Karaban, playing through an undisclosed injury, was held to two points on 1-of-6 shooting in 25 minutes.
“Maybe I shouldn’t have played Alex today,” Hurley said. “He said he was fine, but he’s dealing with something physically. He was not moving around well there on the court. He was a shell of himself.”
UConn has not lost two straight games since November 2024.
–Field Level Media
