Villanova returned to the Wells Fargo Center to face Creighton (16-6, 9-2 Big East) on Saturday, Feb. 1, losing its third consecutive game. The Wildcats (12-10, 5-6 Big East) fell to the Bluejays, 62-60, in the game’s final seconds.
With five seconds left in the game, Villanova led Creighton, 60-59. Creighton graduate Steven Ashworth banked in a wide-open three to put the Bluejays up, 62-60, with 3.8 seconds left.
Villanova’s final possession ended with graduate forward Eric Dixon dribbling the ball off his foot and turning the ball over.
Dixon finished the game with 17 points and five rebounds. Late in the first half, Dixon dropped in a three-pointer to eclipse 2,000 career points. He is the 12th Wildcat in school history to accomplish such a feat. However, Dixon has bigger goals in mind.
“It’s one of those things that I’m sure I will look back on and be proud about,” Dixon said. “Right now it’s just really not that important.”
Villanova was without freshman forward Josiah Mosleley due to illness. The team relied on a different rotation of Wildcats including redshirt freshman Jordann Dumont. He played a career-high 14 minutes, finishing with three points and a team-high five rebounds.
Entering the contest, Villanova was ranked 181st in defensive efficiency. Villanova’s defense has struggled at times to find a way to shut down opponents through Big East play, especially late in games. The Wildcats, however, forced Creighton into a season-high 18 turnovers.
“I thought I guys came out and just were almost ravenous and all over the place,” Villanova coach Kyle Neptune said. “I thought we played extremely hard. I was really proud of our efforts defensively. I think if we can come out and duplicate that, we’ll be in a good spot.”
Villanova held Creighton to a season-worst 1-14 on three-pointers in the first half. The Wildcats have struggled with perimeter defense this season. In the last meeting between the two teams, the Bluejays shot 56% from three.
The Wildcats also struggled from beyond the arc, going 3-17 on three-pointers. Villanova led the country in three-point percentage with 40% before today’s game. The 17.6% three-point percentage was a season-worst for Villanova.
Creighton was led by graduate center Ryan Kalkbrenner, scoring 22 points and eight rebounds.
The highlight of Villanova’s day was senior guard Wooga Poplar, scoring 19 of his 24 points in the second half. Poplar was limited to eight points in Villanova’s previous game against Marquette. He is now averaging 14.1 points and 6.4 rebounds this season.
Both teams battled to keep the game close. Creighton’s eight-point lead with 6:37 left in the first half was the largest lead of the game. There were eight lead changes throughout the game, four of them coming in the game’s final four minutes.
“A lot of credit goes to Creighton,” Neptune said. “I was really proud of our guys, especially defensively, I thought we forced [Creighton] into some tough spots. I thought we played hard the entire game. Unfortunately, we ended up on the other side of where we wanted to end up.”
The Wildcats’ chances at making the NCAA Tournament slowly are beginning to reach impossible. Villanova has a chance to get back into the win column on the road against DePaul (10-12, 1-10 Big East) on Wednesday, Feb. 5 (9 p.m., CBSSN). The last time the two teams met was on Jan. 4 when the Wildcats defeated the Blue Demons, 100-56.