Villanova traveled to Rhode Island on Saturday evening to take on Providence for the second meeting of the regular season.
The Wildcats (15-11, 8-7 Big East) were dominated by the Friars (12-14, 6-9 Big East), 75-62.
Senior guards Jordan Longino and Wooga Poplar led the Wildcats on Saturday night with 18 points each, and graduate guard Jhamir Brickus recorded his 1500th collegiate point.
On the Friars’ side, junior guard Jayden Pierre led all scorers with 19 points.
Villanova trailed from the opening tipoff of the game. The Wildcats never led throughout the full 40 minutes.
“I thought [Providence] threw a hard punch at us to start the game, and we just never recovered,” Villanova head coach Kyle Neptune said. “I just give them a lot of credit. Offensively, their game plan, they made a lot of adjustments from the last game.”
When Providence last visited Villanova on Jan. 17, the Wildcats came out with a narrow 75-73 win.
The Friars opened the game with a 6-2 run, sinking a pair of three-pointers.
The Wildcats, who entered the game leading the Big East with 39.5% shooting from three, had trouble hitting outside shots. Villanova was just 1-for-10 from three in the first half.
Providence’s accuracy from behind the arc was ultimately key to its 13-point win. Threes were the Friars’ main source of points, and after nine minutes of play, they had gone 6-9 from three.
The Friars would finish the game shooting 48.1% on three-pointers, while Villanova shot an uncharacteristic 26.3% from the long range across the game.
Despite Villanova’s shooting difficulties from the perimeter, a step-back jumper from Brickus and an emphatic dunk by senior forward Enoach Boakye initially kept the Wildcats’ deficit to single digits.
Both teams also had their share of early foul trouble. Providence redshirt sophomore Justyn Fernadez picked up three first half fouls, and Boakye picked up two.
With Boakye on the bench, the Friars went on a 14-2 run. Graduate forward Eric Dixon snapped the run with the Wildcats’ first and only three-pointer of the half with 9 minutes and 53 seconds on the clock.
With 7 minutes and 44 seconds to play in the first half, the Wildcats trailed the Friars, 25-17.
The Friars dominated the remainder of the first half. At one point, Providence led by 14 points after going on a 14-3 run. The Wildcats ended the first half going 2-for-14 from the field and trailed the Friars, 36-24.
The Wildcats did not score a basket for the first five minutes of the second half. The scoring drought marked the second five-minute or longer drought the Wildcats had in the game.
After just four minutes of play, the Wildcats found themselves down by 19 points, forcing Neptune to call a timeout.
The Friars took their largest lead of the game, 22 points ahead, with 15 minutes and 42 seconds left.
Villanova responded with a 10-0 run to trim the lead back down to 12 points.
But the Wildcats attempted a comeback, the Friars stepped up on offense and were able to retake a 17-point lead at the midway point of the second half.
With Dixon facing double-teams, Longino was the Wildcats’ main scorer in the second half. Brickus, who was quiet in the first half, also made more of an impact in the second. He sank the Wildcats’ first pair of consecutive triples.
“I thought they did a good job just limiting [Dixon’s] touches, staying with him, being physical with him,” Neptune said.
Dixon finished the game with 15 points and nine rebounds. At one point, he was averaging over 26 points per game. In Dixon’s last five games, he has crossed the 20-point threshold once.
With eight minutes to play, the Wildcats made a second attempt at a comeback, and this time, they were able to trim the lead to 11.
Each Villanova comeback was blown up by bad fouls. The Wildcats committed 15 fouls in the second half, which put the Friars in their double bonus.
The loss puts the Wildcats on the wrong side of the NCAA tournament bubble. ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi had Villanova 12 spots outside the tournament entering the game.
With five games left before the Big East Tournament, Villanova now prepares for a road game against UConn (17-8, 9-5 Big East) on Tuesday, Feb. 18 (7 p.m., FS1). It is the second meeting of the regular season series.
