Villanova Takes Down Butler with Late-Recreation Comeback, 73-65 – Villanovan

Villanova opened the brand new yr with a formidable comeback and resilient Massive East win over Butler, 73-65, at Hinkle Fieldhouse.
Regardless of the Bulldogs holding a 13-point lead with six minutes and three seconds left to play, the Wildcats went on a 22-1 scoring run to reign victorious. Villanova had 9 consecutive stops and held Butler to solely a free throw within the last minutes of the sport.
“We didn’t begin the place we needed to begin however we stored our heads up and stored battling, and we’re going to proceed to try this,” head coach Kyle Neptune mentioned postgame.
The highest scorer of the sport was graduate ahead and NCAA main scorer Eric Dixon. Ending the night time with 28 factors, 4 rebounds and three assists, Dixon performed all however one minute of the sport. He scored 11 factors within the first half, sinking three pictures from exterior the arc.
Senior guard Wooga Poplar scored 18 factors for the ‘Cats with a game-high 15 rebounds. Senior guard Jordan Longino additionally contributed with 12 factors and 4 rebounds, scoring 9 in the course of the game-winning scoring run. Longino additionally added on 4 assists and two steals.
Finishing 14-of-16, Villanova pulled off 87.5% behind the free throw line. In the meantime, the Bulldogs shot simply 52.5% from the foul line.
On Butler’s aspect, graduate ahead Jahmyl Telfort led the Bulldogs with 25 factors.
After the Wildcats gained the bounce ball, Poplar put up the primary factors of the sport for Villanova. Threes by Dixon and graduate guard Jhamir Brickus put Villanova up by 5 within the first three minutes. Not lengthy after, Butler answered with one other two consecutive threes to flip the lead.
Poplar was the one Wildcat to be fouled in the course of the first half. He tacked on two factors from the free throw line to tie the sport at 11-11 with 14 minutes and 10 seconds left within the first half.
Freshman ahead Josiah Moseley fell into foul bother early on, committing two private fouls inside the first eight minutes of play. Longino ended the sport with 4 fouls, which allowed the Bulldogs so as to add three free throw factors.
  With one other private foul in opposition to Brickus, the Wildcats allowed two factors by Telfort to place the rating at 12-14 at 11:59. The Bulldogs tied the rating at 18 with 9 minutes left within the half with one other free throw. Butler managed two pictures exterior the arc to steer simply 31-30 at halftime.
The groups continued to commerce the lead early within the second half. Dixon in the end sank three free throws by gaining a rating of 33-34 at 18:41. 
A jumper by McCaffery tied the rating at 41 with quarter-hour left to play. To tie the rating but once more, Dixon made one other layup at 13:22.
Butler started to tug away later within the second half. A McCaffrey layup gave the Bulldogs their highest lead of the night time, 64-51, with six minutes and three seconds left to play.
Nonetheless, the ‘Cats managed to show the sport round and go on a speedy scoring run to shut out the sport. A Dixon three pointer gave the lead again to Villanova, 65-64, with only one minute and 35 seconds left.
“It’s received to be one sport at a time, however it is a nice win for our program,” Neptune mentioned.
Regardless of a detailed scoreboard for a lot of the sport, with the sport tied eight instances and 14 lead modifications, Villanova took a defensive stand within the last minutes that led to the comeback win.
Villanova now has a file of 9-5. The Wildcats are a part of a three-way tie for fourth place within the Massive East, with a convention file of 2-1. 
Villanova is scheduled to return to the Finneran Pavilion on Saturday, Jan. 4 the place it’ll host DePaul (9-5, 0-3 Massive East) at 12 p.m.
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