Temple vs. No.7 Villanova

When: Sunday, 2:00 p.m.

Where: The Pavilion

Television: Fox Sports 1 (Joe Davis & Bill Raftery)

Radio: Villanova IMG Network: 610 AM/Sirius 91/villanova.com and TuneIn Radio (Ryan Fannon & Whitey Rigsby)

Series: Temple leads 44-42

Game Notes

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VILLANOVA, Pa. - It's exam week at Villanova and the classroom isn't the only place where the 2014-15 Wildcats will be tested. They will pause from their end of fall semester work to host the Temple Owls (6-3 overall) in a Philadelphia Big Five contest Sunday afternoon.

The two teams have split the last four meetings between the programs. The Wildcats grabbed a 90-74 victory last season at the Liacouras Center while the Owls took the last clash between the two schools played at the Pavilion, a 76-61 decision on Dec. 5, 2012.

An sellout crowd of 6,500 is expected to be on hand for the nationally televised affair.

Villanova defeated Illinois 73-59 earlier in the week to improve to 9-0. This contest with the Owls opens a stretch of four consecutive games played at home over the rest of the month, including a Wells Fargo Center date with Syracuse, the former BIG EAST rival who handed VU a 78-62 defeat last December at the Carrier Dome.

Wildcats' head coach Jay Wright has emphasized the importance on not peering too far down the road to his group that is currently ranked No. 7 in both national polls (Associated Press and USA Today Coaches).

"I know people are sick of hearing this, but we really do look at it one game at a time," explains Wright. "When you start looking ahead, that's when you get beaten. We have Temple (Sunday) next. We are putting everything into Temple. That's really the way we do it.

"When you have juniors and seniors like we, these guys can do that. When you have younger guys, they can say it. But these (older) guys can really do it."

This Villanova edition has been defined by its balance - seven Wildcats average between 12.9 and 8.6 ppg. Yet it's hard to overlook the scoring consistency from junior guard Dylan Ennis, the `Cats leading scorer through nine contests.

"He is a very intelligent person," stated Wright of his guard, who transferred to Villanova from Rice in 2012. "As a basketball player, he really enjoyed using his athleticism, his speed, his aggressiveness. He probably didn't appreciate his basketball IQ as much. His basketball IQ has grown.

"I thought Dylan made (some) great decisions against Illinois. He knew they were extending us and he hit an open three off a great extra pass. After that, I think he started using screens to get shots as opposed to use the screen to hit the screener or the post guy. He figured that out. He was like, `I've got it going, I've got to hit a couple here.'"

Ennis connected on 7-of-10 from the field and finished with 18 points.

The Wildcats will resume their exam schedule on Monday before resuming the regular season schedule next Saturday afternoon against Syracuse at 1 p.m. at the Wells Fargo Center (Fox).

Of note: The Villanova Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) will be hosting its annual Toy Drive, benefitting the North Light Community Center in Manayunk, PA at this weekend's upcoming home men's and women's basketball games in the Pavilion. Student-athlete members of SAAC will be collecting new, unwrapped toys at all entrances. High-priority items this holiday season include: books, board games, and educational toys. Your donations will be greatly appreciated!

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