PHILADELPHIA, Pa. – Villanova dug itself out of an early hole and revved its offense over the final 30 minutes in a 75-54 victory over Butler (15-14 overall, 6-10 BIG EAST) on Saturday afternoon at the Wells Fargo Center. The Wildcats (22-8 overall, 13-4 BIG EAST) were a perfect 5-0 at the Center in 2018-19 and have captured all nine of their BIG EAST home games this season.
 
Senior Phil Booth helped ignited the Wildcats attack. The Baltimore native finished with 28 points – one shy of his career high set earlier this season at Kansas. Senior Eric Paschall added 12 points and five caroms while freshman Saddiq Bey contributed 11 points and four boards.
 
Villanova held the Butler offense in check over those final 30 minutes. The Bulldogs finished the day converting 23-of-61 (.377) from the field. The Wildcats outscored Butler 42-24 in the second half after holding a 33-30 lead at halftime.
 
"A good effort," stated VU head coach Jay Wright. "I thought we had a great second half defensive effort. They're a tough matchup for us. In the first half they really hurt us in our switching. In the second half we did a much better job defensively and then we hit some shots.
 
"We'll take it. We've got to survive and advance at this point."
 
Wright thought a taller lineup proved especially effective at the defensive end for his team after intermission.
 
"We played bigger," Wright said. "Early on they were going inside to (Joey) Brunk. We knew he was a good passer but he's a little better than we thought. So we just played bigger in the second half. We played Joe (Cremo) more and played Eric at the two some. It helped."
 
The game's opening points came on a short jumper by Paschall but then Butler scored 10 of the next 11 points to take an early 10 -3 lead through the game's first six minutes. The Wildcats missed five straight field goal attempts in that span after Paschall's opening basket.
 
At the mid-point of the first half the Bulldogs were 8-of-13 from the field (.615) while the Wildcats were 3-of-14 (.214). Butler led 16-8.
 
However, the frosty shooting of the opening minutes gave way to sharper accuracy over the final 10 minutes of the period. Spurred by Booth and Collin Gillespie Villanova converted 10-of-13 attempts from the field and that helped it grab a 33-30 lead over the Bulldogs at the half.
 
Booth had 13 points over the first 20 minutes.
 
The Wildcats improved offense carried over into the second half as the Wildcats outscored the Bulldogs 18-4 over the first six minutes of the period to claim a 51-34 advantage. Butler bounced back with a 9-0 burst that pulled it to within 51-43 with 10 minutes on the second half clock.
 
 "If you play good defense, eventually you're going to get some good looks," Wright noted. "I thought we got out in transition a little bit. The shots you get in transition are always more open than what you get in your half-court offense."
 
A driving dunk by Paschall at the 9:30 mark helped Villanova snap the run and the Wildcats never looked back, pulling away to the final score of 75-54. That gave them a season sweep of the series and kept them on the heels of first place Marquette, which hosts Creighton on Sunday.
 
 "I was so proud of Phil and Eric against Marquette," stated Wright of a 67-61 win over the Golden Eagles earlier in the week. "They weren't making shots but did all the little things defensively, making the extra pass, making free throws. It was nice for them today to see the ball go through the basket in their last game here."
 
Wright looks at his team as an evolving unit with one regular season remaining on its schedule.
 
"We're just a work in progress," he explained. "We shouldn't be at this point, but we are. Part of that's on us as a coaching staff. But I think we're going in a good direction. I like how we're playing right now."
 
Villanova will be idle until next Saturday, when it concludes its regular season at Seton Hall. Tipoff for that contest – set for the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. – is just after noon (Fox TV and 610 ESPN Radio).