Final Score: Virginia 70, Villanova 60
 
Surge Gets 'Cats Started: A 9-0 surge by the Wildcats, fueled by four points by senior forward Enoch Boakye, helped give Villanova a 9-5 lead over the Cavaliers are 4:32 of the contest at the Hall of Fame Series Baltimore at CFG Arena.
 
As the game unfolded, both programs, which hang their respective hats on defense, made life tough for their opponent at that end of the court. Villanova held an 11-8 lead with 11:29 to play in the period on the strength of limiting Virginia to 3-of-11 shooting from the field. Virginia was nearly as stingy though, as Nova was just 4-of-14 and 1-of-5 from deep at the same juncture.
 
Cavs Heat Up: Virginia connected on four 3-point field goals in a span of 3:42 to grab a 20-11 lead with 7:26 to play in the first half. Meanwhile, Villanova was in the midst of a scoring drought of more than six minutes. A corner 3-pointer from Jhamir Brickus off a feed from Wooga Poplar snapped the scouring drought but the Cavaliers sand their seventh triple of the first 13 minutes to push the margin to 23-14.
 
At one point, the Cavaliers connected on 7-of-8 field goal attempts, growing their lead to 28-16 at the 3:38 mark of the first half.
 
Villanova reeled off seven straight points – four on a made triple and free throw from Eric Dixon with 4.1 seconds left in the period – to close the margin to 31-26. That is where matters stood as the horn ending the first half sounded.
 
Sizzling Start: Virginia connected on its first 5-of-6 field goal attempts in the opening 4:39 of the second half, to push its lead to 44-33. Isaac McKneely did some of the damage. By that point in the contest, he had converted on 6-of-6 field goal attempts, including all four of his 3-pointers.
 
The lead grew to 50-33 at the 12:12 mark of the period. Virginia was 12-of-19 from beyond the arc (.632) while the Wildcats were 5-of-18 from deep (.278) from distance.
 
Villanova cut the margin to 55-45 with 6:30 on the clock but the Cavaliers answered with a 3-pointer from McKneely on the next possession, their 13^th of the day.
 
Virginia ended the day 14-of-25 from beyond the arc (.560). In contrast, the Wildcats were just 9-of-32 from deep (.281).
 
What They Said:
 
Villanova Head Coach Kyle Neptune: "A lot of credit goes to Virginia. They really defended at a high level. I thought we got some easy looks but they really made it tough to score. And then they made some timely 3's. I thought they were really organized offensively. They weren't really affected by our press. They did a great job.
 
"They've got a lot of options. With their size and shooting, it's hard to contest those. They had some guys make some that don't normally make them early. I thought that gave them some confidence. And then they made some tough ones that gave them more confidence."
 
Eric Dixon: "They're a great program, with a lot of skill and well-coached. They presented a lot of challenges for us."
 
Dixon on the 2-3 start to the season: "It's early. Obviously, everyone wants to come out and start hot. At the end of the day, it's just about coming back (to practice) and figuring out a way to get better. You don't want to take losses like this and be hurting like this so early in the year. But we've got to fight through it."
 
Up Next: Villanova returns to Finneran Pavilion for its second Philadelphia Big Five game of 2024-25 when Penn comes to campus. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. (Peacock and the Villanova IHeart