VILLANOVA, Pa. – For the second time in three seasons, Villanova (12-7 overall, 5-3 BIG EAST) will host longtime rival Georgetown (12-6 overall, 3-5 BIG EAST) on the annual holiday celebrating the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Tipoff for this one is set for 6 p.m. at Finneran Pavilion.
Alex Faust and Jim Spanarkel will have the national broadcast on FS1. Ryan Fannon and
Whitey Rigsby will bring the audio story to the Nova Nation on the Villanova Sports Network on IHeart (Fox Sports Radio Philadelphia and Sirius XM channel 383).
Both teams last saw action on Friday evening. The Hoyas – playing without standout freshman center Thomas Sorber and starting guard Jayden Epps, dropped a 73-68 decision at home to DePaul. Villanova, meanwhile, held off a persistent Providence Friars' unit in its first home game at the Wells Fargo Center in 2024-25 to post a 75-73 win.
"That was," said Providence coach Kim English, "a hard fought Big East game against a really good basketball team. It's very talented, disciplined and well coached."
The Wildcats got 23 points from
Eric Dixon, who moved past Josh Hart into sole possession of tenth place all-time on the Villanova scoring list (1,944 points). The fifth year forward from Willow Grove, Pa., is now just 22 points shy of former Nova All-American Randy Foye in ninth place (1,666).
Dixon continues to lead the nation in scoring at 24.7 points per outing.
One reason the Wildcats were able to prevail is that they owned a 37-31 rebounding advantage over the Friars, with
Wooga Poplar leading the way with 13 caroms. After a two-game stretch against UConn and St. John's where they were outrebounded by a combined 74-51, the Wildcats have been +6 in rebounding in each of the past two contests. Poplar leads the 'Cats in rebounding with 6.6 rpg and ranks sixth in the BIG EAST in that category - tops among guards.
"They were the No. 3 rebounding team in our league coming in," said Villanova head coach
Kyle Neptune. "We knew they would be going to the glass with multiple guys from different spots. I give our guys a lot of credit. They made sure they were physical on the glass and they came up with them."
The Wildcats also got a nice boost from sophomore guard
Tyler Perkins, who provided four points and countless other intangible plays that may not have been noticeable to those going by what is on the box score.
"Tyler's a good shooter and a great scorer," noted Neptune. "That's kind of who he was before he came here, like a lot of our guys. For our program, though, he's so much more than that. He always brings energy in the locker room, in practice, in games, on the bench. All the things he can do offensively pales in comparison to what he is – a great dude and a great teammate."
Villanova took both of its meetings with the Hoyas last season. They also captured the previous matchup on this national holiday, on Jan. 16, 2023, when they outlasted Georgetown 77-73 at the Finn.
