VILLANOVA, Pa. – Villanova wraps up the Wells Fargo Center portion of its regular season slate on Friday night when No. 16 Marquette (20-6 overall, 11-4 BIG EAST) comes to South Philadelphia. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m.
Alex Faust and Donny Marshall will describe the action for the national television audience on FS1. Ryan Fannon and
Whitey Rigsby will have the audio call on the Villanova Sports Network on IHeart (Fox Sports Philadelphia and Sirius XM channel 380).
The Wildcats hope to rebound from a tough couple of days in New England, having dropped decisions to Providence (75-62) and two-time reigning NCAA champion UConn (66-59) in a three day span earlier in the week. Xavier (9-7 BIG EAST) has opened up a one game lead over the 'Cats in the race for the coveted fifth seed in next month's BIG EAST Tournament at New York's Madison Square Garden.
As has been the case of late, a trio of Wildcats carried the bulk of the scoring burden against the Huskies: Senior
Wooga Poplar (19 points), fifth year forward
Eric Dixon (17 points) and senior guard
Jordan Longino (13 points accounted for 82 percent of Nova's offense in Hartford. Villanova, which led much of the night, saw its lead evaporate in the final six minutes as it struggled to produce points against the Huskies' withering defense.
Now, the task is to help slow one of the conference's most potent offenses. The Golden Eagles are third in the BIG EAST in scoring for league games (74.2 ppg) despite ranking seventh in Three Point Field Goal Percentage (.314). Marquette has averaged 82 points per game in its last five outings vs. Villanova, including an 87-74 victory over the Wildcats last month in Milwaukee.
The Wildcats, meanwhile, have limited league foes to 69.0 ppg, good for fith place in the conference. They have also climbed into fifth place in Field Goal Percentage defense in league play (.433). But they have slipped into eighth place in Scoring Offense, averaging just 65.5 ppg in six games in the month of February.
Opponents have continued to throw multiple defenders at the scoring leader Dixon. UConn did so on Tuesday evening and were able to limit the damage.
"They did a good job," said Villanova head coach
Kyle Neptune of the multiple looks Dixon faced. "I thought they were pretty consistent in how they defended him. They left the big fella (Tarris Reed Jr.) on him. He's a bigger body who did a good job. They were physical with him, and really sank on him when the ball came to him in the low post.
"They did a good job all the way around."
Villanova is 2-1 (.667) thus far this season at its home away from home with wins over Providence and Xavier and a loss to Creighton. The Wildcats also picked up a win over Temple at the Center at the Big Five Classic back in December.
