RADNOR — The last time St. John’s took the floor ranked in the top 10 of an Associated Press men’s basketball poll was Feb. 28, 1999. The visit was to the Finneran Pavilion, and a 66-60 win by Villanova that night went a long way toward the Wildcats making the NCAA tournament.
It took 25 years for the Red Storm to return to the top 10, with Rick Pitino at the helm. And it’ll take more than a top-10 win this time around to vault the Wildcats into the Big Dance.
But Wednesday’s dramatic 73-71 victory goes a long way for the Wildcats’ hopes of building back into an NCAA Tournament team.
Tyler Perkins’ 3-pointer with 8.7 seconds left put Villanova up for good. St. John’s Simeon Wilcher, who had put the ninth-ranked Red Storm up 71-70 with a 3-pointer with 28 seconds left, had his 3-point attempt rim out with a second left.
It gives Villanova (15-10, 8-6) a third win over a ranked team at the Pavilion this year for the first time since 2004-05 and the first time beating two top-10 teams at the Pavilion ever in the same season.
“I was just really proud of our guys’ resolve,” coach Kyle Neptune said. “Good teams win games like this, and you have to have multiple games like this throughout the season to be a good team.”
The loss ends St. John’s winning streak at 10 games, the second-longest active run in the nation. The Red Storm (21-4, 12-2) had won 16 of 17 overall and were coming off consecutive top-20 wins over Marquette and UConn.
Wooga Poplar led Villanova with 22 points, though he was slowed by second-half foul trouble. Eric Dixon added 17 points, Jordan Longino had 13 and Perkins had 12.
Perkins, a Penn transfer, is coming off a career-high 20 points, making eight of 10 from 3-point range in his last two games; Villanova is 8-0 when he scores in double-figures.
Wednesday was Poplar’s fifth 20-point game of the season, with three in his last four outings. He’s averaging 20.3 points per game in that stretch, shooting 56 percent from the field and 52.6 from 3-point range.
“That’s what he does,” Neptune said. “He’s a gifted scorer, crazy talent, speed, athleticism, the shooting ability. No surprises there. I think it just goes in ebbs and flows this season. We know he’s an extremely big-time talent.”
Aaron Scott led St. John’s with 22 points. Kadary Richmond paired 17 points with 10 assists, the Red Storm dishing 19 assists on 27 made baskets. Wilcher had 12 points.
With a Big East Tournament win now all but required to avoid a third straight NIT bid, the name of the game for Villanova is positioning itself as best possible for Madison Square Garden. It entered fifth in the conference, the top five avoiding the first round of the tournament, though the reward at the moment is UConn in the 4-5 game. Villanova finishes with four of its last six on the road, including in Storrs and a visit from Marquette to the Wells Fargo Center Feb. 21. A March 4 trip to Georgetown may decide fifth.
Villanova negated much of what has gotten St. John’s to this point. The Johnnies entered second in the nation in points allowed per 100 possessions, then gave up 32 points to Villanova in the first 14:13. Despite St. John’s being 11th in the country in turnover margin, Villanova won the turnover battle, 13-11.
St. John’s was also uncharacteristically reliant on the 3-point shot: A team that hasn’t attempted more than 27 3-pointers in a game all season was enticed by a 5-for-11 start and ended up 11-for-37 (29.7 percent), a shade over their 29.1 average.
“They were running plays and shooting 3s,” Neptune said. “It wasn’t like we weren’t guarding them. They had three or four plays running flares and setting screens and shooting 3s. I thought we contested some of them, and they made them.”
St. John’s finished the first half on a 10-2 run, Villanova leading 34-32 at the break. A steal on Villanova’s opening possession of the second extended the run to 15-2. But Villanova replied with Dixon hitting Poplar for a slam, then Perkins and Poplar draining 3-pointers to go up 42-37.
Back and forth they’d go. A Perkins 3-pointer with 9:56 left gave Villanova its biggest lead at 11, 59-48. St. John’s answered with 14 straight, RJ Luis Jr.’s second-chance bucket making it 62-59. Villanova replied with six consecutive, Poplar hitting Dixon for a triple and a 65-62 lead. A Dixon 3 beat the shot clock for a 68-64 edge with 3:22 left. Richmond got St. John’s back within two with 1:26 left.
Dixon missed a 3-pointer, then after Perkins’ offensive rebound, rimmed out the front end of a 1-and-1 to keep the lead at two. Wilcher put St. John’s ahead, and the Red Storm played the next possession aggressively, Villanova making the extra pass from Jhamir Brickus in the corner to Perkins in front of the Villanova bench for the winner.
“We had a play set, but they blitzed, and we said, if they’re blitzing and they’re trapping, then make a play,” Neptune said. “I thought about calling timeout, but I thought it was actually probably better it being a broken play like that. They’re really good when they’re locked in and making it hard to get the ball in. So it was just trusting them to make a play.”
NOTES >> Dixon, the nation’s leading scorer, stands at 2,063 career points, with Bob Schafer’s 2,094 for fourth on the all-time scoring list next in his sights. … Luis Jr., who scored 30 points in the first meeting, was limited to 12 points and eight rebounds. … Villanova is 12-3 at home. They’re also 12-3 when dishing more than 12 assists in a game (they had 16 Wednesday). … St. John’s 10-game winning streak was its longest in the Big East since 1984-85.
Source: Berkshire mont