The Xavier Musketeers were able to stave off Villanova’s late push to take home the win 88-80 on Villanova’s campus at the Finneran Pavilion.
The Villanova Wildcats picked up a disappointing loss to the 18th-ranked Xavier Musketeers and dropped to 8-8, while Xavier extended their winning-streak to nine games moving to 13-3 overall.
“[It was a] hard-fought Big East battle. I thought we had our chances down the stretch,” Villanova coach Kyle Neptune said. “Unfortunately we did not execute 100% down the stretch, we played against a really good team... a lot of credit goes to them, they played a really good game”
Xavier coach Sean Miller recognized Villanova’s effort through the final buzzer.