Wildcats Maul Musketeers For Win Number 16

Xavier came in tonight hoping to steal a victory away from the fifth ranked Wildcats, but Villanova had other plans in mind.  Jay Wright and Co. rode a strong first half to the finish, improving to 4-1 in conference play in the process.  Ryan Arcidiacono led all scorers with 18 points, while Matt Stainbrook led Xavier with 17 points.

Arcidiacono hit 5 of his 10 shots on the night, but also went 4-8 from downtown while going a perfect 4-4 at the line.  He also dished out six assists and only committed one turnover in the game.  Once again, Villanova had a few different options to turn to on offense, with four other players also scoring at least 10 points on the night.  Dylan Ennis, Josh Hart, JayVaughn Pinkston, and Darrun Hilliard scored 17, 15, 12, and 10 points respectively.  

Both teams were pretty similar statistically, but the one stat that really stood out was the difference in three point shooting percentage.  Xavier went 7-22 from downtown, which amounts to just under 32%.  It's not a bad performance, but they weren't able to get the open looks they wanted to against the tough Wildcat defense.  

Meanwhile, Villanova went 15-34 from the three point line, good for 44%.  Getting an extra 24 points on your opponent gives your team a huge advantage.  The Wildcats were able to easily get by the first level of the Musketeer defense and get a lot of wide open looks from the three point stripe all night long.  

By: Dan Goggin
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