‘They executed, we didn’t’: Villanova’s late collapse vs. Georgetown could prove costly

Kyle Neptune hoped to draw attention away from the disaster by going back to the well of every play in an individual game being a small part of the result. It was, it seemed, equal parts defense mechanism and the wiring of a coach’s brain.

“In one-point games, everyone looks towards the end of the game, but there’s a lot of plays throughout the game we could’ve improved upon to change the outcome,” the Villanova men’s basketball coach said.

It is true in a vacuum. The whole is the sum of the parts and so on. But nothing that happened in the first 35 minutes — heck, the first 37 minutes — of Villanova’s 64-63 loss to Georgetown Monday night mattered the way the final moments did.

Jordan Longino’s jump shot with just under five minutes remaining in the second half gave the Wildcats a comfortable eight-point lead. They had been ahead on their rival Hoyas since there were 3 minutes, 39 seconds left on the first-half clock, the lead once as large as 13, which is to say Villanova was in complete control of a game it needed to win. Gather your jacket, make sure your keys are in your pocket, and hit the road at the final media timeout to beat traffic.

Surely, there were dozens who did that. Heck, Jay Wright was no longer in his seat across from the Villanova bench by the time the calamity completed.

ESPN has that little graphic on its online box score that tracks win probability. It was 94.2% in Villanova’s favor after Longino’s make. It was as high as 97.3% in Villanova’s favor when the Wildcats took over possession with a six-point lead and two minutes left on the clock. They weren’t scoring, but neither was Georgetown.

The Hoyas, though, dialed up the pressure. Georgetown coach Ed Cooley deployed a smaller lineup and made everything difficult for Villanova. They got physical. They forced three turnovers in the final 3½ minutes (and 16 on the night), and more importantly, got stops as the Wildcats went into the equivalent of a prevent defense when the ball was in their hands, apparently more comfortable milking the clock instead of applying pressure.

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“I give them a lot of credit,” Neptune said. “They came after us, they were physical, they forced us into some turnovers. They executed, we didn’t.”

The final moments showed that. Harvard transfer Malik Mack hadn’t yet scored and was 0-for-8 from the field while listening to “air ball” chants from the Villanova student section for most of the night before his three-point play with 1:24 left cut the lead to three. Down the other end, Eric Dixon, the nation’s leading scorer who tallied 29 points Monday night, had one of his career-high six turnovers in the worst of times.

Georgetown’s Micah Peavy made him pay with a layup at the other end to cut the Villanova lead to one, only foreshadowing the finish. Dixon missed on the ensuing Villanova possession, and Peavy hit a tough floater, his 23rd and 24th points of the night, to give Georgetown a lead with 1.7 seconds to go. The Wildcats got Dixon a good look after a full-court heave, but it clanked off the rim.

Neptune hunched over, hands on his knees, as Dixon’s shot was in the air, then he turned toward Cooley and began the walk of shame. Villanova fell to 12-8 on the year, 5-4 in Big East play.

Bracket guru Joe Lunardi said last week that 13-7 in conference play was the target for Villanova to stop a two-season streak of missing the NCAA Tournament, and it’s hard to imagine the Wildcats getting to that magic number with the way the late-game execution has been trending. They nearly coughed up a late lead to Providence Friday night after a late-game collapse derailed what would have been a good road win at Xavier last Tuesday, that one coming after St. John’s pulled away late in what was a winnable game for Villanova.

“I feel like we’ve won close games as well,” Dixon said when asked what’s gone wrong at the end of games. “It’s just basketball. Sometimes the ball doesn’t bounce your way.”

It hasn’t bounced their way nearly enough, and too often the losses have seemed self-inflicted.

The Wildcats were forced to play the final 32 minutes without second-leading scorer Wooga Poplar, who was ejected after getting into it with Georgetown freshman Thomas Sorber, an Archbishop Ryan grad. Poplar, a senior, couldn’t keep his cool during a mild altercation with a 19-year-old freshman, swiping in his direction after Sorber appeared to mildly bump him.

“They said he threw a punch,” Neptune said.

Cooley said Poplar being out “changed the whole game.” But Neptune pointed to the lead his team had in the waning moments. “I mean we were up eight with less than three,” Neptune said. “I thought we were in a good spot regardless.”

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Dixon’s 29 points and Longino continuing his recent run of success with 18 points at times looked enough even though the rest of the Wildcats accounted for just 16 points.

“It sounds simple,” Neptune said. “We just didn’t get stops when we needed to. At the end of the day, that’s what it came down to.”

The Wildcats also didn’t score again after Longino’s jumper with 4:52 on the clock.

“We came and stole a game,” Cooley said.

“Today was a culture win. Today was a program win.”

For Villanova, it’s hard to argue Monday wasn’t a culture and program result, too.