Villanova out to continue recent dominance over Butler

Field Level Media|published: Fri 28th February, 15:03 2025

NCAA Basketball: Villanova at Connecticut

Feb 18, 2025; Hartford, Connecticut, USA; Villanova Wildcats forward Eric Dixon (43) drives the ball against UConn Huskies forward Alex Karaban (11) in the second half at XL Center. Mandatory Credit: David Butler II-Imagn Images

Villanova looks to extend a two-game win streak when it welcomes visiting Butler for an early Saturday afternoon tip.

The Wildcats (17-12, 10-8 Big East) took down Marquette in dominating fashion at home last Friday before squeaking out a 59-54 victory on the road at Seton Hall on Wednesday night.

Eric Dixon carried the Wildcats with 32 points against the Pirates. Villanova played just seven players and got a total of 15 points outside of Dixon and Wooga Poplar, who had 12 along with 12 rebounds.

"Obviously Eric Dixon is a big time player, he's done this his entire career. Thank God we have him," Wildcats head coach Kyle Neptune said.

Butler is coming in off an all too familiar tight loss against a nationally-ranked team, this time falling short 76-70 against No. 7 St. John's on Wednesday at home. They have lost two of three after winning three in a row.

"We put ourselves in position to win and (there were) a couple crazy plays," Butler head coach Thad Matta said, according to the Indianapolis Star. "They kept coming at us, they kept coming at us. We didn't make a couple plays and we didn't get it done."

The Bulldogs (13-15, 6-11) have lost by single digits twice to Wisconsin and St. John's, while also staying within nine points in defeats to Marquette and UConn.

Jahmyl Telfort leads the Bulldogs with 16.0 points per game, while adding 3.5 assists. Andre Screen leads down low with 6.0 rebounds and 1.5 blocks.

As he has for much of the season, Dixon leads the country in scoring with 23.3 points per game. Poplar leads Villanova with 6.8 boards and Jhamir Brickus has 5.0 assists per game.

The programs faced off on New Year's Day and Villanova pulled off a 13-point comeback in the final six minutes. The Wildcats went on a 22-1 run to close out the game and win 73-65 as Butler missed their final nine shot attempts.

Dixon scored 28 for the Wildcats in that game, while Telfort had one of his better games for Butler with 25 points, 10 rebounds and six assists.

Villanova has won the previous two matchups against Butler and is 11-4 against the Bulldogs since April of 2018. Butler has not won at Villanova since the 2016-17 season.

--Field Level Media