Booth scores 21, No. 1 Villanova routs No. 10 Xavier
Wildcats win 89-65 in top-10 Big East matchup
PHILADELPHIA — Phil Booth hit five 3s and scored 21 points and Jalen Brunson had 17 to lead No. 1 Villanova to an 89-65 win over Xavier on Wednesday night.
The Wildcats (15-1, 3-1 Big East) returned to the top spot of the poll and dominated like a team that won’t lose its grip on that rank anytime soon.
Booth and Brunson opened the game with 3s and the Wildcats played every bit as worthy as their ranking as they raced to a 22-9 lead. Booth hit three 3s in the first half and Brunson was solid both from long range and in attacking the basket to make it 40-28 at the break.
The Wildcats took a 13-point lead in the half on the play of the game: Donte DiVincenzo stole the ball and fed to Eric Paschal just before halfcourt. Paschal passed to Booth who put some extra arc on a lob and the 6-foot-9 Paschal slammed it home to rock the rim and bring the crowd to its feet.
The Wildcats’ annual defeat at Butler had no impact on a program that has been humming along, collecting Big East titles and the 2016 national championship. Villanova hasn’t lost more than five games in a season since 2012-13 and it’s hard to find two or three more losses on the schedule, much less anything that would send the Wildcats into a tailspin.
Villanova needed just a week to reclaim its lost No. 1 ranking in the AP Top 25. The Wildcats returned to the top after an upset-filled week that rattled the poll.
With the shakeup at the top of the AP Top 25 in the wake of losses by No. 1 Michigan State and No. 2 Duke, Xavier (15-3, 3-2) might have been able to make this game a 1-2 matchup had it defeated Providence. The Musketeers instead had their 10-game winning streak snapped in an 81-72 loss to the Friars and slid to 10th.
They couldn’t bounce back in Philly.
Trevon Bluiett (19.4 points) and J.P Macura (13.1 points) were awful in the first half and could not stop Nova from dominating. The duo went 3-for-11 from the floor, hit just one 3 and Xavier was generally over-