Villanova displayed the good, bad, and ugly this week, culminating in a loss to Providence

A two-point upset of No. 9 St. John’s at the Finneran Pavilion on Wednesday night spotlighted the good version of this season’s Villanova team.

In Saturday evening’s 75-62 loss at Providence, the not-so-good version of the Wildcats was on display. Villanova (15-11, 8-7 Big East) trailed by as many as 22 points in a loss that cast its NCAA Tournament ambition back into the shadows. The Friars improved to 12-14, 6-9.

Senior guards Jordan Longino and Wooga Poplar each put up 18 points, and graduate forward Eric Dixon scored 15. Poplar and Dixon both finished with nine rebounds.

Providence guard Jayden Pierre led all scorers with 19 points on 6-for-14 shooting, including 5-for-9 from three. Senior guard Bensley Joseph contributed 17 points, six rebounds, and six assists.

If the upset of St. John’s cracked the door to the NCAA Tournament an inch open for the Wildcats, Saturday’s loss pushed it back to its nearly shut position.

Villanova is 1-5 in Quadrant 1 games this season, with the two-point victory over the Red Storm the only win. With five games remaining in the regular season, the Wildcats have two Quad 1 opportunities to bolster their tournament resumé: Tuesday at UConn (17-8, 9-5) and Friday against Marquette (19-6, 10-4) at the Wells Fargo Center.

The loss also makes the road to a top-five seed and first-round bye in the Big East tournament more challenging for the Wildcats. After Saturday’s loss, Villanova is in a tie for fifth with Xavier (16-10, 8-7). Three conference wins separate current fourth-place UConn from eighth-place Providence.

Providence never trailed Saturday. The Friars finished the first half with a 12-point lead, which Villanova was unable to cut to single digits in the second.

“I thought [Providence] threw a hard punch at us to start the game,” Villanova coach Kyle Neptune said. “We just never recovered.”

Villanova was gashed by Providence’s perimeter shooting. The Friars shot 13-for-27 from deep, their third-highest total in a game this season. Butler allowed 16 threes to the Friars on Feb. 8, while Villanova conceded 14 in its 75-73 win over Providence on Jan. 17.

“[Providence] took advantage of some things that we did,” Neptune said. “They just did a good job moving the ball and getting to the spots that they wanted to get to.”

Three-point shooting was also an offensive concern for the Wildcats in the loss. Before Saturday’s game, Villanova’s 40.2% team three-point shooting was the second best in Division I. Against the Friars, the Wildcats were 5-for-19 from distance. The 26.3% three-point shooting mark as a team was Villanova’s second worst this season. The Wildcats shot 17.6% from deep on 17 attempts in their 62-60 loss to Creighton on Feb. 1.

“It doesn’t show up on film how physical they are,” Neptune said. “They’re with you at all times. They’re always bumping you. … They do a really good job.”

Villanova entered the game with a chance to win four consecutive Big East games, something the Wildcats have not done since Neptune took over in 2022-23. The loss deflated that possibility, along with much of the momentum the team built up with February wins at DePaul, against Xavier, and then-No. 9 St. John’s.

“There are a lot of different teams in our league [that] play a lot of different styles,” Neptune said. “Give [Providence] a lot of credit, they adjusted to our style and got the shots we sometimes give up.”

The Wildcats went on two Big East winning streaks in 2021-22 on their way to a conference tournament title. They won six straight between December and January and five straight in February in former coach Jay Wright’s final season.

Villanova faces Connecticut in Hartford on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. The Wildcats defeated the two-time defending national champions, 68-66, on Jan. 8 at the Finneran Pavilion. The Huskies lost, 69-68, in overtime at Seton Hall on Saturday.