Eric Dixon and Jhamir Brickus lead Villanova to blowout win against Rider
Dixon scored 16, while Brickus added 15 as the Wildcats bounced back from their loss to Maryland in Baltimore.
After a one-point loss to Maryland in its last outing, Sunday in Baltimore, the Villanova men’s basketball team was thankful for an opportunity to boost its confidence against Rider on Wednesday night at Finneran Pavilion.
Villanova (4-4) posted a 72-48 win over Rider (4-3) behind 16 points and five assists from Eric Dixon. Jhamir Brickus added 15 points on five three-pointers. The Wildcats attempted a season-high 38 three-pointers and converted 15.
’Nova utilized a 13-0 run over the closing 4 minutes, 17 seconds of the first half to push their lead over the Broncs from three points to 16. The Wildcats maintained a healthy lead in the second half and pushed their margin to 29 on three occasions.
Active hands
During its 13-0 run, Villanova forced five turnovers. Eleven of the 13 points the Wildcats scored over that stretch came off Rider turnovers. Five Wildcats finished the game with at least one steal, and Dixon and senior guard Jordan Longino recorded three each.
“We want to defend and rebound at an extremely high level,” Villanova coach Kyle Neptune said. “I think we’ve done it at times this year. … We know we have enough talent offensively that, if we’re doing that, we’re putting ourselves in a great spot.”
Villanova alternated between man and zone defenses throughout the game. Rider struggled to control possession, turning the ball over on 30.4% of its possessions. The Wildcats finished the game with 26 points off 17 Rider turnovers.
“I liked where we were in the man. We just wanted to test them in zones,” Neptune said. “I thought we did well with both. We’re a team that can play multiple different ways defensively.”
Brickus emerging
Brickus scored in double figures for the third straight game. He took seven shots from behind the arc, the second-most attempts by a Wildcat. Senior guard Wooga Poplar finished 2-of-12 from beyond the arc.
Brickus scored nine points in the second half, including triples on back-to-back possessions that put the Cats up, 55-30, with 9:50 remaining. In his eight games with the Wildcats, the La Salle transfer has five double-figure scoring games.
“My teammates give me that confidence,” he said. “They tell me to keep going and [to be] the floor general and scorer that I am. With them giving me that confidence, it’s only up from there.”
Brickus has been valuable to Villanova through the early part of the season as its primary point guard. If the 5-foot-11 guard can continue his streak of consistent scoring, the Wildcats will benefit.
“I love playing with [Brickus],” Dixon said. “It’s really good to see him get it going like that.”
» READ MORE: Villanova loses to Maryland, 76-75, failing to capitalize on Eric Dixon’s 38 points
Massive margins
Three of Villanova’s four wins have been decided by more than 20 points. The only win that was decided by fewer than 20 points was its season-opening win over Lafayette. All of Villanova’s wins have come at home.
Neptune maintains that the Wildcats come into every matchup with the same need to improve, regardless of the result.
“I think every game we come into we have the same mindset,” he said. “Win, lose, [it] doesn’t matter. We’ve got to get better. We lost our last game. If Eric Dixon makes a shot at the end, we would have won that game, but we didn’t, right? All the things we would have still had to get better at.”
Up next
Villanova will host No. 16 Cincinnati at the Finneran Pavilion as a part of the Big East-Big 12 battle on Tuesday (6:30 p.m., FS1). The Bearcats improved to 6-0 on Wednesday night with a 77-59 victory over Alabama State.