By Harry Allison
You can’t say that Villanova is playing a cupcake early season schedule.
They lost yesterday to nationally ranked Purdue 80-64:
This was the third time in five games the Wildcats have played a Top 25 team.
“I hope it helps us in our league play when we get there,” coach Jay Wright said.
“Number one, our league is really good. Number two, a lot of times we start conference play and we’re not really sure what we are yet. We have an idea, I think this year, playing these teams, these coaches.”
Justin Moore had 19 points, Caleb Daniels added 17 and Collin Gillespie had 14 for Villanova (3-2), which launched 34 attempts from behind the arc, making 13 of them.
The Wildcats led 33-31 at halftime, scored the first five points in the second half and were up 57-46 after a 3-pointer by Daniels.
But Purdue outscored the Wildcats 34-17 over the last nine minutes.
“They just played a really intelligent game for 40 minutes,” Villanova coach Jay Wright said. “They made less mistakes and executed what they do more consistently for 40 minutes. That’s why they are a really good team.”
