College Basketball

Villanova comeback comes up short in loss to St John’s

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David Malandra Jr
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David Malandra Jr Sports Editor

I am Sports Reporter that covers Pro & College Sports in Philadelphia & any other events that are featured in Philadelphia

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Published17 Jan 2026

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Philadelphia: Anytime we get a Philly vs New York battle going on in South Philly, it’s going to have some good action & that is what we saw on Saturday night as the Villanova Wildcats would battle the St John’s Red Storm from Xfinity Mobile Arena. Villanova would come into the game on a 2-game winning streak & off a win over Providence, while St John’s would make their way to South Philly on 3 game winning streak. This would be a good test for the Wildcats as they could end up in the AP top 25 for the 1st time this season with a win.

Lineup:

How the game went:

Villanova would score the game’s first 4 points before St John’s got on the board with basket & a foul, Wildcats took a 10-9 lead into the 1st timeout. This would be a very physical first half of basketball. There would be multiple lead changes in the first half. Villanova would be down by 7 at 35-28 with 3:33 left & the Wildcats would attempt to cut into the lead. They would be down 36-35 at halftime.  Based on what we saw in the 1st half, we would be setting up for an exciting second half.

The Red Storm would jump out to start the 2nd half with a 4-point play

& Villanova would take an early timeout to try to stop the run. The Red Storm would go on 16-2 run for 56-39 lead & the crowd inside Xfinity Mobile Arena would have a very concerned look on their faces & what  could the Wildcats do to  get back into the game. St John’s would have a stretch where they would miss 5 foul shots in row that opened the door for the Wildcats & on this play which resulted in Tyler Perkins 3 pointer got the lead down to 63-50

Whenever the Wildcats had a run, the Red Storm had a response. There would be couple times that the Wildcats would get the lead down to 5 especially on this 3 pointer from Devin Askew

When this happened, everyone inside Xfinity Mobile Arena thought the Wildcats could pull off the comeback win, but down the stretch, the Wildcats just could not get the stops needed as the Red Storm came into South Philly with an 86-79 win on the road. Villanova had some mistakes that came back and haunted them & some were at the foul line.

Postgame:

St John’s Coach Rick Pitino

Villanova Coach Kevin Willard

Final Numbers:

What is next:
Villanova now has a record of 14-4 & will look to rebound from this loss as they take on Georgetown on Wednesday at Finneran Pavilion