CINCINNATI, Ohio _ It was the Big East's big showdown Saturday, matching reeling Villanova and a Xavier team determined to put a major dent in the Wildcats' bid to win a fifth consecutive regular-season championship in the conference.
But the third-ranked Cats had other ideas. They showed the fourth-ranked Musketeers and a capacity crowd at the Cintas Center they wouldn't go down without a fight, knocking down 11 first-half 3-pointers and then repelling a Xavier rally in the second half to gain a 95-79 victory, snapping a nine-game winning streak by the home team.
The Wildcats (24-3, 11-3), who finished with 16 3s, moved to within a half-game of the Musketeers (24-4, 12-3) and kept alive their hopes to go 5 for 5 since the reconfiguration of the Big East. It also extended their streak to 173 games _ best in the nation � without suffering back-to-back defeats.
Mikal Bridges scored 16 of his 25 points in the first half and Donte DiVincenzo contributed eight of his 21 points in a key stretch of the second half. Trevon Bluiett led Xavier with 26.
Villanova led by as many as 19 points in the first half and went into the locker room with a 51-37 advantage thanks to 11 3-point baskets in 19 attempts. Bridges knocked down four on his way to a game-high 16 points in the period. The Cats shot 60.6 percent from the field overall.
But Xavier, which shot just 40 percent in the opening half, started chipping into the deficit in the second half. The Musketeers used an 11-3 spurt that featured a jumper by Bluiett, and Quentin Goodin's layup to narrow the gap to three, 62-59, with 12 minutes, 43 seconds to play.
However, from 64-61, the Wildcats scored seven straight points, including Omari Spellman's 3-pointer, to get the margin back to 10, 71-61, with 9:26 remaining.
The Musketeers got to within six on two occasions, the last time at 75-69 with 7:16 to play, but freshman Collin Gillespie knocked down a 3-point basket and then got knocked down at the basket while making a tough layup to get the margin back to nine.
DiVincenzo then connected on eight straight points _ a pair of 3s and a drive in the lane _ that were followed by Spellman's 3-pointer to give the Wildcats a commanding 91-76 lead with 2:06 remaining.
The Wildcats shot 60.3 percent from the floor for the game and drained 16 3-point baskets in 34 attempts (47.1 percent). In losing two of their previous three games, the Wildcats had made a total of 17 3s and were shooting less than 24 percent.
The Wildcats defense was also active in the opening 20 minutes. Over one 9{-minute stretch, the Musketeers were just 3 of 15 from the floor. They ended the first half shooting 40 percent but helped their cause by making all 10 of their free-throw attempts.
The Wildcats matched their total of 3-pointers for the entire game against Providence before the first media timeout against Xavier, knocking down three of their first four from deep. The third one, by Gillespie, gave 'Nova a lead it would keep for the remainder of the first half.
Bridges, who led the Cats in the first half with 16 points, connected on four 3-pointers in a span of 5:18 to boost the Villanova margin to 15 at 36-21 with just under 6 minutes to play. A pair of treys by DiVincenzo got the lead up to 19, 51-32, with just over a minute remaining in the period.
