Xavier 89-92 Villanova: Why, God?

We’ve all been there, right? You’re a 6-8, 235 pound force of human resilience. You’ve got 28 points in yet another performance worthy of the Big East’s leading scorer. You scored a tip in, with the help of a little push off to force overtime, then hit two huge three pointers to keep your team in touching distance. Now, after Villanova has missed yet another free throw, you have the ball, a two point deficit, and nine seconds to put things to right. Filip Borovicanin, who has assisted your two big shots is calling for the ball, but past him you go. You drive on to that strong left hand but get walled off, then turn back central and look for a cutting Jovan Milicevic… and throw the ball over his head to no one. The ball bounces to Villanova and that is functionally the game. We’ve all been there.

Except, of course, none of us actually has. That was Tre Carroll’s plight last night. He was brilliant for 28/10/3 on 11-14 shooting. He was also bad with six of Xavier’s 16 turnovers, three of them in the last 15 minutes of the game. This is the dichotomy of college basketball: you can be both the hero and the goat.

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Xavier was in this position, again, because once again they put together a warrior’s effort against a team that would rightly have been expected to beat them based on resume and metrics. Once again, Xavier came out swinging. Malik Messina-Moore (15/5/7) and Jovan Milicevic (20/9/5 only three fouls) staked Xavier to an early lead but, as always, an opponent’s run tightened the game back up and Nova rode a 15-2 stretch to reclaim the lead. Nova still held that slim one point lead at the half.

Carroll and Milicevic were both excellent in the first half, but Filip Borovicanin (3/3/6) was not. The big Serb never really got things going as he struggled with the defense of Matt Hodge and Duke Brennan. Brennan was a menace all game. He finished with six of Villanova’s 13 offensive rebounds. X was generally good on the defensive glass, but…

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Publish date : 2026-02-18 18:01:00

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