The No. 8 Wildcats won, 78-74. It was their 43rd consecutive victory in this building. And 25th in their last 27 against the other four Philly schools they play every season.
And Temple, which is ranked 25th, still hasn't beaten Villanova in back-to-back games since 1993 and '95, when they didn't play every year.
"One of my favorite things is to go down to Broad and Oregon on Jan. 1 [for the Mummer's Parade]," said Villanova coach Jay Wright, whose team will host Rutgers on Sunday afternoon in its Big East opener. "When I saw this game on the schedule, I knew it could possibly ruin that.
"I think both programs have such great respect for each other. They're a really good team. I think they're a better team than last year. I think we're a better team than last year. This was definitely like a Big East game."
The Wildcats (11-1) had faced only one other ranked team this season. They lost that one, 78-68, to Tennessee, then ranked 24th, on Nov. 26 in New York. And we have seen what's happened to Tennessee since then. So this was a chance for them to see where they stood heading into the conference wars.
"This was perfect timing for us, even though we knew [we could lose]," Wright insisted. "We hadn't played well against a really good team."
The Wildcats, who trailed by eight after 17 minutes, were down only one at the break. Then they opened the second half on a 16-5 run, to go up double digits. But the Owls, who open their Atlantic 10 campaign on Wednesday with Fordham on the road, scored 15 of the next 17 points to take a three-point lead with 9 minutes remaining.
