Villanova wins fifth straight in conference play following a convincing road rout of Creighton

A double-double performance from Duke Brennan and Villanova now has 20 wins this season.

The senior forward finished with a team-high 21 points and added 12 rebounds to lead the Wildcats in an 80-69 road defeat of Creighton in Omaha, Neb., on Saturday.

Brennan collected his 11th double-double of the season, and is now second all-time in program history behind Michael Bradley’s 14 during the 2000-01 season. Villanova (20-5, 11-3 Big East) never trailed, avenging a January loss to the Bluejays (13-12, 7-7).

“Duke’s been great,” said Villanova head coach Kevin Willard. “You can’t talk enough about Duke. I mean, [he’s] just taking his time, having some big finishes and again the guards [are] finding him.”

It also marks a five-game win streak for Villanova, which earned its first 20 wins in the first 25 games for the first time since the 2018-19 season.

Tyler Perkins scored 17 points, marking his ninth consecutive game with double-digits. Perkins also hauled in 11 rebounds in what was his second double-double of the season.

Perkins is now averaging 17.9 points per game over his last nine games. He is averaging a team-high 13.5 points per contest this season, averaging 44% from the field and 37% on three-pointers.

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“I think [Perkins] had six points off offensive rebounds, big tip backs,” Willard said. “There was one late in the second half that was monstrous as [Creighton was] making a run. They cut [it] to seven, pushed it back up to nine, which was unbelievable. I think he’s starting to really settle into who he is as a player and he keeps getting better.”

Villanova was able to hold Creighton’s offense to 10 points through the first 13 minutes of the game. The Bluejays’ starting lineup had just five points, and Austin Swartz had five points off the bench.

Villanova took a 25-10 lead over Creighton with seven minutes left in the first half. Creighton was 4-for-18 from the field at that point.

Villanova also scored 12 points on eight first-half turnovers by the Bluejays.

I think we started off really good and were just really solid,” Willard said. “I think at our place we got caught up on switches a couple times and they took advantage of it. I thought we were really solid and just guarded our man really well.”

Creighton finished the first half with 27 points, and its starting lineup had just 13 combined points as the Bluejays shot 34.4% from the field and 27.3% from beyond the arc.

Villanova’s offense dominated under the basket. It scored 48 of its 80 points inside the paint, 30 of them coming in the first half.

The Wildcats shot 3-for-11 on three-pointers in the first half and finished the game 6-for-21. Villanova entered the game averaging 27.4 three-point attempts per game. Additionally, the Wildcats attempted 44 two-point field goals, entered the game averaging 31.6 per contest, which ranked 308th in the nation.

Villanova had 25 points from its bench, with 13 coming from Devin Askew and 10 from Malachi Palmer, who shot a perfect 3-for-3 from the field and 2-for-2 from beyond the arc.

Askew has averaged 9.8 points off the bench this season, but has had five double-digit performances through conference play.

Palmer has recently begun to get more time on the court. He has scored double digits on the bench in three of his last four games, including a career-high 15 points against Seton Hall on Feb. 4.

Villanova stays on the road, traveling to Xavier (13-12, 5-9) on Tuesday (6:30 p.m., FS1). It will be the first time the two teams meet this season. Villanova leads the all-time series, 35-9.

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