City of Basketball Love

Jerome Taylor (@ThatGuy_Rome)

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Justin Moore is off to a good start to his comeback season. 

The graduate student followed up his 10-point outing against American with a 21-point outburst in Villanova’s 83-57 rout of Le Moyne on Friday night. 

After tearing his Achilles in the last minute of their Elite Eight matchup in 2022, the 2023-2024 season presents the DeMatha product with the opportunity to put in an entire season of work since the injury, and he’s focused on accomplishing Nova’s ultimate goal. 

“Individually, my mindset going into this season is focusing on the team goals … play as hard as we can and communicate,” Moore said after the game.

Moore has been a double-digit scorer throughout his whole career on the Main Line, and even when he returned last season for 13 games, he averaged 13.5 points, despite Villanova head coach Kyle Neptune saying he was never fully healthy.

But Moore is fully healthy this season. He proved that in the first two games — when he turns it on, he can help Villanova (2-0) turn games into blowouts.

The Dolphins, a first-year Division I program, were hot offensively to start the game, shooting 50% from the field and from deep heading into the under-eight timeout. However, Moore, Mark Armstrong and Tyler Burton did enough offensively to give Nova a 25-23 lead. 

“I don't remember [what was said in the timeout],” TJ Bamba said. “But it was probably [us] getting jumped on about being tougher on defense. We were trying to get stops … [the timeout] was about grinding and getting stops.” 

On the other side of that timeout, the Wildcats’ defense did just that, and the talent disparity became apparent. Villanova held Le Moyne scoreless for four minutes, and it outscored the Dolphins 23-11 to take a 48-34 lead heading into halftime.

Moore led the way with 16 first-half points (6-of-10 shooting from the field, 2-for-6 from 3-point territory, 2-of-2 from the foul line), including nine points after the timeout.

“[Moore]’s competitive, a hard worker … he just reminds me of someone that wants to go out there and compete, and I feed off of that,” Bamba said. 

Moore cooled down early in the second half and only played 10 minutes with the game mostly in hand, but that’s where Villanova’s depth came in. Bamba, who finished the game with 15 points (5-of-9 shooting, 3-of-6 from 3), scored seven points in the second half before Moore hit a 3 to score his first points of the half after the under-12 timeout.

Neptune was able to get a look at his deep roster. Four players scored in double figures: Moore, Bamba, Burton (who had a 10-point, 13-rebound double-double) and Brendan Hausen (18 pts on 6-of-7 from 3). Jordan Longino and Armstrong had seven and nine points, respectively. 

Notably, Eric Dixon didn’t register a point, which in years past would’ve spelled trouble for the Wildcats. But their depth this year allows them to overcome games when Dixon doesn’t carry the scoring load. 

“We know we have a lot of guys who can score the ball … it can be anybody’s night,” Moore said. “We’re just happy [Dixon] was making the right plays, not forcing it, playing great defense.”

“To go into the game and deliberately pass up shots that [Dixon] could’ve taken, that he’s taken in the past … for him to share the ball like that knowing he hasn’t scored as an older guy, it’s pretty remarkable,” Neptune said. “That’s what it takes to be a good team.”