Phil Booth led the way with 21 points and four assists while Jalen Brunson chipped in with 17 points and five assists and Mikal Bridges added 15 points as No.1 Villanova pasted No.10 Xavier, 89-65.Xavier joined the Big East prior to the 2013-14 season, and in the five trips that the Musketeers have made to Philadelphia, the closest they have managed to keep a game has been 13.They lost by 23 points the first time they played as league foes.They lost by 13 the following year, by 31 points the season in which the Wildcats won the national title and by 25 last season.Wednesday night was more of the same.Villanova was up 18-6 just six minutes into the game and never looked back.The Wildcats took a 12-point lead into the break and lead by 20 less than five minutes into the second half.The only thing the Musketeers had going all night long was Kerem Kanter, who finished with a team-high 16 points.Here are three things that we can takeaway from this game: The last two games that the Wildcats played prior to Wednesday night were somewhat worrying.The issue was on the defensive end of the floor.The Wildcats gave up 101 points in their only loss of the season at Butler, a game that could somewhat be explained away by the Bulldogs making a ridiculous 15-for-22 from beyond the arc.But just a week later, Villanova gave up 90 points at Marquette, and that doesn’t even include the 85 points that Villanova gave up to DePaul in their Big East opener.Prior to their blowout win over the Musketeers, Villanova was dead last in defensive efficiency in Big East play, according to KenPom.Those doubts … well, they are no longer doubts, at least not in the moment.Xavier shot just 42 percent from the floor.They were 3-for-16 from three and turned the ball over 14 times.If you’re into the analytic angle, Xavier scored less than 1.0points-per-possession, the first time Villanova held an opponent below that mark since Dec.22nd.And it’s probably worth noting here that, entering Wednesday, Xavier was ranked 13th in KenPom’s adjusted offensive efficiency metric.“We’ve been struggling defensively,” head coach Jay Wright said, “and our guys really stepped up.” The issue, according to Wright, has been complacency.It started on that Dec.22nd game against Hofstra, and it continued into the start of Big East play.The problem? Villanova didn’t get in the practices they needed to in order to solve the problem.After the Hofstra game it was Christmas.Then they had to travel to Chicago to play DePaul.Next, they made a trip to Indianapolis on Dec.30th.“We saw it coming, we just didn’t have the time to practice,” Wright said.It wasn’t until after the Butler game that they were able to take a week to really iron out some of the kinks, and the Wildcats still struggled with an admittedly awesome Marquette offense.“We just kind of lost it,” Wright said.“We can’t just say, ‘OK, we’re going to play defense now’ when we haven’t been doing it or three weeks.You have to get back to your habits.” “Th