Drexel Dragons put away No. 18 Villanova

PHILADELPHIA — Amari Williams scored 12 points and blocked No. 18 Villanova’s tying-attempt with 3 seconds left to help Drexel upset the Wildcats 57-55 on Saturday in the inaugural Big 5 Classic at the Wells Fargo Center.

The Wildcats (6-3) fell to 0-3 in a series of Big 5 games that was designed to crown a city basketball champion.

Welcome to the Big 5, Drexel. Drexel crashed the Big 5 this season as one of college basketball’s revered traditions underwent a serious retool in an attempt to stay relevant on the Philly sports scene.

Penn, La Salle, Temple, Saint Joseph’s and Villanova were joined by Drexel this season in the Big 5. The city schools dumped the traditional round-robin play and decided against holding the Classic at the famed Palestra, dubbed the Cathedral of College Basketball, though there was never any real consideration toward changing the Big 5 name.

Luke House scored 11 points for the Dragons, who beat a Top 25 team for the first time since 2010. Eric Dixon led the Wildcats with 21 points.

Williams powered down his defender late in the game for a bucket and 56-53 lead. He made 1 of 2 free throws for a two-point lead, then swatted Justin Moore’s tying layup attempt that sent Drexel fans into a frenzy.

The Wildcats missed 13 of 17 3-pointers in the first half and missed 20 of 28 shots overall to give the Dragons all the opportunity they needed to pull off the upset. House hit consecutive 3s that sent the Dragons into halftime with a 26-25 lead.

Teams were split into threeteam pods with games played at on-campus arenas, with the teams then seeded for the tripleheader that crowned a Big 5 champion. Much like the NBA’s In-Season Tournament juiced the significant of otherwise lackluster games, the Classic matchups provided some instant, well, classics. At least on the city scene.

The highlight: Temple’s 106-99 triple-overtime win this week against La Salle that ushered the Owls into the title game.