Philadelphia ? The weather outside may have been frightful, but for the Villanova fans who braved a snowstorm to watch the Wildcats, the outcome was so delightful.

“Today was a good day,” Villanova’s Curtis Sumpter said.

Sumpter, a 6-foot-7 junior, scored 25 points to help the ‘Cats hand No. 2-ranked Kansas its first loss of the season, 83-62, Saturday at the Wachovia Center.

A thousand or so Villanova students among the weather-hindered crowd of 13,684 stormed the court moments after the buzzer sounded.

“That’s the first time I’ve been a part of students running on the floor,” Sumpter said. “That’s what being a student is all about.”

Villanova (10-4) was coming off a pair of heartbreaking defeats — a two-pointer to Georgetown on campus and a one-pointer to Boston College, a top-10 team.

“We’ve had some tough breaks this season,” Sumpter said. “But coach says stick with it, and that’s what we did.”

Allan Ray, a 6-2 junior guard, was the other half of ‘Nova’s 1-2 scoring punch. Ray netted a game-high 27 points. He made four of seven three-point attempts and all five of his free throws.

“My teammates had confidence in me,” Ray said, “and they were getting the ball to me in great spots.”

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Twice the Wildcats forged leads of as many as 32 points before coach Jay Wright put in a few reserves. The only starter who didn’t log at least 30 minutes was center Will Sheridan, and he played 29 minutes.

Wright said he would have liked to have rested some of his players more, but he lost freshman guard Kyle Lowry late in the first half. Lowry, a freshman guard from Philadelphia, was called for an intentional foul and ejected after punching KU’s Jeff Hawkins in the mid-section.

“I feel bad for Kyle,” Wright said. “He’s a good kid. He got hit on the eye and had a knot, and he got upset. It won’t happen again.”

By now, the Wildcats are learning to deal with adversity. Twice this season they have been involved in airplane scares. In one of the incidents, a trip out of Providence, R.I., the players and coaches didn’t think they were going to make it.

“We’ve been through so much, and it’s only brought us closer,” Sumpter said.

Asked what Saturday’s satisfying victory meant to his program, Wright deflected his praise to his players.

“I don’t want to seem smug,” he said, “but it’s more for these kids, for the juniors who have been through everything — like those plane flights when we were saying we were lucky to be here.”

Luck had nothing to do with Saturday’s victory over Kansas. The ‘Cats made 12 three-point goals and scored 35 points off turnovers.

“I’m real pleased the kids got to experience this,” Wright said. “Sometimes you don’t make shots, but we happened to make shots and play defense. To do that against a team like that is quite an accomplishment.”

Villanova will meet Notre Dame on Wednesday night, also in Philly’s downtown Wachovia Center. The ‘Cats have only one other game at the WC — Feb. 12 against Syracuse.