Villanova Basketball: 3 keys to winning Big East duel with No. 19 Creighton

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Jeremiah Robinson-Earl Justin Moore Villanova Basketball (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images) /

Villanova Basketball will look to pick up its biggest win of the Big East regular season, traveling to Creighton on Saturday for a top-25 showdown.

Just 10 days after experiencing their first Big East loss of the season, Villanova Basketball will have an opportunity to snag its most important conference victory of the year – against the nationally-ranked Creighton Bluejays.

The Wildcats are most recently coming off a 32-point romp over Marquette on Wednesday, tallying a season-high in points in a 96-64 win. It was a significant victory for Villanova, who struggled with Georgetown just days prior – and before that, suffered their first loss in over two months, falling to St. John’s, 70-59, in a game where the Wildcats faced a deficit as large as 19 points.

They will face a Creighton squad that has endured a more tumultuous time in the past few weeks. After climbing as high as seventh in the national polls, the Bluejays have lost three of their last eight games, all by single-digits to unranked teams in Butler, Providence, and Georgetown. Their loss to Georgetown – the most recent of the three – came on the same day when Villanova lost to St. John’s, and the Bluejays suffered an 86-79 loss at home.

Since then, like the Wildcats, Creighton rebounded with two wins, edging Marquette on the road by three points before getting revenge on Georgetown on Tuesday. In a 63-48 win, the Bluejays had three players in double-digits in Christian Bishop (17 points), Mitch Ballock (14 points), and Damien Jefferson (12 points) – and that is without their two leading scorers, Denzel Mahoney and Marcus Zegarowski, reaching double-figures.

Despite holding the Hoyas to 0.66 points per possession, the Bluejays scored just 0.86 – a worrying sign considering they will be facing a Villanova team that posted a stellar mark of 1.50 against Marquette. For context, Creighton averaged 1.08 against the Golden Eagles in their February 6th tilt.

It is not often that the fifth-ranked Wildcats look shaky, and their dismantling of Marquette helped ease concerns after their showings against St. John’s and Georgetown – but a win over Creighton would be their best win since their December 6th nailbiter over Texas. For that to happen, however, Villanova will need to follow a few crucial keys.