Eric Dixon, Villanova demolish DePaul in anticlimactic Big East Basketball matchup

Bad defenses make bad plays. Against the 2023-‘24 DePaul Blue Demons and its bad defense , ‘Nova’s sophomore-sharpshooter (who is) , Brendan Hausen , took full advantage of the visitors’ late, nonchalant close-outs by hunting his own shot and letting it fly early-&-often; a potentially lethal combination for an outside shooter of Hausen’s, Taylor King’s, or Corey Stokes’ (high-) pedigree. During this Big East matchup, the native Texan’s aggression was rewarded with 17 points by game’s end including 5 made-threes on 6 (of those) attempts.

Of the 362 NCAA D-1 basketball programs, DePaul ranks out as (having) the 298th best-defense; giving up an average of 76.13 points per game. With the Blue Demons’ latest (& second) loss to the nation’s 234th ranked offense (in), Villanova, on the Wildcats’ home floor, DePaul moved to 3-13 overall & 0-5 in-conference on the season and is comfortably positioned last in the Big East standings. In the much-anticipated return of the Cats’ primary floor-general, Justin Moore, the home team didn’t disappoint and welcomed their leader back to the floor with the highest point total of their 16-game season (so far); 94.

While it’s true the 6-foot 4-inch (former) All Big East selection point-guard was rusty in his first game back after suffering a knee-injury against Kansas State five weeks ago, the fact that Moore logged 23 minutes and looked like himself physically was a huge lift for Nova Nation. Even though the fifth year senior clearly showed us he wasn’t sharp by dropping just 2 points on 1-of-6 made-shots & 0-of-3 from-3 point territory against DePaul, the whole team played maybe its cleanest game of the season; committing only 4 turnovers, sinking 20 of 21 free throws, draining 8 of 20 3-balls, and boasting a total of 5 players who scored at least 10 points.

Other than Tyler Burton; who finished the Cats’ fourth Big East victory with 14 points on 4-of-12 shooting, each of Nova’s (four) double-digit scorers made at least 60 percent of their shots. After the Wildcats got whooped by St. John’s nearly a week ago, sources close to Eric Dixon claimed the big fella wasn’t happy about his (4-18 shooting) performance against the Red Storm, and made it a point over the last week to have a bounce back game against the Blue Demons. In demonstrating (how) he’s a man amongst boys, the Galloping Ghost grad delivered on his promise to himself & his teammates by sinking 9 of his 12 shots and finishing the game with 24 points.