Nova meets DePaul in Big East quarters

No. 10 seed DePaul (16-16, 4-15) vs. No. 2 seed Villanova (24-7, 13-5)

Big East Conference Tourney Quarterfinals, Madison Square Garden, New York; Thursday, 6 p.m. EDT

BOTTOM LINE: DePaul is set to face Villanova in the quarterfinals of the Big East tournament. Villanova won both of the regular season matchups earlier this season. The teams last faced each other on Feb. 19, when the Wildcats outshot DePaul 56.9 percent to 47.5 percent and hit 14 more 3-pointers on their way to a 20-point victory.

STEPPING UP: The Blue Demons are led by juniors Paul Reed and Charlie Moore. Reed has averaged 13.7 points, 9.7 rebounds and 2.3 blocks while C. Moore has put up 15.5 points and 6.1 assists per game. The Wildcats have been led by Saddiq Bey and Collin Gillespie. Bey has averaged 16.1 points and 4.7 rebounds while Gillespie has put up 15.1 points and 4.5 assists per game.

FACILITATING THE OFFENSE: C. Moore has made or assisted on 50 percent of all DePaul field goals over the last three games. The junior guard has accounted for 14 field goals and 18 assists in those games.

WINLESS WHEN: DePaul is 0-5 when scoring fewer than 64 points and 16-11 when scoring at least 64.

ASSIST RATIOS: The Wildcats have recently gotten baskets via assists more often than the Blue Demons. Villanova has 36 assists on 71 field goals (50.7 percent) over its previous three outings while DePaul has assists on 32 of 64 field goals (50 percent) during its past three games.

ADVANTAGE FROM DEEP: The Villanova offense has made an average of 9.9 3-pointers per game, a figure that ranks the Wildcats 12th nationally. DePaul has only averaged 5.7 3-pointers per game, which ranks 226th.

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This was generated by Automated Insights, http://www.automatedinsights.com/ap, using data from STATS LLC, https://www.stats.com