No. 23 Creighton looks to rebound vs. DePaul

Three conference losses in five games have made a Big East regular season championship a harder reach for No. 23 Creighton.

The Bluejays (20-4, 7-4) still have seven league games to play starting with Saturday's contest against DePaul at Allstate Arena, but they stand 2 1/2 games behind first-place Villanova, one behind second-place Xavier and one-half game in back of Butler (8-4).

But barring a late-season collapse, Creighton's credentials appear to be in good order for an NCAA tournament bid.

The Bluejays look for a second win this season over the Blue Demons. They were 83-66 winners in a Jan. 28 meeting in Omaha.

"We got off to a great start and we took them out of what they wanted to do early in the game," Creighton coach Greg McDermott said.

Creighton is coming off a 82-80 home loss to Xavier last Saturday.

"Obviously the way we lost was disappointing," McDermott said. "But we've won a couple of games like that this year, so I guess they all even out. Sunday-Monday was about getting off your feet and getting some rest -- we haven't been able to give them two days off since Christmas -- so I think they needed that. The last couple of days we've been working on ourselves."

Creighton's Marcus Foster, a transfer from Kansas State who has been named among 30 finalists for national player of the year, is averaging 18.0 points per game -- the highest average for a first-year Bluejay since 1969-70. He's fourth in Big East scoring.

Creighton, one of four Big East teams ranked in this week's Associated Top 25 poll, leads the conference in scoring average (84.7 points) and in field goal percentage (.521).

DePaul is ninth in scoring average (70.4 points), eighth in points allowed (73.6) and is the only Big East team with a negative average scoring margin (-3.1 points)

The Blue Demons (8-16, 1-10) are last in the Big East and have lost seven in a row. Saturday's contest is their second in three days and part of a run of four straight games against ranked teams.

DePaul has yet to beat a ranked team this season, started the run last Wednesday with a 72-61 loss at No. 24 Xavier and host No. 2 Villanova on Monday.

DePaul's Billy Garrett Jr. leads all active Big East players with 824 career points in league games. He has a career 1,526 points and needs just nine to crack the Top 10 on the school's all-time scoring list.

The Blue Demons hold a 16-15 series edge but last beat Creighton 70-60 on Jan. 7, 2015 in Omaha. The Blue Jays have since won five straight.

"DePaul's record is not that great but they've been extremely competitive," McDermott said.