NEW YORK, N.Y. – After a down to the wire escape Wednesday night against No. 11 DePaul Wednesday night, Villanova now trains its gaze at No. 3 seed Marquette (23-8 overall, 14-6 BIG EAST) in a quarterfinal matchup at the 2024 BIG EAST Tournament presented by Jeep.
 
That battle is set for approximately 9:30 p.m. Thursday evening at Madison Square Garden. This will be the fourth quarterfinal of a day that also includes games between top seed UConn and Xavier (noon); Seton Hall and St. John's (2:30 p.m.); and Creighton and Providence (7 p.m.).
 
Gus Johnson and Bill Raftery will be at center court for the national telecast on FS1. Ryan Fannon and Whitey Rigsby will do the broadcast honors on the Villanova IHeart Radio Network.
 
Villanova (18-14 overall, 10-10 BIG EAST) needed a well-executed ball-screen between Eric Dixon and Justin Moore to survive a scare from the Blue Demons. Moore rose up when DePaul's Da'Sean Nelson gave him space to drain a 3-pointer from the left wing with the 'Cats trailing 57-55 and 8.8 seconds remaining. The Wildcats trailed 40-32 midway through the second half.
 
The Wildcats and No. 10 Golden Eagles met twice in a 15-day span in January, with Marquette winning both.
 
In the first matchup at Fiserv Forum on the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday (Jan. 15), Marquette connected on .587 of its field goal attempts – including 30-of-40 inside the 3-Point arc – to pull away in the second half to an 87-74 win. On Jan. 30 at Finneran Pavilion, Marquette converted 27-fo-54 (.500) from the field on its way to an 85-80 win.
 
Villanova has allowed an opponent to convert 50 percent or better from the field only four times in 2023-24 and none since the Golden Eagles did so in their win at the Finn.
 
The Wildcats have been at their best offensively this season when featuring a balanced attack. On Wednesday night, only five Villanova players scored: Dixon (21 points), Mark Armstrong (11 points), Moore (10 points), Jordan Longino (nine points) and Tyler Burton (seven points). Longino had to leave the game early in the second half with a left leg injury and did not return.
 
"We've got another game, another opportunity to play for the people in our locker room," said Wildcats head coach Kyle Neptune. "It's now toward the end of the season. We feel like we have a lot of basketball left and that we can get a lot better from the (DePaul) game.
 
"DePaul got 57 points. They shot 27 percent in the first half, 45 percent in the second half. It was 36 percent for the game. That's pretty good (defense). We look at it like, who else can miss the shots we did and still get stops to hold a team to 57 points and fine a way to win? That's how we're going to look at it."
 
The winner advances to Friday night's second semifinal vs. the winner of the Creighton/Providence matchup.