DePaul, Xavier meet in Big East tourney

No. 10 seed DePaul (15-16, 3-15) vs. No. 7 seed Xavier (19-12, 8-10)

Big East Conference Tourney First Round, Madison Square Garden, New York; Wednesday, 8:30 p.m. EDT

BOTTOM LINE: DePaul is set to face Xavier in the opening round of the Big East tourney. In the regular season, Xavier won both of the head-to-head matchups. The teams last played on Feb. 25, when the Musketeers outshot DePaul 50 percent to 47.5 percent and made six more 3-pointers en route to a 78-67 victory.

TEAM LEADERSHIP: Juniors Paul Reed and Charlie Moore have led the Blue Demons. Reed has averaged 13.4 points, 9.6 rebounds and 2.4 blocks while Moore has put up 15.5 points and six assists per game. The Musketeers have been led by Naji Marshall and Tyrique Jones, who have combined to score 30.1 points per outing.

KEY CONTRIBUTIONS: Marshall has either made or assisted on 48 percent of all Xavier field goals over the last five games. Marshall has accounted for 37 field goals and 22 assists in those games.

SCORING THRESHOLDS: DePaul is 0-5 when its offense scores 64 points or fewer. Xavier is a perfect 13-0 when it holds opponents to 63 or fewer points.

UNDEFEATED WHEN: Xavier is a perfect 15-0 when its defense holds opponents to a field goal percentage of 40 percent or less. The Musketeers are 4-12 when allowing opponents to shoot any better than that.

TOUGH DEFENSE: DePaul has forced opponents into committing turnovers on 22.4 percent of all possessions, the second-highest rate among all Big East teams.