Creighton @ Xavier preview

Last Meeting ( Mar 14, 2019 ) Creighton 61, Xavier 63

Both Creighton and Xavier have stumbled a bit out of the gate in Big East play, lending a bit more significance to their matchup Saturday afternoon hosted by the Musketeers in Cincinnati. After an impressive 17-point victory over Marquette in a conference opener that pushed their overall winning streak to eight straight, the Bluejays dropped consecutive games to ranked opponents Butler and Villanova.

They blew an eight-point halftime lead at home against the Wildcats in Tuesday's 64-59 loss, denying coach Greg McDermott his 500th career win. "Villanova has never been a team to beat themselves, and they still aren't," McDermott told reporters after his team forced a season-low five turnovers. "It's like death by paper cut after paper cut after paper cut. Finally you bleed to death." Xavier received at least 14 points from four starters, but found little help elsewhere in an 83-71 loss to No. 25 Seton Hall on Wednesday. Senior forward Tyrique Jones led the way with 19 points and nine rebounds as Xavier saw its home winning streak snapped at 13 games.

TIME: 2 p.m. ET. TV: FOX

ABOUT CREIGHTON (12-4, 1-2 Big East): The Bluejays shot 50 percent from the floor in their win over Marquette before hitting just a shade over 40 percent combined in the two straight losses. Leading scorers Marcus Zegarowski (17.4) and Ty-Shon Alexander (15.9) both scored eight points on a combined 6-of-24 from the floor in the loss to Villanova. Sophomore forward Christian Bishop was a bright spot Tuesday with 16 points and nine rebounds, and he's shot 18-of-28 over the past four games.

ABOUT XAVIER (12-4, 1-2): Junior forward Naji Marshall leads the team in scoring (16.5) and hit the 1,000-point mark for his career in Wednesday's loss, but he had just three baskets in the setback. Junior guard Paul Scruggs hit all three of his 3-point tries en route to 17 points to boost his season mark to 14.7, while Jones pitches in 13.6 points per game and 10.1 rebounds, which ranks second in the Big East. Senior guard Quentin Goodin leads the team with 4.1 assists per contest but has a total of 21 points in four games since scoring a career-high 25 in a win over Western Carolina on Dec. 18.

BUZZER BEATERS

1. Creighton entered Friday second in the Big East in 3-point shooting (35.9 percent), while Xavier was second-to-last (30.5).

2. Jones has at least nine rebounds in nine straight games.

3. The teams split two meetings in the regular season in 2018-19 before Xavier knocked off Creighton 63-61 in the quarterfinals of the conference tournament.

PREDICTION: Xavier 76, Creighton 71