The evidence that the BIG EAST may be at its strongest from top to bottom this year was on display Saturday. Creighton, Xavier and Providence all took down ranked league opponents on the road and Marquette had to rally to take a four-point win against DePaul.
Creighton got an early 18-8 jump against No. 8 Villanova at Wells Fargo Center and pushed the advantage to 27-12 en route to a 76-61 victory. Bluejay Denzel Mahoney came off the bench to score a game-high 21 points on 8-of-12 shooting from the field. Creighton (17-5, 6-3 BIG EAST) got 44 points from its guard trio of Ty-Shon Alexander (16 points), Mitch Ballock (15) and Marcus Zegarowski (13).