Two struggling Big East squads will battle Wednesday in Chicago as Villanova looks to its formidable one-two punch of Eric Dixon and Wooga Poplar when it faces DePaul.Dixon is the NCAA’s leading scorer through Monday at 24.2 points per game. Miami transfer Poplar is fresh off a 24-point performance in a 62-60 home loss to Creighton.The Wildcats (12-10, 5-6 Big East) bring a three-game losing streak to DePaul. Villanova has dropped five of its last six games, which followed an 8-1 run.The struggles have come despite the solid play of Dixon, a graduate student who passed 2,000 career points in the last game and is on pace to eclipse Kerry Kittles (2,243 in 1992-96) as Villanova’s all-time leading scorer.The Wildcats are in a four-way tie for fifth place in the Big East with Georgetown, Xavier and Providence, and they are looking to stake a shot at the conference’s potential fifth berth in the NCAA Tournament. A second one-possession loss in three games, however, set back Villanova’s season.”It’s a Big East game, going against high-level players and a high-level program and, unfortunately, we ended up on the other side of where we wanted to end up,” Villanova coach Kyle Neptune said of the Creighton loss. “We’ll be ready for the next one.”