Tuesday, January 23
Omaha, Neb.
7:30 PM
Creighton University
15-5,6-3BE
85
vs
78
Xavier
10-9,4-4BE
1
2
F
Xavier
39
39
78
#17 Creighton
38
47
85
Photo by: Creighton Athletics
Gritty Effort Leads #17 Men's Basketball Rally Past Xavier
1/23/2024 9:32:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Jays improve to 6-1 in 2024
OMAHA, Neb. -- Three days after gutting out a grueling triple-overtime road win at BIG EAST co-leader Seton Hall, No. 17 Creighton men's basketball dug deep to knock off Xavier, 85-78, before 17,195 fans at CHI Health Center Omaha.
Creighton (15-5, 6-3 BIG EAST) won for the sixth time in seven January games, while Xavier (10-9, 4-4 BIG EAST) had its three-game win streak snapped. Creighton is now 9-1 at home, while Xavier is 1-4 in road contests.
Creighton started strong, using a 17-6 run to take its largest lead of the first half at 22-15 before Xavier answered. The Musketeers countered with an 18-4 burst of their own as the visitors built a seven-point lead (33-26) with 4:26 left in the first half. Desmond Claude had eight of Xavier's points during the surge. Creighton would use a 12-4 run to bring CHI Health Center Omaha to life and retake a 38-37 lead, only to see Claude's final hoop give the Muskies a 39-38 lead at the break. Claude had 18 points in the first half on 7-of-15 shooting, offsetting a brilliant opening half from Creighton's Trey Alexander (16 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists).
Xavier made its first three shots from behind the arc in the opening minutes of the second half to go up 52-46 and still led 58-51 at the under-12 minute media timeout. That's when Creighton senior Baylor Scheierman went to work. A three-pointer out of the timeout, followed by a strong drive that led to a free throw, narrowed the gap. He'd miss the second free throw but after two offensive rebounds, Scheierman drained another triple to give him seven points in 48 seconds and trim the Bluejay deficit to one at 59-58 with 10:32 left. The Jays regained their first lead of the second half on a mid-range jumper from Alexander at 60-59 with 10:10 to go.
After falling behind by three with 8:01 left, the Jays unleashed another flurry. Steven Ashworth beat the shot clock out of the media timeout before an Alexander steal and coast-to-coast drive gave CU a 65-63 lead. A Musketeer miss led a foul in the chase for the rebound, and an ensuing technical foul on the Xavier bench. Ashworth sank two free throws and Miller made a foul shot as the CU lead grew to 68-63 after an 8-0 run that took just 36 seconds.
Creighton took a 76-69 lead, matching its largest of the night to that point, on Scheierman's trey with 4:06 left that led to another Xavier timeout. The Muskies got within two after a trey by Dayvion McKnight, only to have Scheierman's step-back trifecta return the margin to five with two minutes remaining. After a stop, Alexander's pull-up moved it to a seven-point lead with just over a minute left and Kalkbrenner hauled down the board after yet another stop. Creighton drained 4-of-6 free throws in the final 30 seconds to ice the win.
Alexander led Creighton with 27 points and added nine rebounds while Scheierman had 18 and Kalkbrenner scored 16 and snared nine rebounds. Creighton shot 49.1 percent from the field and made 11-of-28 three-point shots.
Xavier was paced by 20 points from Claude, who missed all eight of his field goal attempts after halftime to finish 7-for-23 frmo the field. McKnight contributed 20 points and Quincy Olivari scored 15. The Musketeers shot 40.8 percent for the game and made 13-of-14 free throws, in addition to winning the rebound battle 41-36 and scoring 17 second chance points after 14 offensive rebounds.
Creighton returns to action on Saturday at 6 p.m. for its annual Pink Out Game vs. DePaul.
NOTES: Creighton made a three-pointer for the 1,005th straight game, and Baylor Schieirman sank a three-ball for the 66th time in his past 67 games ... Tonight marked Creighton's 86th straight game on television ... Creighton improved to 9-1 when Steven Ashworth scores in double-figures and 12-1 when he has one turnover or less ... Greg McDermott tied Jamie Dixon for 10th in BIG EAST history with his 115th regular-season league win ... Since both teams joined the BIG EAST in the summer of 2013, 17 of the 25 meetings between Creighton and Xavier have been decided by eight points or less ... Three days after playing a school-record 55 minutes against Seton Hall, Baylor Scheierman played all 40 minutes on Tuesday vs. Xavier ... Trey Alexander has now scored 20 or more points 10 times in 20 games this season, while Baylor Scheierman has done it nine times ... Creighton won when trailing at halftime for the first time since its 2022 NCAA Tournament victory vs. San Diego State ... Creighton is 15-5 or better after exactly 20 games for the third time in the last five seasons ... Steven Ashworth increased his lead in assist/turnover ratio in BIG EAST play to 4.56 after dishing seven assists against just one turnover ... Ryan Kalkbrenner has had eight rebounds or more in 10 of his last 11 games ... Creighton is now 8-0 this season and has won the last 11 games it has played when Trey Alexander shoots 50 percent or better from the field ... Trey Alexander (1,094) moved past Tim Powers (1,093 from 1964-67) for 38th on Creighton's all-time scoring lis ... Creighton improved to 142-6 all-time at CHI Health Center Omaha when scoring 80 or more points.
Creighton (15-5, 6-3 BIG EAST) won for the sixth time in seven January games, while Xavier (10-9, 4-4 BIG EAST) had its three-game win streak snapped. Creighton is now 9-1 at home, while Xavier is 1-4 in road contests.
Creighton started strong, using a 17-6 run to take its largest lead of the first half at 22-15 before Xavier answered. The Musketeers countered with an 18-4 burst of their own as the visitors built a seven-point lead (33-26) with 4:26 left in the first half. Desmond Claude had eight of Xavier's points during the surge. Creighton would use a 12-4 run to bring CHI Health Center Omaha to life and retake a 38-37 lead, only to see Claude's final hoop give the Muskies a 39-38 lead at the break. Claude had 18 points in the first half on 7-of-15 shooting, offsetting a brilliant opening half from Creighton's Trey Alexander (16 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists).
Xavier made its first three shots from behind the arc in the opening minutes of the second half to go up 52-46 and still led 58-51 at the under-12 minute media timeout. That's when Creighton senior Baylor Scheierman went to work. A three-pointer out of the timeout, followed by a strong drive that led to a free throw, narrowed the gap. He'd miss the second free throw but after two offensive rebounds, Scheierman drained another triple to give him seven points in 48 seconds and trim the Bluejay deficit to one at 59-58 with 10:32 left. The Jays regained their first lead of the second half on a mid-range jumper from Alexander at 60-59 with 10:10 to go.
After falling behind by three with 8:01 left, the Jays unleashed another flurry. Steven Ashworth beat the shot clock out of the media timeout before an Alexander steal and coast-to-coast drive gave CU a 65-63 lead. A Musketeer miss led a foul in the chase for the rebound, and an ensuing technical foul on the Xavier bench. Ashworth sank two free throws and Miller made a foul shot as the CU lead grew to 68-63 after an 8-0 run that took just 36 seconds.
Creighton took a 76-69 lead, matching its largest of the night to that point, on Scheierman's trey with 4:06 left that led to another Xavier timeout. The Muskies got within two after a trey by Dayvion McKnight, only to have Scheierman's step-back trifecta return the margin to five with two minutes remaining. After a stop, Alexander's pull-up moved it to a seven-point lead with just over a minute left and Kalkbrenner hauled down the board after yet another stop. Creighton drained 4-of-6 free throws in the final 30 seconds to ice the win.
Alexander led Creighton with 27 points and added nine rebounds while Scheierman had 18 and Kalkbrenner scored 16 and snared nine rebounds. Creighton shot 49.1 percent from the field and made 11-of-28 three-point shots.
Xavier was paced by 20 points from Claude, who missed all eight of his field goal attempts after halftime to finish 7-for-23 frmo the field. McKnight contributed 20 points and Quincy Olivari scored 15. The Musketeers shot 40.8 percent for the game and made 13-of-14 free throws, in addition to winning the rebound battle 41-36 and scoring 17 second chance points after 14 offensive rebounds.
Creighton returns to action on Saturday at 6 p.m. for its annual Pink Out Game vs. DePaul.
NOTES: Creighton made a three-pointer for the 1,005th straight game, and Baylor Schieirman sank a three-ball for the 66th time in his past 67 games ... Tonight marked Creighton's 86th straight game on television ... Creighton improved to 9-1 when Steven Ashworth scores in double-figures and 12-1 when he has one turnover or less ... Greg McDermott tied Jamie Dixon for 10th in BIG EAST history with his 115th regular-season league win ... Since both teams joined the BIG EAST in the summer of 2013, 17 of the 25 meetings between Creighton and Xavier have been decided by eight points or less ... Three days after playing a school-record 55 minutes against Seton Hall, Baylor Scheierman played all 40 minutes on Tuesday vs. Xavier ... Trey Alexander has now scored 20 or more points 10 times in 20 games this season, while Baylor Scheierman has done it nine times ... Creighton won when trailing at halftime for the first time since its 2022 NCAA Tournament victory vs. San Diego State ... Creighton is 15-5 or better after exactly 20 games for the third time in the last five seasons ... Steven Ashworth increased his lead in assist/turnover ratio in BIG EAST play to 4.56 after dishing seven assists against just one turnover ... Ryan Kalkbrenner has had eight rebounds or more in 10 of his last 11 games ... Creighton is now 8-0 this season and has won the last 11 games it has played when Trey Alexander shoots 50 percent or better from the field ... Trey Alexander (1,094) moved past Tim Powers (1,093 from 1964-67) for 38th on Creighton's all-time scoring lis ... Creighton improved to 142-6 all-time at CHI Health Center Omaha when scoring 80 or more points.
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Brought the ????#GoJays pic.twitter.com/FHKlhIK13P
— Creighton Men's Basketball (@BluejayMBB) January 25, 2024
Team Stats
XU
CU
FG%
.408
.491
3FG%
.333
.393
FT%
.929
.720
RB
41
36
TO
5
9
STL
6
4
Game Leaders
Pts
27
FGM
10
3FGM
2
FTM
5
Pts
20
FGM
6
3FGM
5
FTM
3
Pts
16
FGM
7
3FGM
0
FTM
2
Pts
12
FGM
2
3FGM
1
FTM
7
Players Mentioned
G
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