Saturday, March 9
Philadelphia, Pa. (Wells Fargo Center)
1:30 PM
Creighton University
23-8,14-6Big East
69
at
67
Villanova
17-14,10-10Big East
1
2
F
Creighton
40
29
69
Villanova
29
38
67
Trey Alexander
Photo by: USA Today Sports Images
Fast Start, Clutch Finish Leads No. 10 Men's Basketball Past Villanova
3/9/2024 3:24:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Trey Alexander buries game-winner with 0.2 left.
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. -- An early barrage from three-point land helped No. 10 Creighton earn the No. 2 seed in next week's BIG EAST Tournament with a 69-67 victory over Villanova inside Wells Fargo Center. After CU squandered a 24-point lead, Trey Alexander delivered the dagger on a basket with 0.2 left.
CU never trailed in the contest while securing a win over every BIG EAST opponent this season.
In a start reminiscent of Creighton's 96-68 win over then-No. 4 win over Villanova at Wells Fargo Center in 2014 where the Jays made nine three-pointers on its first nine possessions, the Bluejays made eight three-pointers in the first eight minutes on Saturday afternoon.
Creighton (23-8, 14-6 BIG EAST) started the game on fire, making its first four shots to take a 10-0 lead out of the gate. Alexander's pull-up jumper on the opening trip rolled in before the junior buried a three-pointer. After a driving lay-up by Steven Ashworth, Trey Alexander buried another triple from the right wing to make it 10-0. After a Nova timeout and brief delay to fix a shot clock that wasn't working, Baylor Scheierman hit a turn-around jumper to make it 12-0.
Jordan Longino ended the Wildcat drought with a three-pointer at the 16:10 mark before CU countered with the next 12 points, including two three-pointers each by Scheierman and Mason Miller. Thanks to eight three-pointers in the first eight minutes, Creighton led 30-8 by the second media timeout and were up 32-8 when Scheierman picked up his second foul. The Wildcats took advantage, responding with a 12-2 run to claw within 34-20 and force a Bluejay timeout at the 4:00 mark as Scheierman checked back in.. Back-to-back Wildcat scores out of the break trimmed CU's lead to 10 (34-24). Creighton took a 40-29 lead into the half.
Scheierman led CU with 11 points, five rebounds, five assists and two steals in the first half while Alexander had 10. Eric Dixon led all players with 12 points in the first half for the Wildcats.
Villanova scored seven of the first 10 points after the break to get within seven but three-pointers by Miller, Francisco Farabello and Scheierman gave CU a 56-45 lead at the midway point of the second half. After CU pushed the lead back to 14, Villanova countered with a 10-0 run that featured five points each by Dixon and Armstrong and drop the Bluejay margin to 63-59 with 3:24 left. After a CU miss, Justin Moore drove the lane to drop the Jays lead to two before a Kalkbrenner basket with 2:05 left ended the 12-0 Wildcat flurry. But a pull-up three-pointer by Moore made it a one-point game with 1:33 left. Alexander drove the lane and missed but Kalkbrenner was there for the tip-slam with 1:06 left.
The Jays got a stop after Moore missed and Scheierman snared the rebound, only to turn it over with 34.4 on a held ball. Dixon would be fouled while hoisting a potential game-tying three-pointer with 23.6 to go and made all three to tie it. The Bluejays went without a timeout and Steven Ashworth found Alexander on the left wing. The junior guard took four dribbles, crossed through the lane, and drained a fadeaway jumper with just 0.2 seconds left. Nova would throw a full-court inbounds pass to Dixon, but his redirection hit the side of the backboard as Creighton escaped with its third win in five tries against the Wildcats inside Wells Fargo Center.
Scheierman led CU with 18 points and was joined in double-figures by Alexander (17) and Kalkbrenner (14). Creighton finished the game making 13-of-37 from three-point range, tying the BIG EAST record for three-pointers in a season of 206 held by the 2017-18 Villanova team that went on to win the national title.
Villanova was led by Dixon, who finished with 25 points, while Moore contributed 17.
Creighton begins the postseason on Thursday night at the BIG EAST Tournament presented by Jeep, where it will be the No. 2 seed and play at 6 p.m. Central at Madison Square Garden in New York City against the winner of Wednesday's Georgetown/Providence game.
NOTES: One day after earning Third Team All-American honors from ESPN.com, Baylor Scheierman earned similar acclaim from College Hoops Today on Saturday ... Creighton's 12-0 lead was its third-best in any game under 14-year head coach Greg McDermott, and best in a road game ... Baylor Scheierman made a three-pointer for the 30th time in 31 games this season, and 77th time in his past 78 games ... Baylor Scheierman scored in double-figures for the 30th time in 31 games this season ... Trey Alexander picked up his 100th career steal in the first half ... Creighton made a three-pointer for the 1,016th straight game ... Ryan Kalkbrenner (1,696) broke free of a tie for eighth on Creighton's all-time scoring list with Rick Apke (1,682) ... Ryan Kalkbrenner grabbed his 800th career rebound in the game .... Trey Alexander (1,305) moved from 25th to 21st on Creighton's all-time scoring list, passing Marcus Foster (1,292), Marcus Zegarowski (1,293), Elton Tuttle (1,303) and Mitch Ballock (1,304). Creighton clinched the No. 2 seed in next week's BIG EAST Tournament presented by JEEP, as it owns the tiebreaker against Marquette (if needed) due to owning a better record against the top-seed, UConn ... Creighton's 23 regular-season wins are its most since finishing the 2019-20 regular-season with 24 ... Since the realignment of the BIG EAST in 2013, Creighton's nine wins over Villanova are tied with Marquette for the most of any school against the Wildcats ... Creighton's eight road wins are its most since 2011-12 ... Creighton's 14 conference wins tie its most in 11 years in the BIG EAST ... Creighton is now 3-2 in games at Wells Fargo Center against Villanova and 4-3 overall in the facility under Greg McDermott ... Creighton has beaten every BIG EAST opponent at least once this season, something it also did in 2013-14, 2019-20 and 2020-21 ... Creighton improved to 6-0 this season and FOX and is now 12-1 on Saturday's ... Since 2016, each time that Villanova hosted its final regular-season game, the team to win that game went on to win the NCAA title (2016 Villanova, 2018 Villanova, 2023 UConn) ... Greg McDermott has tied Ed Cooley and Rick Pitino for eighth in BIG EAST history with his 123rd regular-season league win.
CU never trailed in the contest while securing a win over every BIG EAST opponent this season.
In a start reminiscent of Creighton's 96-68 win over then-No. 4 win over Villanova at Wells Fargo Center in 2014 where the Jays made nine three-pointers on its first nine possessions, the Bluejays made eight three-pointers in the first eight minutes on Saturday afternoon.
Creighton (23-8, 14-6 BIG EAST) started the game on fire, making its first four shots to take a 10-0 lead out of the gate. Alexander's pull-up jumper on the opening trip rolled in before the junior buried a three-pointer. After a driving lay-up by Steven Ashworth, Trey Alexander buried another triple from the right wing to make it 10-0. After a Nova timeout and brief delay to fix a shot clock that wasn't working, Baylor Scheierman hit a turn-around jumper to make it 12-0.
Jordan Longino ended the Wildcat drought with a three-pointer at the 16:10 mark before CU countered with the next 12 points, including two three-pointers each by Scheierman and Mason Miller. Thanks to eight three-pointers in the first eight minutes, Creighton led 30-8 by the second media timeout and were up 32-8 when Scheierman picked up his second foul. The Wildcats took advantage, responding with a 12-2 run to claw within 34-20 and force a Bluejay timeout at the 4:00 mark as Scheierman checked back in.. Back-to-back Wildcat scores out of the break trimmed CU's lead to 10 (34-24). Creighton took a 40-29 lead into the half.
Scheierman led CU with 11 points, five rebounds, five assists and two steals in the first half while Alexander had 10. Eric Dixon led all players with 12 points in the first half for the Wildcats.
Villanova scored seven of the first 10 points after the break to get within seven but three-pointers by Miller, Francisco Farabello and Scheierman gave CU a 56-45 lead at the midway point of the second half. After CU pushed the lead back to 14, Villanova countered with a 10-0 run that featured five points each by Dixon and Armstrong and drop the Bluejay margin to 63-59 with 3:24 left. After a CU miss, Justin Moore drove the lane to drop the Jays lead to two before a Kalkbrenner basket with 2:05 left ended the 12-0 Wildcat flurry. But a pull-up three-pointer by Moore made it a one-point game with 1:33 left. Alexander drove the lane and missed but Kalkbrenner was there for the tip-slam with 1:06 left.
The Jays got a stop after Moore missed and Scheierman snared the rebound, only to turn it over with 34.4 on a held ball. Dixon would be fouled while hoisting a potential game-tying three-pointer with 23.6 to go and made all three to tie it. The Bluejays went without a timeout and Steven Ashworth found Alexander on the left wing. The junior guard took four dribbles, crossed through the lane, and drained a fadeaway jumper with just 0.2 seconds left. Nova would throw a full-court inbounds pass to Dixon, but his redirection hit the side of the backboard as Creighton escaped with its third win in five tries against the Wildcats inside Wells Fargo Center.
Scheierman led CU with 18 points and was joined in double-figures by Alexander (17) and Kalkbrenner (14). Creighton finished the game making 13-of-37 from three-point range, tying the BIG EAST record for three-pointers in a season of 206 held by the 2017-18 Villanova team that went on to win the national title.
Villanova was led by Dixon, who finished with 25 points, while Moore contributed 17.
Creighton begins the postseason on Thursday night at the BIG EAST Tournament presented by Jeep, where it will be the No. 2 seed and play at 6 p.m. Central at Madison Square Garden in New York City against the winner of Wednesday's Georgetown/Providence game.
NOTES: One day after earning Third Team All-American honors from ESPN.com, Baylor Scheierman earned similar acclaim from College Hoops Today on Saturday ... Creighton's 12-0 lead was its third-best in any game under 14-year head coach Greg McDermott, and best in a road game ... Baylor Scheierman made a three-pointer for the 30th time in 31 games this season, and 77th time in his past 78 games ... Baylor Scheierman scored in double-figures for the 30th time in 31 games this season ... Trey Alexander picked up his 100th career steal in the first half ... Creighton made a three-pointer for the 1,016th straight game ... Ryan Kalkbrenner (1,696) broke free of a tie for eighth on Creighton's all-time scoring list with Rick Apke (1,682) ... Ryan Kalkbrenner grabbed his 800th career rebound in the game .... Trey Alexander (1,305) moved from 25th to 21st on Creighton's all-time scoring list, passing Marcus Foster (1,292), Marcus Zegarowski (1,293), Elton Tuttle (1,303) and Mitch Ballock (1,304). Creighton clinched the No. 2 seed in next week's BIG EAST Tournament presented by JEEP, as it owns the tiebreaker against Marquette (if needed) due to owning a better record against the top-seed, UConn ... Creighton's 23 regular-season wins are its most since finishing the 2019-20 regular-season with 24 ... Since the realignment of the BIG EAST in 2013, Creighton's nine wins over Villanova are tied with Marquette for the most of any school against the Wildcats ... Creighton's eight road wins are its most since 2011-12 ... Creighton's 14 conference wins tie its most in 11 years in the BIG EAST ... Creighton is now 3-2 in games at Wells Fargo Center against Villanova and 4-3 overall in the facility under Greg McDermott ... Creighton has beaten every BIG EAST opponent at least once this season, something it also did in 2013-14, 2019-20 and 2020-21 ... Creighton improved to 6-0 this season and FOX and is now 12-1 on Saturday's ... Since 2016, each time that Villanova hosted its final regular-season game, the team to win that game went on to win the NCAA title (2016 Villanova, 2018 Villanova, 2023 UConn) ... Greg McDermott has tied Ed Cooley and Rick Pitino for eighth in BIG EAST history with his 123rd regular-season league win.
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Now the real fun begins!#GoJays pic.twitter.com/CR0xgrLV1E
— Creighton Men's Basketball (@BluejayMBB) March 11, 2024
Team Stats
CU
VU
FG%
.450
.466
3FG%
.351
.450
FT%
.667
1.000
RB
34
29
TO
10
8
STL
6
7
Game Leaders
Scoring
Pts
18
FGM
7
3FGM
4
FTM
0
Pts
17
FGM
7
3FGM
3
FTM
0
Pts
14
FGM
6
3FGM
0
FTM
2
Pts
9
FGM
3
3FGM
3
FTM
0
Players Mentioned
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