Creighton Men Comeback To Down DePaul In Double OT

NEW YORK, N.Y. -- A spirited 17-point second half comeback and an 11-0 run in the final 1:55 of regulation forced double-overtime before the Creighton Men's Basketball team edged out DePaul for an 85-81 win in the 2025 BIG EAST Championship Quarterfinals, presented by JEEP, on Thursday night at Madison Square Garden. 

With the win, second-seeded Creighton (23-9) advances to Friday's second semifinal that will tip off at 8 p.m. Central and air on FOX for a game against the winner of tonight's quarterfinal pitting sixth-seeded Villanova against third-seeded Connecticut. DePaul, meanwhile, ended its season 14-19.

Trailing 62-51 with 2:12 remaining, Fedor Zugic ignited an 11-0 run with back-to-back three-pointers to cut the deficit to five at 62-57.  A Ryan Kalkbrenner lay-up with 1:10 left cut it to three, before Steven Ashworth cashed in a deep three-pointer with 21.3 remaining to tie the game at 62-62.  DePaul had the ball for one final possession in regulation but four-time BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Year Kalkbrenner swatted Troy D'Amico's three-point try and Rivera's desperation heave airballed as time expired.

Creighton took its first lead of the game on the opening possession of overtime on a dunk by Zugic, giving the newcomer his first double-figure scoring game of the year and helping Creighton open the first overtime on a 10-2 run to go up eight (72-64). DePaul scored nine of the next 10 points to tie it at 73-73 on a Layden Blocker floater over Kalkbrenner with 1.8 left to force a second overtime.

The Bluejays took a 77-76 lead with 2:12 left in the second overtime stanza on Kalkbrenner's hook shot to give him 30 points. The All-American scored the next time down as well to put CU up 79-76, and Jamiya Neal's dunk in transition gave CU a 81-76 lead with 1:12 remaining. A driving dunk from Blocker with 54.6 left cut the Jays lead down to 81-78, before four free throws from freshman Ty Davis sealed an 85-81 win for the Jays. Davis, who had scored just 17 points all season, including 5-of-11 free throw shooting, before making 5-of-6 shots from the line at the World's Most Famous Arena.

Creighton started slowly, making just 1-of-11 shots from the floor, falling behind 11-3 before a Neal jam before the second media timeout. The Bluejays trailed by as much as 28-11 in a first half that saw them shoot 29.6 percent from the floor, and were still down 36-21 after a late three-ball from D'Amico.

Isaiah Rivera topped the Blue Demons with nine points and three assists in the first half as the Blue Demons shot 5-for-7 from downtown and won the rebound battle 21-16, while CU was led by six points from Kalkbrenner before intermission.

A 10-2 run fueled by eight points from Kalkbrenner helped CU trim its deficit to 42-33 within the first five minutes of the second half. Ashworth's first triple of the night got CU within 46-40 with 11:40 remaining but DePaul regained the momentum with a three-pointer to beat the shot clock by Blocker and a driving lay-up from Rivera. An Isaac Traudt trifecta narrowed the deficit to five (54-49) with 6:43 remaining and a massive dunk from Kalkbrenner made it 54-51 a minute later but DePaul countered with three-pointers by Rivera and D'Amico and a layup from Thomas to push their lead back out to 62-51, before the Jays made their late push. 

Kalkbrenner led Creighton with 32 points, nine rebounds and five blocked shots. Zugic added a season-high 13 points, as the Bluejays finished the game shooting 43.1 (32-of-72) percent from the field, 29.4 (10-of-34) from three and 72.2 (13-of-18) from the free throw line.  CU won the rebound battle 44-40 and ouscored DePaul 24-12 off turnovers, 42-34 in the paint, 17-8 in second chance points and 28-15 off the bench.

Blocker had a team-high 25 points and Rivera added 17 points for the Blue Demons. The Blue Demons, who made 11-for-45 three-pointers in two regular-season meetings vs. CU, drained 12-of-30 three-pointers on Thursday evening.