Creighton Men Top Marquette On Senior Day
Photo Credit: Creighton Athletics
OMAHA, Neb. -- Baylor Scheierman had 26 points and a season-high 16 rebounds as No. 12 Creighton men's basketball earned an 89-75 win over short-handed and fifth-ranked Marquette on Saturday, March 2nd. The win gave Creighton multiple wins over Top 5 programs in the same season for the first time in team history.
(Omaha, NE) - Creighton's seniors, which included Scheierman, Ryan Kalkbrenner, Francisco Farabello and Steven Ashworth, combined for 61 of CU's 89 points. Trey Alexander had 18 points and a career-high 11 assists to become the first Bluejay with consecutive points/assists double-doubles since Maurice Watson Jr. in 2016.. Creighton (22-8, 13-6 BIG EAST) shot 54.1 percent from the floor and made 13-of-32 three-pointers (40.6 percent). The Jays also won the rebound battle 35-28, won the bench points battle 16-6, and outscored MU 11-4 in fast break points.
Marquette (22-7, 13-5 BIG EAST) was led by 23 points from Kam Jones and 21 by David Joplin. The Golden Eagles played without reigning BIG EAST Player of the Year Tyler Kolek (oblique) as well as star forward Oso Ighodoro (illness). The Golden Eagles shot 46.9 percent from the field, 31.0 percent from deep and made 6-of-10 foul shots.
The game featured nine lead changes in the first seven minutes before a Mason Miller three-pointer gave CU an 18-16 lead, and the Jays would not trail the rest of the afternoon.. A pair of three-pointers by Alexander 29 seconds apart moved the CU margin to 28-21 and forced a timeout by the visitors. The Jays led 42-34 before the Golden Eagles outscored CU 6-0 in the final two minutes of the half to whittle the CU lead down to 42-40 at the intermission.
After MU tied the score at 44-all on a thunderous dunk by Joplin with 17:23 to play, CU began to pull away with a 16-6 run that featured points from four different men as the lead reached double-figures (60-50) for the first time. The Golden Eagles weren't done, rallying within one at 63-62 with 8:58 left on a three-ball by Jones, before CU made its final push. A dunk by Kalkbrenner and two free throws by Scheierman put CU up 67-62, starting a stretch where 26 straight Bluejay points were scored by its senior class. Highlighting that run was a four-possession stretch with one trifecta from Farabello and three from Scheierman that put the Jays ahead 81-69 with just over two minutes remaining.
Moments after Kalkbrenner's fifth and final block of the day, Creighton called timeout as all four seniors who played, as well as junior guard Alexander, checked out for one last time at home in 2023-24.
Creighton closes the regular-season next Saturday at 1:30 p.m. Central when it visits Villanova in a game that will be nationally-televised on FOX.
