The Bluejays proved yet again they belong in the conversation among the Big East’s best on Saturday afternoon.
No. 12 Creighton, thanks to a late burst from Baylor Scheierman, flew past No. 5 Marquette late to pick up an 89-75 win at the CHI Health Center on Saturday.
Marquette closed the first half on a quick 6-0 burst to cut the game to two points, and then tied it up immediately to open the second with a Kam Jones layup. David Joplin then threw down a wild dunk over Creighton 7-footer Ryan Kalkbrenner, too.
Though Creighton went a brutal 1-of-11 from behind the arc to open the second half, it somehow managed to keep Marquette at arms length. It wasn’t until Baylor Scheierman finally hit a 3-pointer right at the 4-minute mark that the Bluejays finally started to pull away for good.
Francisco Farabello then hit a 3-pointer of his own and Scheierman hit two more to follow, which resulted in a mini 12-2 run that pushed them to a 12-point lead. From there, Creighton simply held on to grab the 14-point win.
Marquette was missing both star Tyler Kolek and forward Oso Ighodaro on Saturday. Kolek was dealing with an oblique injury and Ighodaro with an illness. Kam Jones led the Golden Eagles with 23 points, and Joplin added 21 points and had five rebounds.
Marquette will host No. 3 UConn next on Wednesday night, which marks a big chance at redemption for the Golden Eagles. UConn stunned them last month in a wild 28-point blowout win, which made it very clear who was the dominant force in the Big East. Marquette will then close its season against Xavier next weekend.
Scheierman led Creighton with 26 points and 16 rebounds while shooting 6-of-12 from the 3-point line. Kalkbrenner added 19 points and four rebounds, and Trey Alexander finished with 18 points and 11 assists.
Creighton, which handed UConn its first loss in two full months in February, now holds a 22-8 record. Though the Bluejays slipped to St. John’s in the immediate aftermath of their win over UConn, they’ve now won two straight after a 21-point blowout over Seton Hall earlier this week. They’ll close out the regular season against Villanova next Saturday.
This post will be updated with more information shortly.