No. 19 Creighton used a 13-0 run bridging the first and second half and then held off a frantic Xavier rally to post a 78-71 Big East win on Saturday in Cincinnati.
Ryan Kalkbrenner led Creighton (17-7, 8-5 Big East) with 28 points. Baylor Scheierman fell just shy of a triple-double with 16 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists as the Bluejays ended a two-game skid.
Desmond Claude had 22 points and Dayvion McKnight added 21 to lead Xavier (13-11, 7-6), which had its three-game winning streak snapped.
Creighton led 74-60 following a Steven Ashworth 3 with 3:45 remaining. Xavier scored the next nine points to close within 74-69 on a McKnight floater in the lane with 1:16 remaining.
Kalkbrenner blocked a Claude layup attempt with 37 seconds left and Ashworth sank a pair of free throws with 32 seconds remaining to seal the win.
As it did against Villanova on Wednesday, Xavier used hot shooting to race out to a quick lead.
The Musketeers sank eight of their first 10 shots from the field to grab leads of 15-6 and 17-9.
Claude had 11 points in the first half while Quincy Olivari added eight of his 18 as the Musketeers used their transition game to get quick, open shots.
Creighton recovered behind the dominance in the paint of Kalkbrenner, who scored 14 points in the first 20 minutes.
Scheierman added nine points in the opening half after he became the first-ever Division l player to eclipse 2,000 points, 1,000 rebounds, 500 assists and 300 3-pointers for his career on Wednesday.
The Bluejays used the momentum created from Kalkbrenner and Scheierman to end the half on a 12-2 run and take a 38-29 halftime lead.
Xavier coach Sean Miller, desperate to get his team back on track, called a timeout with 41 seconds left in the first half, then called two more in the opening 3:01 of the second half as Creighton turned an 11-3 run into a 49-32 lead with 16:35 remaining.
The Musketeers finally answered with a 9-0 run that featured a 3 from McKnight and a dunk and layup from Claude.
But Creighton found its touch from long distance during a 17-5 spurt that pushed the lead to 66-46. That run was capped by a layup and 3-pointer from Scheierman and a dunk from Kalkbrenner.
–Field Level Media
