Creighton men’s basketball scored a big home victory on Wednesday, topping Xavier 86-77 at CHI Health Center Omaha.
The Musketeers had won four of their last five heading into the meeting, including games against some of the Big East’s best. But four Bluejays scored in double figures to keep Creighton’s hot streak going. The Jays (15-6) have won eight of their last nine and sit 8-2 at the midway point of Big East play.
“That’s a really good win,” Coach Greg McDermott said. “Mark my words, by the time the season’s over, you’ll understand how good a win that is, because they’ve played a murderer’s row of a schedule in the in the Big East so far, having played Marquette, UConn, St. John’s twice, and then having to come to our place. That’s a really, really good basketball team.”
Here are three takeaways from the game.
Adding to his Accolades
Ryan Kalkbrenner needed just nine points to pass Rodney Buford and move into second place on Creighton’s career scoring chart. He took care of that milestone less than 11 minutes into the game, burying a 3-pointer to move into second place.
Kalkbrenner was just getting started, however. The only thing that could slow him down was foul trouble as he picked up his second at the 4:40 mark and sat for the next four minutes and change. He finished the half with 13 points, then picked up where he left off after halftime.
Kalkbrenner finished with a game-high 29 points on 12-17 from the field (2-of-2 from deep) and 3-of-4 from the free-throw line, nine rebounds, three assists and one block on a Ryan Conwell 3-pointer. All three of his assists led to Creighton 3-pointers as well as the 7-footer accounted for 38 of Creighton’s 86 points. The Jays were plus-14 in his 33 minutes.
“It’s hard to believe,” McDermott said of the milestone. “When we presented him the 2000-point ball at halfcourt, he said to me as I handed him the ball, he said, ‘When you recruited me, did you see this coming?’ I’m like, ‘No,’ and he said, ‘Neither did I.’ Just his development, it’s been so much fun to be part of. His ears are wide open. He wants to learn. He wants to get better. He wants to grow. He’s continued to add things to his game. What he does defensively for us is incredible, and then what he does in the locker room — our culture is what it is because he’s allowed us to hold on to it. Certainly, Steven’s leadership is part of that too. But it’s been an absolute honor to coach him.
“I’ve been blessed to coach some really good players, and to have the opportunity to coach Doug and watch what he accomplished in his career, and then to watch Ryan have a historic career as well — oftentimes in coaching, you don’t ever get to experience one of those, let alone two.”
Wednesday’s game was the first time since Jan. 27, 2024, against DePaul that Kalkbrenner picked up two fouls in the first half. Creighton could have found itself in danger at that point as he sat down with the Jays nursing a three-point lead. However, Fredrick King stepped up in his place with a tip-slam and a block as Creighton won the rest of the half by two for a five-point lead at the break.
“I thought Fred did a great job,” McDermott said. “I thought that group hung together. I told Kalk he’s got to stay out of foul trouble, that’s enough. One time in five years is too much for me to have him in foul trouble.”
Kalkbrenner committed his third foul early in the second half but didn’t pick up another one the rest of the way while forcing a number of misses at the rim down the stretch with vertical challenges.
The win was the 108th that Kalkbrenner has participated in during his time at Creighton, passing Doug McDermott, Jahenns Manigat and Ethan Wragge to become the winningest player in program history.
“That’s crazy,” Kalkbrenner said. “I think I’ve just been really lucky to be a part of a lot of really good teams. I’ve had really, really amazing teammates all five years I’ve been here. It’s just amazing. I’m just lucky I ended up where I did. I wouldn’t be the player I am today without Mac or any these guys I’ve been teammates with.”
Cleared for Takeoff
Jamiya Neal was as quiet as he’s been all year against Seton Hall, scoring a season-low three points on 1-of-5 shooting in 27 minutes.
He bounced back in a big way on Wednesday as his performance was anything but quiet. Neal finished with 16 points, six rebounds, six assists two blocks and just one turnover while shooting 3-of-6 from deep.
Jamiya Neal (5) elevates for a dunk during the first half of Creighton’s win over Xavier. Photo by Brandon Tiedemann.
He also produced the highlight of the game — a high-flying dunk off a turnover. He took off from outside the line, cocked the ball back and threw it down with his right hand on Xavier’s Ryan Conwell.
Neal said after the game that he’d rank the dunk second on his personal list behind and and-one windmill he threw down against Texas Southern last season while at Arizona State.
The dunk came near the end of a 20-7 Creighton run that put Creighton in front by 10, and the Jays never trailed again.
That wasn’t his only big play, however. With Creighton holding onto a two-point lead with less than seven minutes remaining, Neal knocked down a 3 off a flare screen, then after a stop, Fedor Žugić made the extra pass to find Neal in the corner for another 3. His back-to-back triples came shortly after he blocked a step-back 3 from Dante Maddox Jr.
A couple minutes later, he found Isaac Traudt for a 3-pointer to push the lead to 10, and Creighton salted the game away from there.
Shooters Shoot
Creighton generated a lot of 3-point attempts in the first half, but they weren’t falling. The Jays missed eight of their first nine attempts with the only make coming on a shot clock-beater off the dribble from Neal.
They finished the first half 3-of-15 from deep yet still found a way to take a five-point lead into halftime.
In the second half, the floodgates opened. Creighton hit eight of its 10 attempts from 3-point range, including a deep one from Kalkbrenner with a hand in his face to beat the shot clock.
“Shooters shoot, you know?” McDermott said. “We didn’t shoot it very good the first half. I felt good having that lead. I thought we had some decent looks in the first half we didn’t make — Jackson [McAndrew] had a couple, Isaac [Traudt] had a couple, Steven [Ashworth] had some that I liked — but they just kept plugging. They believe in each other. They believe in themselves. We needed a great offensive performance to beat a team as good as Xavier.”
Creighton finished the game shooting 44% from 3 despite the frigid first half (11-for-25).
Traudt went 2-for-2 in the second half after missing his first two attempts and finished with 12 points, including two offensive rebounds for dunks. He’s scored in double figures in four of his past five games.
Žugić played a career-high 20 minutes and knocked down an important 3 off a kick-out from Kalkbrenner. Ashworth also went 2-for-3 from deep after halftime including a pull-up dagger with 1:13 to go that put Creighton up by 11.
The Jays outscored the Musketeers 7-6 in fast break points and 15-12 at the foul line, two areas in which Xavier has excelled this season. Add the 3-point battle shifting dramatically in Creighton’s favor in the second half and the Jays walked away with a nine-point win.
“I didn’t know if we could stop them, and we obviously had some trouble,” McDermott said. “I think they were over one point per possession. But we executed some stuff late in the game, got it inside. Jamiya hits two big 3s, Isaac hits two big 3s. Got some great contributions from our bench. And then outside of a couple turnovers late where they had run outs, we controlled the fast break part of the game, and we kept the free throws relatively even. So we won that battle, and we won the transition battle, which I thought was going to be key coming into the game.”
