Jahmyl Telfort tied his season high with 26 points and Boden Kapke made two clutch free throws with six seconds remaining on Friday, lifting Butler to a 99-98 victory over No. 13 Creighton in Omaha, Neb.
With the Bulldogs (15-7, 6-5 Big East) nursing a 97-96 lead, Butler’s DJ Davis inadvertently was poked in the left eye by Ryan Kalkbrenner on an inbounds play. Kapke replaced the bleeding Davis and made both free throws.
Creighton’s Trey Alexander answered with two free throws and the Bluejays forced a turnover with 0.5 seconds to play, but Landon Moore knocked the ball away from Kalkbrenner at the buzzer.
Telfort made 12 of 17 shots from the floor to match his previous high point total of the campaign, set in Butler’s 103-95 overtime win over Texas Tech on Nov. 30.
Davis scored 22 points and Pierre Brooks added 14 for the Bulldogs, who played without Posh Alexander (foot) yet still won their fourth straight game.
Creighton’s Baylor Scheierman and Steven Ashworth each scored a season-high 26 points for the Bluejays (16-6, 7-4), who saw their three-game winning streak come to a halt.
Kalkbrenner made two free throws to trim Butler’s lead to 97-96 with 10 seconds left. The Bulldogs were unable to inbound the ball after it caromed off Davis’ knee and sailed out of bounds, but Brooks forced a turnover by Trey Alexander.
Telfort initially appeared to sustain a knee injury after running into a screen by Kalkbrenner with 2:31 remaining in the second half. Telfort returned to the court shortly thereafter and made two jumpers to give Butler a 97-94 lead with 49 seconds left.
Butler overcame a 10-point deficit in the first half to take a 53-52 lead after Brooks’ 3-pointer early in the second half. The teams traded baskets before Kapke’s trey pushed the Bulldogs’ advantage to 60-56.
Scheierman scored 17 points and Trey Alexander added 13 as Creighton shot 61.3 percent from the floor to take a 49-45 lead at halftime. Butler remained within earshot due in large part to its eight made 3-pointers, including Finley Bizjack’s heave at the buzzer.
–Field Level Media
