Sean Jones and Tyler Kolek each scored 15 points and Kolek dished eight assists to lead No. 10 Marquette to a 72-67 win over the visiting No. 22 Creighton Bluejays on Saturday in Milwaukee.
Kam Jones also dropped 12 for the Golden Eagles (11-3, 2-1 Big East). Oso Ighodaro scored seven while grabbing a game-high 16 boards.
Creighton (9-4, 0-2 Big East) was led by Baylor Scheierman with 23 on 8-of-15 shooting along with his eight boards. Trey Alexander added 18 points along with six assists.
It was a very rough shooting start for the Golden Eagles, making just four of their first 22 shots from the field, including one of their first 12 3-point attempts. They scored just five points in the first eight minutes.
However, they turned things around late in the half to put themselves in a good position. A 9-0 run tied the game at 26 apiece, but Creighton took a 30-28 lead into halftime.
Scheierman went 4-of-4 from deep in the half, scoring 12 points. Kam Jones led the way for Marquette in their 9-0 run and led with eight points.
Marquette kept its offensive momentum from late in the first going into the second.
With just over 12 minutes to play, the Golden Eagles took their first lead as Kolek had a stretch where he made 4-of-5 shots from the floor.
From there the game was tightly contested until the end, with the Big East rivals trading blows.
The Golden Eagles shot 47 percent from the floor in the second half and continued to dominate second-chance points, finishing with 18 on the game compared to Creighton’s two.
David Joplin closed the game for Marquette. He knocked down back-to-back 3-pointers with just over two minutes to go, then shortly after threw down an emphatic dunk with just under 40 seconds, putting his team up by seven.
The Bluejays managed to get within three with intentional fouls, but the deficit was too much.
This was Marquette’s third consecutive victory against Creighton.
–Field Level Media
