Zach Freemantle converted 10 of 14 shots from the field and finished with 23 points as Xavier cruised to a crucial 83-61 Big East win over Creighton Saturday in Cincinnati.
Ryan Conwell added 20 points and Dante Maddox Jr. chipped in with 16 for Xavier (19-10, 11-7 Big East), which won its season-best fifth straight conference game to stay ahead of Villanova in the race for the fifth and final bye spot in next week’s Big East tournament.
The Musketeers also snapped a four-game losing streak to the Bluejays, dating to their last win on March 10, 2023 in the Big East tournament.
Ryan Kalkbrenner had 23 points and 12 rebounds and was the only player in double-figure scoring for Creighton (20-9, 13-5), which missed a chance to match its best-ever Big East 18-game record.
Creighton’s loss combined with St. John’s win earlier in the day clinched the Big East regular season title for St. John’s.
Xavier, which had a 22-point second-half lead at Seton Hall dwindle to three six days earlier, built another 22-point lead Saturday. This time Creighton made a charge with a 12-0 surge, led by back-to-back threes from Steven Ashworth.
But after Creighton’s 16-2 run cut Xavier’s lead to 57-49 with 10:29 remaining, the Musketeers answered with the next 14 points to put the game away.
Field-goal shooting was the biggest factor in the game, as Xavier shot 55 percent on 33-of-60 shooting while Creighton hit just 6-of-24 from beyond the arc and finished 44.8 percent from the floor overall.
Jackson McAndrew hit a pair of three-pointers in the opening five minutes as Creighton opened with an 11-6 lead. But Xavier answered with the next seven points, sparking a 24-8 run that had the standing-room only crowd of 10,674 on its feet and gave the Musketeers a 30-19 lead with six minutes left in the first half.
The crowd, the eighth-largest in the 25-year history of the building, played a major factor in the energy of the Xavier defense, which forced the Bluejays to miss 13 of 15 shots during a 10-minute stretch.
Xavier took a 42-27 halftime lead thanks to 10 points apiece from Conwell and Maddox and 18-of-34 shooting from the field. Creighton attempted 16 3-pointers, converting on only four in the opening 20 minutes.
Freemantle’s 3-pointer capped an 11-4 spurt to open the second half and built the Xavier lead to 22 at 53-31, with 16:15 remaining. The lead topped out at 24 in the final minute.
–Field Level Media
