Ryan Kalkbrenner had a game-high 20 points and nine rebounds as visiting Creighton soared to a 79-61 Big East win over Seton Hall Tuesday night in Newark, N.J.
The Bluejays (21-9, 14-5 Big East) enhanced their odds for the No. 2 seed in the upcoming Big East Tournament with the win — gaining a half-game edge on Marquette. The Golden Eagles travel to UConn Wednesday.
Creighton freshman Jackson McAndrew finished with a career-high 17 points, including five 3-pointers. Steven Ashworth added 11 points and eight assists.
For Seton Hall, Senior Night was just another long night as poor shooting sent the Pirates (7-23, 2-17) to their 14th loss in the last 15 games and their fifth in a row.
Isaiah Coleman led Seton Hall with 18 points, but was just 7-for-19 from the floor. Scotty Middleton had 12 points for Seton Hall, which shot 36 percent from the floor compared to 63 percent for Creighton.
After more than two minutes of scoreless basketball, Garwey Dual made a three for Seton Hall to get things rolling, but Creighton soon heated up from 3-point range.
Creighton went on an early 7-2 spurt to take control. McAndrew started things off with a 3-pointer and Fredrick King closed the run with an alley-oop dunk to make it 14-9.
Fedor Zugic converted a four-point play to extend the lead to 21-11 with 7:25 left in the first half. The lead grew to 15 after a Jasen Green 3-pointer.
Seton Hall, which shot 23.5 percent in the first half, answered with an 8-2 run bookended by threes from David Tubek and Middleton. Creighton led 35-22 at the break.
The Pirates scored the first basket of the second half, but that was as close as the game would be the rest of the way as Creighton led by as much as 23.
Seton Hall lost starting center Godswill Erheriene to an elbow injury in the first half.
Kalkbrenner entered the game as the only player in the nation averaging at least 19 points, eight rebounds and two blocks a game.
Creighton extended its winning streak over Seton Hall to six games.
–Field Level Media
