For the first time this year, the No. 11 Creighton men’s basketball team ventured away from the friendly confines of CenturyLink Center Omaha and headed west to play two neutral site games against major conference foes as part of the Continental Tire Las Vegas Invitational. The Jays returned to Omaha with a title after beating the University of Wisconsin Badgers and Arizona State Sun Devils.

Junior forward Doug McDermott was named tournament MVP after putting up 30 points and eight rebounds against the Badgers and following that up with 29 points and nine rebounds against the Sun Devils. McDermott’s performance caught the attention of ESPN’s Dick Vitale, who named him his national player of the week, and also earned him MVC player of the week honors.

McDermott was joined on the all-tournament team by fellow junior forward Ethan Wragge. Wragge scored 17 points against Wisconsin and tallied another 13 in the win against Arizona State, and is the Jays’ second-leading scorer at 12.8 points per game.

“He’s shooting the ball at an unbelievable rate, maybe better than I’ve ever seen over the course of six games, but he’s doing other things to make us better as well,” head coach Greg McDermott said. “His defense has improved, his communication, his understanding of what we’re trying to do … Any time you have a guy that has his ability that’s willing to play the role that we’ve asked him to play, you’ve got a chance to do something special because he brings us an element off our bench that not many teams have.”

The Jays kicked off their stay in Vegas with an 84-74 win against the Badgers on Nov. 23. The game was physical and tight throughout the first half, with Wisconsin going ahead by six early in the game. Creighton came back and the two teams traded leads for the duration of the half, and the Jays trailed by one, 39-38, at the break.

The Jays opened the second half on a 15-6 run to take a 53-45 lead. Wisconsin responded with a 10-2 run of their own to tie the game, and the game was close until the five minute mark when Creighton began to pull away. The Jays’ lead reached as many as 12 before Creighton finished off the game ahead by 10.

In addition to the 46 combined points from McDermott and Wragge, the Jays also got a career-high 14 points from sophomore point guard Austin Chatman.

The arena was rocking all night and the atmosphere was intense.

“It definitely did feel like an NCAA Tournament game,” Doug McDermott said. “The atmosphere was great, and that’s the kind of team we’d have to face if we made it to the NCAAs so it’s good to get those games earlier in the season, especially when we have a really tough conference this year with some really good teams.”

Wragge echoed McDermott’s thoughts and said playing on a neutral court will benefit the Jays down the road.

“When we go to neutral courts like that we know we can’t rely on home court or anything like that so we’ve got to be able to bring it,” Wragge said. “It was kind of a tournament experience where we only had one day to prepare for Arizona State so when we get to tournaments like that, like the Valley Tournament and hopefully the NCAA Tournament that we have to be able to really lock in and really grasp game plans faster.”

The win advanced the Jays to the championship against Arizona State on Sunday. The Sun Devils knocked off the Arkansas University Razorbacks 83-68 the night before.

Creighton came out on fire and jumped ahead 27-9 after the first eight minutes of the game. The Jays played their best basketball of the season and were lights out from deep and the ball movement was tremendous. However, Arizona State refused to give up and fought back to make it a nine-point lead at halftime as the Jays took a 45-36 into the locker room.

The Sun Devils pushed Creighton a couple times, drawing within six points twice with less than four minutes to go, but Creighton held on for the 14-point win.

McDermott and Wragge were the only two Jays to reach double figures in scoring, but senior guard Grant Gibbs provided a huge lift to the team by diving out of bounds to save a loose ball and crashing into the Jays’ bench area. Gibbs also finished with eight points, seven assists and five rebounds.

Greg McDermott said he was impressed by the toughness the team showed during their stay in Las Vegas.

“I liked the way we matched Wisconsin’s toughness,” McDermott said. “That isn’t something we’ve been great at in the past and if you’re going to beat Wisconsin you better be ready to strap it up. I thought our guys did that. We rebounded well, out-rebounded a very physical and strong Wisconsin team and then came back and did the same against Arizona State. I thought we showed an element of toughness that maybe we haven’t seen all the time”

The Jays returned home on Wednesday to face the Boise State University Broncos, but the toughness McDermott talked about was nowhere to be found. The Jays couldn’t stop Boise State guard Derrick Marks all night as he racked up 35 points against the Jays and delivered Creighton’s first lost of the season, 83-70. Head to creightonian.com for a full recap.

The Jays will look to get back to their winning ways against St. Joseph’s University on Saturday. Tip-off at the CenturyLink Center is set for 2 p.m.