Junior center Will Artino’s first career double-double performance helped the No. 18 Jays escape historic Hinkle Fieldhouse with a 68-63 victory over the Butler Bulldogs Thursday night.
Artino’s “Big Swag” performance of 11 points and 10 rebounds aided the Jays to win number 20 of the season and number 100 under the guidance of head coach Greg McDermott.
Artino’s stellar outing started by scoring eight of the Jays final 11 points of the first half, giving the Jays a 37-34 halftime lead.
The 6-11 junior finished with 10 points and five rebounds in 10 minutes of court action in the first half.
The Jays and Bulldogs battled the entire second half, but senior forward Doug McDermott sank a 3-point bucket from straight-on to put the Jays ahead with 47.8 seconds to play.
“It didn’t feel good at all,” McDermott said. “I didn’t think it was going in, but that just shows what a lot of work will do. I got a lot of shots up this last week and I think that finally paid off for me.”
The possession following McDermott’s dagger, Artino made two big defense stops and pulled down his biggest rebound of the night.
After a timeout, junior guard Austin Chatman was fouled and sank a pair of free throws to extend the Creighton lead to three points with fewer than 20 ticks to play.
The Bulldogs got the ball into their play-maker’s hands on their final possession, but senior guard Jahenns Manigat’s harassing defense forced Kellen Dunham into taking a contested three.
Chatman made two more free throws with 0.4 seconds to play, pushing the final margin to five.
“We just believed in each other,” McDermott said. “We did a great job of moving the ball, keeping our confidence high and we just brought a lot of energy on the defensive floor and found a way to win.”
Creighton led by as many 10 in the early stages of the opening half and looked prepared to duplicate their 28-point victory over the Bulldogs earlier in the Big East schedule, but Butler refused to let the Jays pull away like they did a month earlier in Omaha.
Dunham hit two big 3-pointers at the bookends of an 11-4 run to give the Bulldogs their first lead of the game, 27-26.
After trailing by three at the half, Butler guard Alex Barlow scored five straight points to put the Bulldogs on top.
Manigat slowed the early second-half surge with his first of three 3-pointers after the break to put the Jays back out in front.
The Jays extended their lead to seven points after Manigat’s final triple with 12:31 to play, but Butler fought back with a 7-0 run to tie the game for the seventh time.
Khyle Marshall’s basket with just over a minute to play put the Bulldogs in front for the first time since early in the second half, but McDermott’s go-ahead 3-pointer proved to be the final blow.
The Jays finished the game shooting 50 percent from the field, while Butler ended at 38.6 percent.
Creighton (20-4, 10-2 Big East) hosts the No. 6 Villanova Wildcats (22-2, 10-1) Sunday at 4:07 p.m. in a highly-anticipated rematch of the top two teams in the Big East standings. The Jays shocked the nation by defeating a then No. 4 Villanova squad 96-68 in Philadelphia on Jan. 20.