The Creighton men’s basketball team a difficult 98-78 loss on Thursday to No. 1-ranked Villanova in Philadelphia.

The Jays (17-6, 7-4 in the Big East) fought hard out of the gates and kept the game close for a majority of the first half, thanks to balanced scoring from all over the court. However, with roughly nine minutes left in the half, the game changed from a back-and-forth battle to a momentum-reliant blitz for both teams.

Villanova (22-1, 9-1 in the Big East) hit shot after shot on the offensive end, putting together a whopping 15-0 run in just a few minutes of game time, extending its lead from three to 18 points in the blink of an eye. The Jays, however, responded well coming out of a timeout with 10 straight points to close the gap. But a second burst by Villanova right before half saw the lead extend back out to a wide margin of 49-34.

The Jays were holding their own on the offensive end as they shot a healthy 15 of 29 from the field. Their scoring was balanced, led by four different players with more than five points. 

The defensive end was troubling, however. Stops were hard to come by for the Jays in the first half, as the Wildcats shot 59.4 percent from the field and made 10 3-pointers.

The tone that was set in the first half would largely ring true in the second as well. The hot shooting by Villanova showed no signs of slowing down, as they shot 50 percent from the floor in the second half and got nine more 3-point attempts to fall, bringing their field goal average to 54.6 percent for the entire game­­—along with shooting an unbelievable 19 for 39 from beyond the arc.

“It’s hard to imagine they can be a more efficient offensive team than they were a year ago, but they are,” coach Greg McDermott remarked after the loss. “Their offense is like a video game. It’s fun to watch; it’s hard to prepare for. Very hard to come up with a scheme to stop them.”

Senior guard Marcus Foster was able to grab 20 points on 8 for 16 shooting along with two assists and three steals, while sophomore guard Davion Mintz had seven assists and three rebounds. Junior guards Khyri Thomas and Kaleb Joseph both added 12 points each. 

This was the second game in freshman center Jacob Epperson’s college career, and he saw a big uptick in minutes, logging 17. 

Freshman guard Mitch Ballock played 21 minutes, and Kaleb Joseph played nine minutes as well. No Jays player on the roster played more than 30 minutes in the game, thanks to going deeper into the bench.

“We have to take some time off, this has been a long stretch, we’ve got some guys who have played huge minutes,” McDermott noted. “We’re riding Marcus and Khyri and Toby pretty hard; and we’ll take some days off just to see if we can get their legs a little fresher for the stretch run.”

With the loss, Creighton now sits at 7-4 in conference play, good for third place behind only Villanova and Xavier.

This week, the Bluejays are taking on one of their biggest challenges of the season when they play Xavier on Saturday. Last time the teams faced off, the Jays took a loss of 22 points.