Led by a yearning for revenge, the Jays upset the Big East-leading No. 13 Xavier Musketeers 84-67 at Creighton’s annual Pink Out Saturday.
Five Bluejays finished with double figures, including sophomore guard Ryan Nembhard, who had 19 points and was two assists shy of a triple-double. The most impressive of Nembhard’s stats was that he held Musketeers guard Souley Boum to a season-low two points.
Entering the affair, Boum was the Big East Player of the Year front-runner, averaging 16.8 points per game. Boum put 26 points past Nembhard and the Jays defense in their first meeting this season, a narrow victory for Xavier in Cincinatti.
“I just tried to make it tough on him,” Nembhard said. “You gotta make good players take shots they don’t want to, and I think we did an OK job of that tonight.”
To start Saturday’s game, as the sold-out crowd of 18,277 in CHI Health Center settled into their seats, neither of the teams on the court could settle themselves down. The teams combined for 15 turnovers in the first period alone.
It was Creighton that was able to begin to pull away first, as Xavier starters Zach Freemantle and Jack Nunge got into early foul trouble in the first 10 minutes. Sophomore forward Arthur Kaluma took advantage, going on a 7-0 run by himself, including the Bluejays’ fourth 3 in their first seven attempts.
By the half, the Jays had built a 14 point lead over the Musketeers. This lead, however, was something they knew they couldn’t take for granted. Last season, Creighton held a 16 point half-time lead over Xavier, just to watch it diminish in minutes in a devastating loss.
“I wanted to win this game bad,” Kaluma said. “Last year they got us here but I feel like this is the year we could prove them wrong.”
Fans had flashes of PTSD from 2021’s collapse as Xavier went on a 9-0 run early in the second half. Creighton would rebound with a 9-0 run of their own after a 3 by senior Baylor Scheierman gave the Jays their largest lead of the night at 19, igniting the crowd.
The Bluejays would never look back, knocking off the Musketeers by a final score of 84-67, a vastly important win for their tournament resume.
The Jays received 51 AP Poll votes but just missed out of the top-25, the most votes the team has received since the six game losing streak that followed the Maui Jim invitational.
“I think we’re better than where we were in the Maui trip,” coach Greg McDermott said. “We stuck together during that tough time despite a lot of people thinking the house was burning down, and we just stayed with our plan.”
After having played Georgetown in Washington, D.C. Wednesday, the Jays (13-8) will play host to Villanova (10-10) on Saturday at 6:30 p.m., the first meeting between the two since the retirement of long-time Wildcats head coach Jay Wright.