OMAHA, Nebraska — A pair of streaks were extended Saturday afternoon.
For the victors, a ninth straight victory was claimed in front of a rambunctious crowd of over 18,000 people who were ready to party. For the losers, it was the extension of a losing streak that, other than the senior class, nobody on the roster had experienced yet in their time with the program.
Saturday afternoon, the Bluejays’ clutch shooting and an inability to stop Jamiya Neal down the stretch led to No. 11 Marquette men’s basketball (18-6, 9-4 Big East) falling at CHI Health Center to Creighton (18-6, 11-2 Big East) for the second year in a row, 77-67.
The first half went about as well as the rest have over the course of Big East play for Marquette.
Chase Ross played just 10 minutes and was held to zero shots from the floor in the first 20 minutes of play. Elsewhere for the Golden Eagles, David Joplin had a team-high 13 points at the break on 4-of-11 shooting.
Kam Jones, who had struggled shooting the ball from deep as of late, shot 2-for-3 from beyond the arc en route to a 12-point first half. His latest 3-pointer came as the buzzer sounded to send MU into the locker room down seven points instead of 10.
In the second half, A Royce Parham 3-pointer made it 55-47 with 13:08 to play. A subsequent stop and then another lay-in by Jones trimmed the Creighton lead to just six.
MU then got as close as it has since the score was 33-29 Creighton as Jones had another floater to make it 55-51 Creighton with 11:26 to play.
The Bluejays were throwing punches left and right, but Marquette did not fret and gave themselves a shot with 11:28 to play in the second half. Jones had a game-high 20 points and finally looked like the version of himself that everyone saw in non-conference play.
The Memphis, Tennesee native began to take over the game, as he cashed in on a trey to give Marquette its first lead since the 13:42 mark of the first half.
But out came Neal. The senior guard went on a lightning quick 5-0 personal run but then picked up his fourth personal foul with 8:34 to play.
Over the next four minutes, the teams traded blows in front of a raucous crowd like they were the main event at a UFC fight.
Creighton held a one-point advantage with 3:41 to play when Ryan Kalkbrenner — of all people — stepped up and nailed his team’s biggest shot of the night from beyond the arc.
That was until Neal hit a step back triple in Parham’s grill to give the Bluejays a five-point lead with 2:49 to play.
The Golden Eagles fought back to make it a three-point game with 1:52 to play, but Creighton would go on a 7-0 run the rest of the way to seal the deal on its ninth straight win.
Jones finished with a game-high 27 points for MU. Ashworth tallied 22 points on six-made 3-pointers for Creighton, while also dishing out a game-high seven assists.
Marquette drops three games in a row for the first time since the 2021-22 season. The Golden Eagles’ next opportunity to break the losing skid will come Tuesday at Fiserv Forum against the DePaul Blue Demons (11-13, 2-11 Big East).
This story was written by Matthew Baltz. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter/X @MatthewBaltzMU.
