No. 10 Marquette tops No. 22 Creighton 72 67 to tie record with 20th straight home Big East win

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Sean Jones scored a career high 15 points, Tyler Kolek also had 15 and No. 10 Marquette rallied to beat No. 22 Creighton 72 67 on Saturday and tie a Big East record with its 20th straight home victory. The only other Big East teams to win 20 straight home games were Pittsburgh from 2002 04, Notre Dame from 2006 09 and Marquette from 2012 14.

Marquette hasn’t lost a Big East home game since falling 75 69 to Creighton in double overtime on Jan. 1, 2022. Marquette (11 3, 2 1) has won 19 straight home games overall. Its last loss at Fiserv Forum was an overtime setback against Wisconsin on Dec. 3, 2022. Jones, a reserve who had been 4 of 28 from 3 point range, went 3 of 5 from beyond the arc.

Kolek had eight assists. Kam Jones added 12 points and David Joplin scored 10, while Oso Ighodaro had seven points and 16 rebounds. Creighton (9 4, 0 2) lost for the third time in four games despite getting 23 points from Baylor Scheierman and 18 from Trey Alexander. Scheierman went 7 of 13 on 3 point attempts and set a career high for 3 point baskets.

The Bluejays are 0 2 in conference play for the first time since 2014 15. Creighton hadn’t played since Dec. 20, when it opened its Big East schedule by in overtime at home to Villanova. Marquette’s last game was an of Georgetown on Dec. 22. Marquette looked rustier in the early going, even though Stevie Mitchell was back in the starting lineup after missing four games with a hamstring injury.

The Golden Eagles fell behind 14 3 just over five minutes into the game. They missed 18 of their first 22 shots overall and 11 of their first 12 attempts from 3 point range. Marquette took its first lead on Kolek’s driving layup with 12:46 remaining. The lead changed hands six more times over the next three minutes, with neither team pulling ahead by more than two.

The Golden Eagles opened up some breathing room when Sean Jones hit back to back 3 pointers to give Marquette a 52 48 edge with 8:40 left. Marquette extended the lead to 61 54 on a Joplin 3 pointer with 3:51 remaining. After Creighton scored five straight points to reduce the margin to two, Joplin hit another 3 pointer with 2:24 left.

Joplin punctuated the victory by dunking to make it 66 59 with 38.3 seconds left. BIG PICTURE Creighton: The Bluejays' inability to protect the ball — 12 of their 18 turnovers came in the first half — prevented them from fully capitalizing on Marquette's cold start. That proved critical once Marquette heated up in the second half.

Marquette: Rebounding has been Marquette's one major weakness in Shaka Smart's three seasons as coach. Not Saturday. Marquette outrebounded Creighton 42 32 and had an 18 2 advantage in second chance points. Oso Ighodaro had nine of Marquette's 18 offensive rebounds. POLL IMPLICATIONS This result likely assures Marquette will stay in the top 10 and could cause Creighton to fall out of the rankings.

UP NEXT Creighton: At Georgetown on Tuesday. Marquette: At Seton Hall next Saturday. ___ Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. . ___ AP college basketball: and.