The Villanova Wildcats kept it close at times, but defense and strong shooting by Creighton cost them on Saturday afternoon.
After Creighton suffered a lopsided beatdown by Georgetown earlier in the week, the Bluejays stepped things up for their next game.
Unfortunately, the Villanova Wildcats would not catch Creighton off-guard on Saturday’s game at the CHI Health Center in Omaha.
The Wildcats had their moments, but defensive lapses and some strong team-wide shooting by the Bluejays helped them pull away to beat Villanova, 86-79, on Saturday.
“Hat’s off to Creighton, unbelievable job, had a great gameplan, came in and did what they had to do,” Villanova coach Kyle Neptune said. “Scored the ball unbelievably, just couldn’t get stops.”
Creighton led for a majority of the way. After a back-and-forth, closely-contested first half, the Bluejays gained separation with a 16-5 run.
Ryan Kalkbrenner sparked the run with back-to-back dunks and it was eventually finished off by a Steven Ashworth and-1 to make it a 65-51 Bluejay lead with 11:12 remaining in the game.
The Wildcats made a late push to trim the deficit down to single digits, but it was too great to overcome.
Creighton shot 31-of-56 (55.4%) overall and 14-of-25 (56.0%) from long range. In the second half, the Bluejays shot 57.1%.
“They’re a team that can score in a lot of different ways,” Neptune said. “They can obviously hurt you inside and they have great shooting outside. There’s really nothing they don’t have in their offensive package. They came out set the tone with some early ones, some that we wanted to take away but we didn’t, but I give them a lot of credit. They came in and made a lot of shots, especially early, we had it going offensively as well and we were trading baskets but they outlasted us with making shots.”
The Bluejays also didn’t make too many mistakes, only recording seven turnovers, including two in the second half.
Their balanced attack was an issue. Three different players scored at least 20 points, with Ryan Kalkbrenner leading the way with 23 points on 10-of-15 shooting, with five boards and two blocks.
Jamiya Neal entered the game with only 10 made three-pointers this year, but he had 20 points and shot a blistering 6-of-7 from beyond the arc.
Steven Ashworth had 20 points and a career-high 11 assists in the winning effort. Jackson McAndrew also had 13 points, including a 3-of-6 shooting clip from three-point range.
Eric Dixon led Villanova once again, finishing with 27 points on 10-of-17 shooting. Wooga Poplar had a 19-point, 10-rebound double-double. He had 15 of his points in the second half. Jhamir Brickus added 16 points and four assists.
The Wildcats shot 32-of-64 overall (50.0%) and 8-of-20 (40.0%) from deep.
“I thought we got a lot of good stuff offensively, but I don’t know if that’s the best recipe, just trying to outscore teams and not get stops,” Neptune said. “That’s not a good recipe if you want to be a winning team.”
Villanova’s five-game winning streak comes to an end as it falls to 8-5 overall and 1-1 in Big East play.
“I thought we had put together a couple good games defensively, and that’s where we need to get back to,” Neptune said. “I don’t think we did that as high of a level tonight.”
The Wildcats will no go on hiatus for finals and the holidays. Their next game is scheduled for Jan. 1, 2025, when they continue their Midwest road trip to Butler. Tip-off is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. ET from Hinkle Fieldhouse.