25 Jan 2025; Omaha, Nebraska, USA; Creighton Bluejays Center Ryan Kalkbrenner (11) reacts after scoring Seton Hall Pirates during the first half at the Chi Health Center Omaha. Mandatory Credit: Steven Branscombe-Imagn images In a winning line of five games, Creighton will try to stay within reach of the Big East Conference leaders when it hosts Xavier on Wednesday in Omaha, NEB.
Bluejays (14-6, 7-2 Big East) has revived its season with a winning line that includes a road victory over twice defending national champions Uconn. They have also won seven of their last eight matches, all in conference games.
Creighton rolled to a 79-54 home victory Saturday over Seton Hall. Ryan Kalkbrenner scored 23 points with nine returns and three blocked shots, while Steven Ashworth had 17 points with nine assists. Bluejays shot 58.3 percent from the floor.
“Winning seven out of eight in this league is definitely something that is a big performance, but at the same time there is so much work to do and so much we can learn,” Ashworth said. “… it’s exciting to have that room to grow.”
Limbrenner became the fifth player in the Creighton story that reached 1,000 career recovery and is the 132nd player in Division I history with 2,000 career points and 1,000 career recovery.
The 7-foot internal force on average has 19.6 points, 9.2 returns and 4.2 blocks during the victory tree, over his seasonal average of 17.7, 8.4 and 2.9 respectively.
Xavier (13-8, 5-5) has made his own waves late while winning four of the last five matches. The musketeers also came past Uconn and pulled off a victory of 76-72 home on Saturday. They then turned off no. 7 Marquette 59-57 on the road January 18.
Xavier lost to St. John’s last week, but that setback came in overtime against the No. 20 team in the country, which moved up to No. 15 this week.
Against Uconn, Zach Freemantle and the Dailen Swain each made a 15 point for Musteers, while Dante Maddox Jr. had 14 while they went 3 out of 4 from 3-point range. They held Huskies to 31 points in the second half.
Although he ended the victory, Xavier head coach Sean Miller could see clear areas where his team can be improved.
“Excited with the victory (but) we still did not end the game as well as we could have,” Miller said. “I wish I could find out which button to press. I will stay on it to help these guys get better at the end.”
-Field level media
