Creighton Men Down Marquette, 84-63
OMAHA, Neb. -- Nik Graves had all 17 of his points in a torrid seven-minute span in the first half as Creighton men's basketball improved to 2-0 in BIG EAST play with an 84-63 win over visiting Marquette on Saturday night in Omaha. The 21-point win, combined with a 98-57 victory at Xavier on Wednesday, gives Creighton a league-record 62-point margin through two BIG EAST contests.
Graves made 6-of-7 shots on the night, adding six rebounds and six assists, to finish as one of three Creighton (7-5, 2-0 BIG EAST) players in double-figures. He was joined by Isaac Traudt (14) and Josh Dix (10).
Nigel James Jr. led Marquette (5-8, 0-2 BIG EAST) with 23 points. The Golden Eagles shot 34.4 percent from the floor and made just 13-of-32 layups and dunks.
Marquette forced a shot clock violation on CU's first possession and opened up a 7-0 lead in the opening minutes before Creighton adjusted to the Golden Eagles pressure and inserted Graves. Down 15-9 a short time later, Creighton unleashed a 25-2 run to bury Marquette. Graves opened that run with a transition assist leading to a three-pointer by Josh Dix, his 24th straight game with a trey.
Graves followed that back-to-back baskets as CU took its first lead at 16-15. Owen Freeman tipped in a miss before a step-back triple from Nik Graves made it 21-15 and forced a Marquette timeout. Freeman finished off a traditional three-point play before a Graves trey grew the Bluejay advantage to 27-17. Graves hit another three before finishing off a personal 10-0 run in 40 seconds with a four-point play, and just like that it was 34-17. The Bluejay lead remained 12 or more the rest of the night, including 46-32 at the half.
Creighton opened the second half with Graves assisting a lay-up and a dunk to Jasen Green before an Isaac Traudt trifecta stretched the margin to 53-32 with 18:03 to play. Creighton's lead expanded to as large as 68-37 after another Traudt trey with 14:15 left as CU closed out a second straight BIG EAST win by 20 or more points.
Creighton shot 46.8 percent from the floor (29-62) and sank 10-of-27 three-pointers on the evening while winning the rebound battle 44-37. Creighton outscored MU 41-20 off the bench, 11-6 in transition, 34-28 in the paint and 14-8 off turnovers.
The Bluejays close out their non-conference schedule on Monday at 7 p.m. against Utah Tech.
NOTES: The previous league record for point differential over the first two BIG EAST games was +50 by the 1988-89 Providence team ... Josh Dix made a three-pointer for the 24th straight game and CU made a three-ball for the 1,068th straight game ... Creighton improved to 159-7 all-time at CHI Health Center Omaha when scoring 80 or more points, but just 4-4 in those games vs. Marquette ... Creighton has won a league-high 23 straight games when scoring 80 points or more ... Creighton's 15-0 scoring run in the first half was its longest run of the regular-season ... Nik Graves finished the game +40 in plus/minus ... Creighton has now played Marquette 102 times, its second-most frequent opponent behind only Drake (153) ... Creighton is 2-0 in BIG EAST play for the third time ever, joining 2013-14 (5-0) and 2021-22 (2-0) ... Creighton owns 84 BIG EAST wins since 2019-20, 13 more than Marquette and Villanova for the most in the BIG EAST ... This is the eighth straight season that one of Creighton's first four league games was against Marquette.