Creighton Men's Basketball Drops Nailbiter at DePaul
CHICAGO, Ill. -- Brandon Maclin's lay-up with 7.0 seconds left proved to be the difference as DePaul snapped a 23-game losing streak to Creighton on Wednesday night at Wintrust Arena in Chicago with a 72-71 win over the visiting Bluejays.
Creighton dropped to 13-12 on the season and is 7-7 in BIG EAST play. DePaul is 13-12 and 5-9 in league action.
Creighton trailed much of the first half before three-pointers from Hudson Greer and Austin Swartz helped the Jays move in front 28-26 and force a DePaul timeout with 6:38 left in the first half. At that point, the Blue Demons owned a 22-2 lead in the paint, but CU stayed competitive thanks to 7-for-11 shooting from three-point range and 15 bench points.
The Bluejays used an 8-0 run featuring back-to-back Josh Dix three-pointers to take their largest lead at 42-37 before CJ Gunn beat the halftime buzzer with a corner three-pointer to trim CU's halftime lead to 42-40. The Jays made 10-of-16 three-pointers in the first half, including a career-high three triples from Jasen Green, but were outscored 30-4 in the paint and outrebounded 17-9. Green led CU with 11 points and DIx had eight for the Jays before the break.
Creighton suffered through a drought of nearly seven minutes without a field goal, before an Austin Swartz three-pointer gave CU a 55-54 lead with just over nine minutes left. Swartz helped CU match its largest lead of the night with 6:49 to play with a deep three-pointer that made it 62-57. After a DePaul basket, Dix drained his third trey of the contest to give CU a six-point edge at 65-59.
Dix gave Creighton a 71-68 lead with 2:34 to go and the score remained that way heading into the final 70 seconds. Maclin made 1-of-2 free throws with 1:07 left but DePaul got the offensive rebound and CJ Gunn was fouled. He also made 1-of-2 shots to slice the CU lead to 71-70. Swartz missed a jumper late in the shot clock and DePaul grabbed the board, calling timeout just past half-court with 27.2 left in the game and 23 on the shot clock. Creighton stopped DePaul's initial drives to the basket and called timeout with 12.1 ticks left and eight on the shot clock. On its final inbound, Maclin drove, was cut off by Dix, but wiggled through to bank in the game-winner.
Creighton pushed the ball upcourt but a second straight game-winner by Graves from three-point land rimmed out as DePaul beat the Jays for the first time since 2015.
Swartz paced CU with 15 points, while Green and Dix both had 13. Graves also assisted on eight baskets to go with his nine points. Creighton made 14-of-27 three-pointers overall
NJ Benson led the Blue Demons with 23 points, making 10-of-11 field goals. The Blue Demons outscored CU 46-12 in the paint and won the board battle 30-22.
Creighton is back in action on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. when it hosts Villanova (19-5, 10-3 BIG EAST).