A tough week at home continues for Butler as the Bulldogs face their second ranked opponent in No. 17 Creighton on Saturday in Indianapolis.
The Bulldogs (16-9, 7-7 Big East) put up a fight when they hosted No. 4 Marquette on Tuesday, but ultimately came up short, falling 78-72.
Finley Bizjack led the way off the bench with a career-high 19 points. Pierre Brooks II added 15 with six rebounds while Jahmyl Telfort scored 12 along with six boards and six assists.
“We’ve got to learn from this game. We had one of those nights where we couldn’t make shots,” Butler coach Thad Matta said. “We’ve got another quick turnaround, another Big East team. I’ve challenged these guys, you can’t slow down, you have to keep getting better.”
Creighton (18-7, 9-5) also played Tuesday when the host Bluejays cruised to a 94-72 victory over Georgetown in Omaha, Neb.
Trey Alexander shined, scoring 26 points on 6-of-8 shooting from beyond the arc. Ryan Kalkbrenner added 17 while Baylor Scheierman became the first Creighton player ever to register double figures in points, rebounds and assists in one game. He collected 15 points, 11 boards and 11 assists for the triple-double.
“Sometimes in this game the hardest thing to do is what you’re supposed to do,” Creighton coach Greg McDermott said. “Trey shot the daylights out of the ball and Baylor did something that’s never been done before. What we do from here on out in large part will be determined by what these guys continue to do.”
Scheierman leads the Bluejays in scoring and rebounding this season with 18.3 points and 8.7 boards per game. Alexander is dishing out 4.7 assists and Kalkbrenner is swatting away 2.7 blocks per game.
Butler is led in scoring by Brooks with 15.8 points per game. Jalen Thomas leads down low with 6.4 boards and 1.2 blocks while Posh Alexander is dishing 5.2 assists and stealing the ball just over two times per contest.
There was nothing new to report on the injury front. Creighton’s report is clear and Connor Turnbull continues to be out indefinitely for Butler with an elbow injury dating back to December.
The last time these teams met was a thriller, with Butler pulling off the upset of then-No. 13 Creighton, 99-98 on Feb. 2 in Omaha. It was the highest-scoring game in the Big East regular season since 2010-11.
There were six players who scored 20 or more points, led by Telfort’s 26 for Butler and 26 apiece from both Scheierman and Steven Ashworth for Creighton.
Both teams shot about 55 percent from the floor and Butler notably went 59.1 percent from beyond the arc (13 of 22, including 5 of 8 in the second half). The Bulldogs outscored the Bluejays 54-49 in the second half after trailing by four at the break.
Creighton holds the all-time series advantage 17-12 and had won five of the previous six matchups before falling earlier this month.
–Field Level Media