No. 19 Creighton used a 13-0 run bridging the first and second half and then held off a frantic Xavier rally to post a 78-71 Big East win Saturday in Cincinnati.
Ryan Kalkbrenner led Creighton (17-7, 8-5 Big East) with 28 points. Baylor Scheierman fell just shy of a triple-double with 16 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists as the Bluejays ended a two-game losing skid.
Desmond Claude had 22 points and Dayvion McKnight added 21 to lead Xavier (13-11, 7-6), which had its three-game win streak snapped.
Creighton led 74-60 following a Steven Ashworth three with 3:45 remaining. Xavier scored the next nine points to close to 74-69 on a McKnight floater in the lane with 1:16 remaining.
Kalkbrenner blocked a Claude layup attempt with 44 seconds left and Ashworth sank a pair of free throws with 32 seconds remaining to seal the win.
As they did against Villanova on Wednesday, Xavier used hot shooting to race out to a quick lead.
The Musketeers sank eight of their first 10 shots from the field to grab leads of 15-6 and 17-9.