Creighton rolls St Johns in Omaha

OMAHA, Neb. -- Behind a combined 75 points from the starting unit, the Creighton men's basketball team posted a 104-76 win over St. John's on Wednesday, Jan. 25.

The win lifted the Bluejays to 12-8 on the season and 6-3 in BIG EAST action, while St. John's fell to 13-8 overall and 3-7 in conference play.

Baylor Scheierman led the Bluejays with 17 points and 10 rebounds for his ninth double-double of the season. Ryan Kalkbrenner and Ryan Nembhard each finished with 16 points, while Arthur Kaluma and Trey Alexander had 14 and 12 respectively.

AJ Storr led St. John's with a career-high 23 points in the loss, while Joel Soriano finished with 18 points and nine rebounds, one rebound short of his nation-leading 18th double-double.

CU trailed 15-12 early before an 11-2 run featuring five points from Kalkbrenner and four more by Alexander to build a lead it would never surrender. The lead grew to double-figures for the first time at 45-34 on a Kalkbrenner lay-up and the Jays matched their largest first half lead with a 52-39 advantage at the break.

The Bluejays maintained a double-figure lead throughout the second half, going up by 20 (76-56) on a Fredrick King free throw with 9:43 left and extending the margin to a game-high 30 (102-72) with 1:04 left on Zander Yates career-high third three-pointer in a span of 102 seconds.

Creighton shot 56.7 percent for the game and made 11 three-pointers while also owning a 36-33 edge on the glass. CU dished 22 assists and committed just seven turnovers against a Red Storm program known for its pressure defense.

St. John's shot 46.3 percent overall, including 6-of-13 from three-point range, but sank just 8-for-14 from the line to fall to 1-5 in true road games this winter.

Creighton returns to the hardwood on Saturday, Jan. 28 as the Bluejays host No. #13 Xavier in the annual Pink Out game at 11:15 a.m. on CBS.

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