Butler knocks off No. 13 Creighton in wild roller-coaster finish

The situation wasn’t unfamiliar for Creighton. Another Big East foe entered the CHI Health Center and couldn’t miss, and the Jays, owners of one of the country’s most efficient defenses, couldn’t do anything about it.

Providence and Xavier both did it before CU pulled away late. St. John’s did it to hang around until the final buzzer. Even DePaul, still winless in the league, did it for the first half of the Jays’ eventual 23-point win a week ago.

That list made room for Butler on Friday night, regardless of No. 13 CU’s putting together one of its best offensive outputs of the season, in the Jays’ 99-98 loss, sealed by Boden Kapke’s pair of free throws with 6.4 seconds remaining.

Without Posh Alexander, who was ruled out after testing a foot injury during pregame warmups, the Bulldogs (15-6, 5-6) became the latest ones to travel to Omaha and hit one bucket after another with a hand in their face, a defender in their pocket.

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Jahmyl Telfort did it again and again. DJ Davis did, too. A track meet of a first half ended with Finley Bizjack chucking up a 32-footer over the outstretched arm of Steven Ashworth and burying it at the buzzer to cut CU’s lead to 40-37. The Bulldogs kept swinging, one crowd-silencing bucket at a time, to be up by four with 3:02 to play.

But the Jays (18-5, 8-3) hit shots as well as they had since a 109-64 thrashing of Central Michigan in early December. Creighton scored its most points since then — aside from posting 97 on Seton Hall in a game that went to triple-overtime. CU went 54.8% from the field, and it hit 9 of its 25 3s in an attempt to keep up with Butler’s frenzy of 13 triples on 22 shots.

Baylor Scheierman — 26 points, 11 rebounds in his eighth double-double of the season — helped the Jays weather an explosive second half from the Bulldogs with big-time 3s, drives to the rim, and a one of two thunderous dunks through contact.

Trey Alexander, Scheierman’s running mate in the first half, scored only nine of his 22 points after the break, though CU got a season-high 26 points out of Ashworth, his highest scoring output since dropping 22 on New Mexico State a year ago while he was still at Utah State, and another 20 points from Ryan Kalkbrenner.

When the Jays needed it most, when they had to fend off perhaps the feistiest middle-of-the-pack Big East team they’ve faced thus far, they scored 85-plus for the fourth conference game in a row — the first time that’s ever been done by any team in any conference.

It wasn’t enough, though. Not to erase Butler’s 54-point second half. Not to erase Telfort’s mid-range fadeaway over Scheierman to put the Bulldogs up three with 49 seconds left. Not enough for Creighton to come away with its fourth consecutive win, a streak that will have a chance to start anew in Wednesday’s road trip for a rematch with Providence.

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Photos: Creighton men’s basketball hosts Butler

Creighton’s Trey Alexander (23) shoots over Butler’s Jahmyl Telfort (11) in the first half at CHI Health Center Omaha on Friday, Feb. 2, 2024.