NEW YORK, N.Y. –  A balanced attack from No. 24 Creighton helped carry it past Villanova 87-74 in a BIG EAST Tournament quarterfinal Thursday night at Madison Square Garden. The Bluejays (21-11 overall) advance to face No. 2 seed Xavier in Friday night's semifinal.
 
Five Bluejays scored in double figures led by forward Ryan Kalkbrenner (21 points). Eric Dixon led Villanova (17-16 overall) with 20 points while Caleb Daniels and Brandon Slater each contributed 17 points.
 
"Congrats to Creighton," stated Villanova head coach Kyle Neptune. "They played extremely hard and got us on our heels."
 
Kalkbrenner hurt the Wildcats in the first half, tallying 10 points as the Bluejays built a 32-23 lead after the first 20 minutes of action.
 
"I thought our defense to start the game wasn't bad," said Neptune. "He's obviously a great player. They made a point to go to him often. Our defense wasn't bad. I thought they got into transition a little too much and hurt us there.
 
"As the game went on, we had to play catch up and we got a little loose defensively because of that."
 
After draining a season-high 15 3-pointers in Wednesday night's win over Georgetown, the Wildcats weren't able to recreate the magic over the opening minutes of this one. Villanova misfired on its first four attempts from beyond the arc and had only a Cam Whitmore bucket to show on the scoreboard. Creighton held a 7-2 lead at the first official timeout of the night.
 
The Wildcats scored four straight but Creighton answered with an 8-0 burst to grab a 15-6 lead after 7:05 of game action. When Trey Alexander sank his third 3-pointer of the opening eight minutes the Bluejays' lead was 18-7. Villanova quickly cut into the deficit though as Slater and Daniels got it the first two made 3-pointers of the evening to make it 18-13 with 10:20 on the first half clock.
 
Another 3-pointer by Daniels closed the margin to 22-16 but the Bluejays' offense was functioning at a high level at that juncture, extending the lead to 28-16. Villanova was able to stymie Creighton, though, holding it without a field goal for 4:35, allowing it to creep to within 28-21 with 2:43 remaining in the period.
 
A Kalkbrenner basket – his fifth of the period – ended the drought and pushed the advantage for Creighton to 30-21. When the game reached halftime, it was a 32-21 lead for the Bluejays.
 
The Wildcats were 9-of-27 from the field (.333) over the first 20 minutes while Creighton was just a bit better at 13-of-30 (.421). Kalkbrenner led all scorers with 10 points while Daniels and Slater each had six points for Villanova.
 
Ryan Nembhard scored the first five points of the second half to extend the lead to 37-23 before a Daniels bucket gave Nova its first points of the period. Justin Moore followed that with a 3-pointer from the left corner. But Creighton reeled off the next six points to claim a 44-28 lead with 15:58 to play in the contest.
 
Some long distance shooting from Moore and Slater gave Villanova's offense a boost but wasn't enough to offset the balanced Creighton attack. When Kalkbrenner dropped in a field goal and added a free throw at the 11:52 mark the margin was 56-38.
 
A Daniels drive for two capped a 7-2 VU surge that helped it cut into the lead. Creighton called for time with a 58-45 edge and 9:17 left to play.
 
After the break, though, Creighton used a 5-0 run to push the advantage back to 18, 63-45 with 7:53 remaining. Villanova came back with an 8-0 surge to creep within 65-53 as the clock fell beneath the five minute mark. An Eric Dixon 3-pointer drew the 'Cats ever closer at 65-56.
 
Arthur Kaluma answered for Creighton to push the lead back to 68-56. A Dixon traditional 3-point play pulled VU to within 70-61 but the lead quickly was restored to double digits by Creighton.
 
The final count was 87-74.
 
"I thought they played extremely hard," said Neptune of Creighton. "I thought their physicality affected us. Hats off to them. I thought they played great."