Steve Wojciechowski
D.J. Carton scored a career-high 20 points, and Greg Elliott and Dawson Garcia combined for 23 of their 28 in the second half to lead the Marquette Golden Eagles to a 89-84 road upset over No. 9 Creighton to open Big East Conference play on Monday night.
The Golden Eagles (5-2, 1-0 Big East) came from 12-points down to beat the Blue Jays (4-2, 0-1).
Mitch Ballock hit 8 of his 13 three-pointers and scored a season-high 26 points to lead Creighton. Denzel Mahoney added 21 points.
The Golden Eagles beat the 2019-20 Big East regular-season co-champions for the first time in four meetings.
The Blue Jays ran off nine straight points to get to 76-75 but Carton hit a three and Dawson Garcia added a jumper and a put back basket to make it 83-75.
Creighton would again cut the Marquette lead to three and Carton missed a free throw but the Golden Eagles kept possession on a tie-up under the basket. Koby McEwen then made a pair of free throws for an 85-80 lead with 30 seconds left.
Creighton didn’t do themselves any favors at the free throw line, hitting just 11 of 22 in the second half and finished 14 of 25 (56%) for the game. Marquette held Creighton to 44% shooting from the field in the second half and outscored the Blue Jays 54-40 in the second half.
The Golden Eagles return home to host Seton Hall in their Big East home opener on Thursday night at Fiserv Forum.