Hall streak ends in blowout by Creighton

CREIGHTON 89 SETON HALL 53

OMAHA, Neb. — Damien Jefferson scored 16 of his season-high 19 points in the first half and No. 7 Creighton got off to a fast start on its way to an 89-53 victory over Seton Hall on Wednesday night.

The Bluejays (9-2, 5-1 Big East) won their fifth straight game with their biggest conference win since beating St. John’s 100-59 in February 2016.

“This one feels great, honestly,” Jefferson said. “We talked about it as seniors, the older group, how we have to finish teams off. Sometimes coming out of the half we get lackadaisical and go through the motions and teams come back into the game. When you’ve got games like this when you win by such a good amount of points, it’s easier and it feels good.”

The loss ended a three-game win streak for Seton Hall (8-5, 5-2) and was coach Kevin Willard’s most lopsided defeat in his 11 seasons.

“Every once in a while you get smacked down and you’ve got to pick yourself back up,” Willard said. “This group has been able to do that.”

Sandro Mamukelashvili led the Pirates with 14 points and Jared Rhoden had 10.

The Pirates had been playing as well as anyone in the Big East until this clunker. Their 33 percent shooting from the field was their worst of the season, and their 16.7 percent accuracy on 3s (3 of 18) was a season low.

Denzel Mahoney had 14 points and Marcus Zegarowski added 11 for the Bluejays.

➤ Seton Hall backup guard Bryce Aiken injured his right ankle for the second time this season when he stepped awkwardly on Zegarowski’s foot early in the game.

Aiken was helped off the court and went to the locker room. The first injury kept him out of six games.