Ryan Kalkbrenner scored 21 points, Ryan Nembhard added 17 and No. 24 Creighton defeated Villanova, 87-74, Thursday night at the Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden in a rematch of last season’s championship game.
The third-seeded Bluejays (21-11) advanced to the semifinals Friday night at the Garden to face second-seeded and 15th-ranked Xavier.
The top four seeds swept the quarterfinals.
Nembhard made three of Creighton’s 12 3-pointers, including one from the corner off an offensive rebound that put the Bluejays up 18 with 12:54 left in the second half.
Eric Dixon’s 3 for sixth-seeded Villanova (17-16) cut lead to 65-56 with 4:43 left and perked up the Villanova fans at the Garden after a Creighton had dominated the second half.
But Arthur Kaluma responded with a 3 after the Bluejays broke Nova’s press to bump the lead back to 12 on the next possession. Kaluma finished with 18 points on 5-of-8 shooting.
Kalkbrenner competed a three-point play with 3:26 left to make it 73-61 and Creighton cruised from there.
The Wildcats came in having won seven of nine to salvage their first season post-coach Jay Wright.
In need of a championship run at the Garden to extend their NCAA Tournament streak to 10 appearances, the Wildcats couldn’t match up with the 7-foot-1 Kalkbrenner on the defensive end (9 of 12 from the field) and had a hard time finishing at the rim with him lurking in the paint.
Dixon scored 20 points to lead the Wildcats.
The Bluejays took a 32-23 lead at half behind Kalbrenner’s 10 points and a personal nine-point run from Trey Alexander, who made three consecutive 3s.
Creighton has played in the last two Big East finals and four overall since joining the conference in 2014 — but the Bluejays have yet to win a title.
Villanova has been the beast of the new Big East, going 18-4 and winning five tournament titles since the conference dropped football and reconfigured.
Against Creighton, Villanova was playing as the lower seed in a Big East Tournament game for the first time since 2013 against Louisville.