Josh Dix tallied 14 points, five rebounds and five assists and host Creighton shot a blistering 61% from the floor in a 96-76 victory over Nicholls on Tuesday in Omaha, Neb.
Owen Freeman scored 14 on 7-of-8 shooting and Jasen Green put up 14 points, six boards and four assists as the Bluejays hit 17 of 34 3-point attempts and 36 of 59 shots in all. They poured in 21 points over the final eight minutes of the first half to quickly make the game uncompetitive.
Nik Graves and Austin Swartz each finished with 11 points for Creighton (5-3), with Graves adding six boards and a game-high seven assists.
Christian Winborne led Nicholls (0-7) with a career-high 20 points on 7-of-8 shooting, including 5-of-5 from beyond the arc. Trae English had 12 points and Jaylen Searles added 10 and seven rebounds, but the Colonels could do nothing to stop the Bluejays’ 3-point efficiency.
Dix, Graves, Swartz and Isaac Traudt chipped in three 3-pointers apiece for Creighton.
Nicholls hung with Creighton for the first 12 minutes. Jalik Dunkley made a layup to bring Nicholls within 31-26, and he drove in for another in an effort to make it a one-possession game.
Freeman blocked Dunkley’s shot and soon had a slam at the other end. Dix dunked a teammate’s missed 3-point attempt on the next possession, and Green sank a lengthy triple for Creighton’s first double-digit lead at 38-28 with 6:13 left in the half.
Graves added a 3-pointer and Swartz buried two more, the latter off a nifty sidestep move, to blow it out to 52-32 in the final minute of the half.
Winborne made a 3-pointer for Nicholls just before intermission, and he added two in the early stages of the second half. But despite his best efforts, the Colonels couldn’t keep up. Traudt hit treys on consecutive possessions and Creighton grabbed its largest lead at 74-45 on Green’s layup with exactly 12 minutes to go.
