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Big East Basketball: UConn, Seton Hall remains in hunt of latest power rankings

By Salvador Lopez

NEWARK, NJ - FEBRUARY 01: The Big East logo on the floor before a college basketball game between the Xavier Musketeers and the Seton Hall Pirates at the Prudential Center on February 1, 2020 in Newark, New Jersey. (Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images)
NEWARK, NJ - FEBRUARY 01: The Big East logo on the floor before a college basketball game between the Xavier Musketeers and the Seton Hall Pirates at the Prudential Center on February 1, 2020 in Newark, New Jersey. (Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images) /
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Creighton Basketball
Big East Basketball Marcus Zegarowski Creighton Bluejays (Photo by Porter Binks/Getty Images) /

2. Creighton Blue Jays (10-2, 6-1 Big East)

With Villanova on a lengthy pause, the rest of the teams in the Big East have tried to catch up to Creighton, but the Blue Jays have proved to be too strong.

After a loss to open conference play against Marquette, Creighton has become “the hunted” in the Big East and has able to win their last six games. Three of those conference victories were by five points or less to UConn, Xavier, and Providence.

Lately, Creighton has been able to win by large margins, blowing out Seton Hall 89-53 and St. John’s 97-79. The Blue Jays put on a statement during their matchup against the Pirates, in which Seton Hall entered the contest with a conference record of 4-1 at the time.

The most impressive part of Creighton’s terrific play from last week was their offense. Last season, the Blue Jays finished ninth nationally in three-point shooting percentage. This season, it has taken some time for Creighton to get hot from the outside. However, the Blue Jays have appeared to have hit their stride during the last two games.

Creighton is currently shooting 29-for-60 from three-point range combined (48.3 percent) during their last two games against Seton Hall and St. John’s.

Last Saturday against the Red Storm, six players for Creighton finished in double figures. Duke transfer and senior guard, Alex O’Connell (5.7 ppg, 3.3 rpg), scored a season-high 16 points in 17 minutes, shooting 4-for-5 from the outside for Creighton.

The Blue Jays have multiple players on their roster who can score. Creighton currently has five players who are averaging over 10 points per game with senior guard, Denzel Mahoney (14.7 ppg, 4.5 rpg), junior point guard, Marcus Zegarowski (14.1 ppg, 4.2 rpg, 4.8 apg), senior guard, Damien Jefferson (12 ppg, 5.2 rpg, 3.2 apg), junior forward, Christian Bishop (11.6 ppg, 5.4 rpg), and senior guard, Mitch Ballock (10.3 ppg).

Next up for Creighton is a total mismatch of a matchup, as the high-powered Blue Jays perimeter attack will travel to face the bottom scoring team in the conference with the Butler Bulldogs on Saturday.

Creighton will then host Providence on Wednesday and UConn next Saturday. Both Providence and UConn were two-points shy of knocking off the Blue Jays during their previous meeting.

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