Marquette (21-6) at Creighton (18-9)
When: Tuesday, February 21st 2023
Where: CHI Health Center,
Omaha, NE
Time: 8:30 ET | TV: FS1
Opening Odds: Creighton -4.5/147.5
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It’s a four-team race for the regular season Big East Conference title, and two of those teams will battle Tuesday night in Omaha, Nebraska. The red-hot Marquette Golden Eagles will try and hang onto first place when they visit the equally hot Creighton Bluejays. Marquette holds a 1.5-game lead over three teams including the Bluejays entering Tuesday’s action. Providence and Xavier are the other two teams chasing the Golden Eagles in the conference. This is the second meeting between the teams this season with the other being way back on Dec. 16 – the conference opener for both teams. Creighton dropped that game 69-58 for their sixth loss in a row at that time. Since then, the Bluejays are 12-3 and ranked No. 19 in the country.
The Golden Eagles have won seven of their last eight games including a 69-68 home win over No. 16 Xavier last Wednesday. Marquette improved to an impressive 17-9-1 ATS on the season and are 8-3-1 ATS away from home. Creighton, who are 13-14 ATS on the season, are coming off a 77-67 win at St. Johns after falling 94-86 in overtime against Providence. The Bluejays have won seven of the last nine meetings with Marquette and are 6-3 ATS in that span. Creighton is a 5.5-point favorite for Tuesday’s contest with a total of 148.
Olivier-Maxence Prosper’s tip-in with 1.6 seconds left gave the Golden Eagles a dramatic win over Xavier last week. Stevie Mitchell had 17 points, a career-high six steals and three offensive rebounds in the win. Tyler Kolek collected 15 points and eight rebounds, while Oso Ighodaro had 14 and nine, respectively. Ighodaro scored 16 points and Prosper had 14 in Marquette’s win over Creighton back in December. Marquette ranks No. 5 in the nation in field goal percentage (49.4 percent), but rank 272nd in defending their opponents (44.9 percent). The Golden Eagles will host DePaul on Saturday.
Creighton pulled away late against St. John’s on Saturday thanks to Arthur Kaluma making three consecutive 3-pointers down the stretch. Kaluma made 3-of-6 from beyond arc after making just 4-of-18 in his previous five games. He finished with 12 points in the first meeting with Marquette, but missed all three of his 3-point attempts. Fredrick King recorded 16 points and 10 rebounds in that game, while Baylor Scheierman had 14 points and 11 boards. Ryan Kalkbrenner, who leads the team in scoring at 14.8, did not play in the first game against Marquette because of an illness.
These teams are pretty evenly matched, so I’ll take the points. Marquette is an impressive 8-3-1 ATS away from home and are on a roll right now. Creighton is just 6-7 ATS at home and will have their hands full with this Marquette offense.
Pick: Marquette +5.5
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