Jasen Green scored 23 points and Austin Swartz added 22 as Creighton extended its winning streak to four games, returning to Big East Conference play with an 89-85 victory over Butler at Omaha, Neb.
Isaac Traudt scored 16 points and Nik Graves had 11 for the Bluejays (9-5, 3-0 Big East), who continued to emerge from a 5-5 overall start on the season.
Creighton now has eight victories in the past nine games against Butler. The Bluejays also improved to 3-0 in Big East play for the second time in their 13 seasons in the league.
Yohan Traore scored 20 points and Michael Ajayi recovered from a slow start to score 16 points and snare 13 rebounds before fouling out as Butler (10-4, 1-2) has now lost both of its conference games on the road.
Jamie Kaiser Jr. also had 16 points while Evan Haywood added 11 for Butler, which lost despite a 42-35 rebounding advantage.
Creighton led 46-35 in the opening minute of the second half before Butler chipped away at the deficit. The Bulldogs pulled within 59-56 after a 3-point play from Ajayi with 11:51 remaining, the closest they had been since more than three minutes remained in the first half.
But Creighton responded with an 11-4 run to take a 74-64 lead with 6:48 remaining.
Butler’s fate essentially was sealed when Ajayi fouled out with 4:48 remaining as Creighton held a 76-69 lead.
The Bluejays built their lead to 82-71 with 3:14 remaining before the Bulldogs pulled within 82-76 on a 3-pointer from Finley Bizjack with 2:17 left.
Haywood put on a one-man show at the end with a trio of 3-pointers over the final 21 seconds for Butler, but the Bluejays countered with six consecutive free throws made.
The Bluejays went 13 of 32 (40.6%) from 3-point range, while the Bulldogs went 8 of 26 (30.8%) from distance.
Green added six rebounds and five assists for Creighton. He converted 8 of 11 shots from the floor and all six free throw attempts.
Creighton shot 56.3% from the floor and made eight 3-pointers in the first half while taking a 44-35 lead into the break. Traudt scored 12 points for Creighton in the first half, while Kaiser had 11 for Butler as Ajayi was held to five points on 2-of-9 shooting.
