No. 8 Creighton holds off Alabama, 85-82

Trey Alexander scored 22 points and Baylor Scheierman added 20 points, nine assists and six rebounds to help No. 8 Creighton post an 85-82 victory over Alabama on Saturday night at Omaha, Neb.

Ryan Kalkbrenner scored 17 of his 19 points in the second half to fuel the Bluejays (9-2). He was 9-of-11 shooting and had eight rebounds and three blocked shots despite missing the final 13 minutes of the first half with an ankle injury.

Mark Sears scored 19 points for Alabama (6-4), and he nearly forced overtime, but his last-second, 35-foot 3-pointer went in-and-out and hit the glass before falling off.

Nick Pringle had 15 points and seven rebounds before fouling out for the Crimson Tide, who have lost four of their past six games. Rylan Griffen and Grant Nelson added 13 points apiece.

Steven Ashworth added 12 points for Creighton, which shot 55.8 percent from the field, including 6 of 18 from 3-point range.

The Crimson Tide connected on 46.7 percent of their shots but were a shaky 4 of 22 from behind the arc.

A basket by Kalkbrenner gave the Bluejays an 83-76 lead with 1:26 to play.

Baskets by Nelson and Sears moved the Crimson Tide within three with 39.6 seconds left. A turnover by Alexander with 12.2 seconds to go gave Alabama the ball, and Sears converted a layup to trim the deficit to 83-82 with 3.8 seconds left.

Ashworth made two free throws with 2.6 seconds remaining before Sears' last-chance 3-pointer decided not to fall in.

Alabama led 58-52 after a basket by Sears with 14:46 left in the game. The Bluejays answered with an 11-4 run, and two free throws by Scheierman capped it and gave Creighton a 63-62 edge with 9:55 left.

The Bluejays soon moved back into the lead at 68-66 on two dunks by Kalkbrenner in a 32-second span. He then split two free throws with 6:39 remaining before Scheierman knocked down a trey to punctuate a 9-0 run and give the Bluejays a 72-66 advantage with 5:49 remaining.

Ashworth later buried a 3-pointer to give Creighton an 81-74 lead with 1:58 remaining.

Alexander had 15 points and Scheierman added 13 for Creighton in the first half as the teams were tied at 44 at the break. Pringle had 12 points in the half for the Crimson Tide.

Kalkbrenner was hurt while he was running up court and stepped on the foot of Alabama's Mohamed Wague.