Game Recap: Creighton 82, DePaul 64

Stop me if you have heard this before, but Doug McDermott broke yet another record.

With his 35-point performance on Thursday night, the accomplished senior forward scored the most points ever for an individual playing in his first BIG EAST Tournament game.

On the back of that work, the Creighton Bluejays advanced to the BIG EAST Tournament semifinals, soundly beating the upset-minded DePaul Blue Demons 82-64.

McDermott started the game off strongly and he was not alone either. Canadian shooting guard Jahenns Manigat, who also will be bowing out when the Bluejays' season comes to an end, went round-for-round with the fantastic forward from downtown. The two combined for 49 points on the night, and 73.3 percent from the perimeter. While it's true that Doug's performance stood out, Manigat's contributions in the early going set the tone for what was one of Creighton's best performances of the entire season.

Elsewhere, Austin Chatman was not to be outdone. The junior point guard was just one assist shy of a double-double, finishing with nine assists to go with his 11 points. Had Austin reached that plateau it would have been his first of the season, and the second time he reached double digit assists going back to his 10-assist performance against Villanova on Jan. 20.

In full, the Bluejays went 60/60/60 from the floor (60.4 percent), the three-point line (63.6 percent), and the free throw line (60.0 percent) as well. As they have proven all season, one of the best offenses in the country was as lethal as can be on Thursday night.

For DePaul, it's certainly a tough pill to swallow. Fresh off a stunning victory over the now-NIT bound Georgetown Hoyas a night ago, the Blue Demons reverted back to their inefficient ways against the Jays. Standing out amongst the rest as he has done for his entire career at DePaul was Brandon Young. The senior from Baltimore finished out his time as a Blue Demon with an admirable 22-point performance, leading all DePaul scorers.

Efficiency was hard to come by elsewhere though, as Oliver Purnell's squad finished shooting under 40 percent from the field and under 30 percent from downtown.

Creighton will take on the winner of Marquette-Xavier tomorrow night at Madison Square Garden in New York, N.Y.