No. 17 Creighton 101, No. 6 Villanova 80: Doug McDermott matched a season high with 39 points as the host Bluejays routed the Wildcats for the second time in less than a month to rise to the top of the Big East.

McDermott went 13-of-17 from the floor and 9-of-9 from the foul line for Creighton (21-4, 11-2), which followed up its 96-68 thrashing of Villanova on Jan. 20 with a season-best 64.2-percent effort from the field. Freshman Isaiah Zierden chipped in a career-high 13 points, Devin Brooks scored 12 and Grant Gibbs added 11 as the Bluejays defeated two top 10 teams in the same season for the first time in school history.

James Bell hit five 3-pointers and led the way with 18 points before fouling out for Villanova (22-3, 10-2), which saw its six-game winning streak snapped. JayVaughn Pinkston had 15 points and Dylan Ennis contributed 11 to round the Wildcats who scored in double figures.

McDermott scored Creighton’s first 11 points over the first four minutes and had 14 of his team’s first 16 points as Creighton trailed for only six seconds. Bell hit all four of his first-half 3-point attempts to keep Villanova close, but the Bluejays began to pull away with a 15-6 surge over the final 5½ minutes of the first half to take a 50-37 lead into the break.

Creighton continued to pour it on early in the second half as a 3-pointer from Gibbs and a breakaway dunk by McDermott capped a 7-0 run and made it 57-39 with 15:27 remaining. The Wildcats managed to cut four points off the deficit thereafter and McDermott snuffed out any hint of a rally with a 3-pointer as the lead quickly ballooned to 25.

GAME NOTEBOOK: McDermott (2,863 career points) passed Otis Birdsong (2,832) and Larry Bird (2,850) to move into sole possession of 13th place on the NCAA all-time scoring list. … Villanova (23-of-26) and Creighton (24-of-26) combined to hit 47 of their 52 free-throw attempts. … Bluejays F Ethan Wragge, who tied a school record with nine 3-pointers in the first meeting in which Creighton set Big East and school records with 21 3-pointers, went 1-of-2 beyond the arc and finished with five points.