OMAHA, Neb. -- Creighton ended an 11-game losing streak against ranked opponents on Saturday night with a 72-64 upset of No. 18 Butler.

The victory before a CenturyLink Center crowd of 17,677 was the fourth in the past five games for the Bluejays (14-6, 5-2 Big East). Butler (13-6, 2-5) has lost five of its past seven.

The last time Creighton defeated a Top 25 team was No. 18 Oklahoma on Nov. 19, 2014. The Bluejays are now 3-3 in history against teams ranked No. 18, having won their past three -- Saturday, in 2014 against Oklahoma and in 1998 against Oklahoma State.

Point guard Maurice Watson Jr. led Creighton, scoring 18 of his 20 points after halftime. The Bluejays were up 34-29 at intermission.

"I thought our starters did a phenomenal job," Creighton coach Greg McDermott said. "We really challenged the guys to win the toughness battle in the second half."

Eight of Watson's points came on free throws, several of which came in the final minutes as Creighton held off Butler's attempts to get back in the game by sending the Bluejays to the free throw line.

Three other Bluejays scored in double figures. Guard Isaiah Zierden had 13 points and forward Toby Hegner and center Geoffrey Groselle both added 10.

Creighton charged out after intermission, scoring the first nine points to take a 38-34 lead and forcing Butler to call a timeout just 2:41 into the second half. Five of the nine points came from Zierden.

"They're big, they're older, they're physical, they're a good team," Butler coach Chris Holtmann said. "That was a critical stretch. We have to show up better in the second half than what we did."

After the timeout, Groselle sank two free throws to push Creighton's lead to 40-34 before Butler scored its first points of the second half.

"That gave us a huge lift," Creighton forward Toby Wegner said. "It wasn't just our offense giving us a huge lift, it was also our defense."

Just as the Bulldogs did in the first half, they missed their first six shots from the field in the second half before scoring on a layup by senior guard Roosevelt Jones with 15:14 remaining.

Six seconds later, Jones picked up his fourth foul. Less than three minutes later, Bulldogs point guard Jordan Gathers was sent to the bench with his fifth foul, forcing Holtmann to go to seldom-used junior Trey Pettus.

Holtmann began protesting calls to the officiating crew and was assessed a technical foul at the start of the second media timeout. Zierden made both free throws to push Creighton's lead to 50-41.

Butler never was able to establish a consistent offensive flow in the second half. Through the first 13 minutes, Butler missed 14 of its first 18 shots from the field and finished the final 20 minutes making just 10 of 33 (30.3 percent).

Despite the struggles, the Bulldogs got back within 53-50 before the Bluejays peeled off a 9-3 run to take its biggest lead of the second half. Creighton led by nine three different times, but the closest Butler came was three points.

Butler sophomore forward Kelan Martin led all scorers with 22 points. Senior guard Kellen Dunham added 20 points and Jones finished with 11.

NOTES: Butler junior guards Tyler Lewis and Steven Bennett didn't make the trip to Omaha. Lewis sustained a concussion during practice Thursday and Bennett was sidelined because of an undisclosed illness. ... Butler athletic director Barry Collier was part of the Bulldogs' traveling party. Earlier Saturday, Collier attended the Michigan-Nebraska game in Lincoln. Collier was the Huskers' head coach for six seasons beginning in 2000. ... The game was the 100th at home for Creighton coach Greg McDermott, who has an 81-19 record. He is the fourth coach in Creighton history to coach at least 100 home games, and his record is better than any of the other three.