LINCOLN, Neb. -- Creighton fought off a spirited first-half performance by Nebraska before pulling away for a 77-62 victory over the Cornhuskers on Wednesday night.

After leading 31-30 and struggling from the field in the first 20 minutes of the game played before a crowd of 15,902 at Pinnacle Bank Arena, the 10th-ranked Bluejays (9-0) shot 60.7 percent in the second half and outscored the Huskers 46-32 to dash any hopes of an upset by the Huskers (5-4).

"We had to win kind of an ugly game and they're trying to make us play that way," Creighton coach Greg McDermott said. "This is probably the fewest fast-break points we've had on the season. We still got 12 of them; some of them came at key times.

"I would still like to think that our pace wears you out over time. We had a hard time with it in the first half because we had to play guys extended minutes because of the foul trouble."

Creighton senior point guard Maurice Watson led all scorers with 25 points. He finished 10 of 20 from the field and made 5 of 6 free throws. Cole Huff joined Watson in double figures with 13 points, while Toby Hegner added eight points and 10 rebounds.

"We just have so much confidence in ourselves that when we get a little bit of space we can put it on the floor and go," Watson said. "When our second group comes in, that's when our offense got moving."

Tai Webster led Nebraska with 20 points. No other Cornhusker scored more than seven points.

This was the first game in their brief Creighton careers that Marcus Foster or Justin Patton didn't finish a game with at least 10 points. Foster, a transfer from Kansas State, finished with seven points, while Patton, a 7-foot redshirt freshman from Omaha, scored nine.

Foster spent much of the first half on the bench with two fouls. It was the first half of the season in which he didn't score. He went 0-for-4 in eight minutes, missing three 3-point attempts.

That drought ended 18 seconds into the second half when he made a short jumper to put the Bluejays up 33-30. A 3-pointer from the right baseline by Webster tied the game 33-33.

The Bluejays had one of their toughest 20-minute stretches from the field, finishing 13 of 31 (41.9 percent), including a 3-of-10 performance from 3-point range. Creighton still managed to take a one-point halftime lead after being up by as many as 14 points.

Creighton got its lead back to 48-37 in the first seven minutes of the second half with a 15-4 run after the Huskers had tied the game. Nebraska was just 3 of 15 during that stretch while the Bluejays sank 8 of 13.

A 3-pointer from the left baseline by Khyri Thomas put Creighton ahead before the Huskers ended their nearly seven-minute drought with a layup by Isaiah Roby off an offensive rebound.

Though the Huskers didn't beat Creighton in the four years Webster has been with the program, the senior from Auckland, New Zealand said having the chance to play the Bluejays is a good chance for him and his teammates to grow.

"Creighton's a great team," Webster said. "I enjoy playing against them. Creighton doesn't feel like a rivalry to me. It just feels like a really good opportunity to play a great team that just happened to beat us four times now in a row. If I had it my way we would (play them) another time."

NOTES: Creighton's victory evened the all-time series between the in-state rivals at 25-25. The Bluejays have won 15 of the past 18 to pull even with the Huskers for the first time since 1981, when the series was tied 6-6... This is the first season since 1954-55 that Nebraska faced multiple Top 10 teams in nonconference play. The Huskers have faced four teams in the top 60 of the latest RPI. ... The win was the 150th for Greg McDermott as Creighton coach. He is just the third coach in program history to reach that milestone, joining Arthur A. Schabinger (165) and Dana Altman (327). ... Creighton is the only team in the country that has shot at least 50 percent in all of its games.