LAHAINA — The opening game of the 2022 Maui Jim Maui Invitational started rocky, but timely 3-point shooting and a strong second half earned 10th-ranked Creighton a spot in today’s semifinals.

In the tournament’s long-awaited return to the Lahaina Civic Center after a two-year COVID absence, fans wearing blue went wild as the Bluejays defeated No. 21 Texas Tech 76-65 in a top-25 Monday morning matchup.

“As you saw from the start of the game, Texas Tech is really hard to play against. You can prep all you want but it’s so hard to simulate the physicality of their defense and the quickness of their rotations,” Creighton coach Greg McDermott said. “We were in a little bit of a hurry the first half and obviously created some offense for them with some of our turnovers.”

Arthur Kaluma led the Bluejays (5-0) with 18 points. Trey Alexander scored 17 points, Ryan Nembhard added 16 points, and Baylor Scheierman had 11 points and 12 rebounds. Creighton will meet No. 9 Arkansas in a top-10 semifinal today at 3 p.m.

“As I told the team in the locker room and particularly, Art and Trey, I thought they did an unbelievable job adjusting to the game. Every game is different,” McDermott said. “I thought those two, while they got rushed a little bit in the first half and made some mistakes, I thought they really settled in and made plays for themselves and for their teammates the second half, and that has to be who we are.”

Creighton finished with a field-goal percentage of 55.1 compared to 43.5 for Texas Tech and won the rebounding battle 33-28.

Kaluma, a 6-foot-7 forward, said it took some time to ease into the game and environment.

“This is a big tournament, Maui Invitational, it’s just fun to be here,” he said. “Got it going in the second half and I’m glad we got the win out today.”

In a fast-paced first half, Texas Tech led 9-2 in the first 5 minutes in the game and forced multiple Creighton turnovers.

After finding their groove, Bluejays’ Scheierman and Nembhard closed the gap with back-to-back 3-pointers. Nembhard came back a minute later and made a deep jumper from the right wing to move them into the lead 13-12.

“I just kind of take what the game gives me. There’s flows in the game, there’s different runs that we go on as a team, there’s lulls in the game, so I just take what the defense gives me and try to make plays for my teammates,” Nembhard said. “I just try to help with getting a win in any way possible.”

The teams remained close throughout the rest of the first half, which ended with the teams tied 31-31.

“We just made some adjustments at halftime. We kind of had a game plan going into the game and we just executed it a little better in the second half than the first half,” said Nembhard. “We got a little more comfortable and the pressure didn’t bother us as much in the second half.”

Creighton seemed to find their footing out of the locker room on both the offensive and defensive ends, opening the second half on a 16-7 run to stretch the lead to 47-38.

The Red Raiders could not close the gap, getting no closer than seven points the rest of the game, and a final dunk by Frederick King with 31 seconds remaining was the finishing touch for the Bluejays.

“Well, it probably goes without saying, but Creighton’s just a very, very good basketball team,” Texas Tech coach Mark Adams said. “They’re just extremely efficient. Their guys all know their roles. They play very solid defense. They don’t foul. Extremely good 3-point shooting team.”

Daniel Batcho led Texas Tech (3-1) with 17 points and five rebounds while Pop Isaacs hit four 3-pointers and finished with 13 points. De’Vion Harmon added 12 points and three assists for the Red Raiders, who will face Louisville in a consolation semifinal today at 9:30 a.m.

“It was great, a lot of fun. It’s a blessing to be out here in Hawaii doing what you love,” Harmon said. “Like coach said, Creighton’s a great team. They’re ranked No. 10 for a reason, but we got to bounce back and we will.”

* Dakota Grossman is at dgrossman@mauinews.com

TEXAS TECH (3-1)

Batcho 7-12 2-3 17, Obanor 5-11 0-0 10, Harmon 6-17 0-0 12, Isaacs 4-8 1-2 13, Tyson 3-6 2-2 9, Allen 1-2 0-0 2, Fisher 0-2 0-0 0, Walton 0-1 0-0 0, D.Williams 0-2 0-0 0, Washington 0-0 0-0 0, Jennings 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 27-62 5-7 65.

CREIGHTON (5-0)

Kaluma 6-11 4-4 18, Kalkbrenner 4-6 2-2 10, Alexander 5-6 5-6 17, Nembhard 6-10 2-3 16, Scheierman 4-10 0-0 11, Farabello 0-3 0-0 0, King 2-2 0-0 4, Miller 0-1 0-2 0, Mitchell 0-0 0-0 0, Shtolzberg 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 27-49 13-17 76.

Halftime–31-31. 3-Point Goals–Texas Tech 6-16 (Isaacs 4-5, Batcho 1-1, Tyson 1-1, Allen 0-1, Walton 0-1, Harmon 0-2, D.Williams 0-2, Obanor 0-3), Creighton 9-20 (Scheierman 3-7, Alexander 2-2, Nembhard 2-3, Kaluma 2-4, Miller 0-1, Farabello 0-3). Rebounds–Texas Tech 25 (Batcho, Tyson, Allen 5), Creighton 30 (Scheierman 12). Assists–Texas Tech 15 (Harmon, D.Williams 3), Creighton 12 (Alexander, Scheierman 3). Total Fouls–Texas Tech 17, Creighton 11. A–2,400 (2,400).