Ryan Kalkbrenner wows with 49 in opening win for Creighton - ESPN

OMAHA, Neb. — Big East Conference preseason player of the year Ryan Kalkbrenner scored a career-high 49 points, and 15th-ranked Creighton needed just about every one of them in a season-opening 99-86 win over UT-Rio Grande Valley on Wednesday night.

The 7-foot-1 Kalkbrenner, a fifth-year center, was 20-of-22 from the field, including 2-for-2 on 3-pointers, and he made 7 of 8 free throws. He also grabbed 11 rebounds and blocked three shots.

«We kind of went into the game with a plan to establish me in the post and we went with that,» he said. «I kept working and wasn't really thinking about what happened the previous play. I was just trying to make the next one.»

Creighton senior Ryan Kalkbrenner's 49 points are the fifth-most in a game in Big East history:

The eye-opening stat line put him at or toward the top of a number of records, including:

• The fifth-most points in a game in Big East history

• The second-most points in Creighton history behind Bob Portman's 51 against UW-Milwaukee in 1967

• The second-most points by a player in a season opener in the past 25 years (Arkansas' Rotnei Clarke had 51 in a win over Alcorn State in 2009)

• The 20 made field goals tied the single-game Big East record (Providence's MarShon Brooks against Notre Dame in 2011)

• The 91% shooting from the field was the highest field goal percentage in a 45-point game by any Division I player in the past 25 seasons and the highest by a player to attempt 20 or more shots in a game over the past 25 years

«To go to work like he did in the offseason and then the first time you're under the lights for real to do something superhuman, it's pretty special,» Bluejays coach Greg McDermott said. «And he deserves it. There's not a person on the planet that