LAHAINA, Hawaii >> Ryan Nembhard drove the lane for an authoritative dunk in the closing minutes and scored a career-high 25 points for No. 10 Creighton, which survived a tense second half to beat No. 9 Arkansas 90-87 on Tuesday and advance to the championship game of the Maui Invitational.

Trey Alexander made two free throws with 1.9 seconds left for Creighton, which will play for the title today against No. 14 Arizona (5-0).

The Bluejays (6-0) and Razorbacks (4-1) played an electrifying second half worthy of a March Madness matchup. Arkansas has reached the Elite Eight in consecutive seasons and Creighton got to the second round last year after advancing to the Sweet 16 in 2021.

Ryan Kalkbrenner scored 21 points, Baylor Scheierman 20 and Alexander 12 for the Bluejays, who had a 12-point lead late in the first half.

Anthony Black scored 26 points, Ricky Council IV 24 and Trevon Brazile 17 for the Razorbacks.

There were 10 lead changes and the game was tied 10 times in the second half.

Nembhard made two free throws after the Arkansas bench was whistled for a technical foul with 13:57 to go for a 53-53 tie. Creighton was in the double bonus for the final 13 minutes.

Nembhard, the shortest player on the floor at 6 feet, drove for a dunk and a 79-76 lead with 2:34 to go. Brazile answered with a 3-pointer the next time down the floor to tie it at 79.

Kalkbrenner made a reverse jam with 1:20 left to give the Bluejays the lead for good at 83-81.

After Scheierman made two free throws for an 87-84 lead with 16 seconds left, Council missed a corner 3 and Nembhard rebounded and was fouled. He made one of two free throws and Black came down the floor and drained a straight-on 3 to pull Arkansas within one. Alexander then made his two insurance free throws.

Creighton ran to a 12-point lead with 1:43 to go in the first half before the Razorbacks closed with a 6-0 run, capped by Trevon Brazile’s thunderous dunk on an alley-oop pass from Anthony Black.

ARIZONA 87, SAN DIEGO STATE 70

Courtney Ramey and Kerr Kriisa scored 21 points apiece and No. 14 Arizona pulled away in the second half to beat 17th-ranked San Diego State 87-70 in the semifinals of the Maui Invitational.

Azuola Tubelis had all 14 of his points in the first half and Ramey scored 12 for Arizona. A twisting layup by Tubelis on an alley-oop pass gave the Wildccats a 31-15 lead at 5:06 before intermission. Darrion Trammell hit a 3-pointer for San Diego State and turned two steals into layups to help the Aztecs close out the half on an 18-6 run to get within 37-33.

Keshad Johnson had two rebound baskets and a three-point play dunk and San Diego State used a 9-3 spurt to grab a 42-40 lead just 2:40 into the second half. It was the Aztecs first and only lead of the game.

Pelle Larsson sank a 3-pointer, Trammell missed a 3 and Oumar Ballo followed with a three-point play to put Arizona up 46-42. The Wildcats upped their lead to 10 on a Ballo free throw with 11:43 remaining and pushed it to 71-56 on a Cedric Henderson jumper with 6:58 left to play.

Ramey, a graduate transfer from the University of Texas, hit all five of his 3-point shots in his second game with Arizona. Kerr added five assists. Ballo finished with 12 points and nine rebounds before fouling out. Henderson scored 10.

Trammell topped San Diego State with 21 points. Micah Parrish scored 10.

Arizona, which came in leading the nation shooting 62.9% from the floor, shot 58.6% against the Aztecs and made 9 of 20 from beyond the arc. SDSU shot 38% overall and made only 3 of 19 from distance.