Buried amidst the disgusting rubble of 52 fouls was a pretty darn good game. Creighton scored 102 points while making just six three pointers, gave up 92 points, and up until the waning moments, neither team had a commanding lead at any point of the game. A crowd of just under 5,000 diehards made as much noise as 15,000 ordinarily do, and in fact, may have been louder. That’s always been the trend in these second-tier postseason tournaments where the corporate seats close to the court generally go unsold and are opened up to the real fans — you wind up with the noisy, rambunctious people in the lower bowl instead of upstairs, and voila, the building is louder even with fewer people. The NIT games over the years against Akron and Miami and Rhode Island and others have always been louder with smaller numbers. Monday, as was the case last week, was no exception.
(With that said, I get spoiled in my normal seats, apparently — given that better seats than my own were available, I strayed from my normal seats behind the basket into midcourt seats and wound up being lectured by a group of, ahem, milder mannered fans for standing too often to applaud and/or yell encouragement. That never happens in my regular section, where there’s safety in numbers as several rows of fans all around me have rowdy fans such as myself in them. Alas.)
Its astonishing, in a way, that the game was able to be played at a pace where both teams scored 90+ points given the frequent whistles stopping play. An average of 1.3 fouls per minute were called in the game, resulting in Creighton converting a ridiculous 36-43 from the free throw line and Davidson making 17-24. It wasn’t that the refs were horrible, they were just overzealous. Although the best line of the night may have been this one from a friend of mine as we walked out of the arena after the game: “You know, its amazing a tournament with Zebra Pens as a title sponsor has such bad zebras.” Zebras meaning refs. Funny guy, that one. (And I so, so wish I’d come up with it. Oh well.)
The game began much as last week’s did, with the Wildcats racing out to 9-3 lead just two minutes in. Unlike last week against San Jose State, though the Jays fought back to close the deficit — even taking a brief lead for 11 seconds midway through the half — they still trailed most of the way. They had no answer defensively for the Wildcats, as they tried to play strict man-to-man to deny open looks on the perimeter. That was sound strategy, because as I wrote in the Primer before the game, Davidson has a ton of shooters who live and die by the three. Creighton’s advantage lay in the paint, exploiting the tall but undersized post players of Davidson.
Like I said, it was a sound strategy…on paper. Then Gregory Echenique and Kenny Lawson both got into early foul trouble and had to sit out most of the first half, leaving the 6’6″ Wayne Runnels to man the post. He did a good job, all things considered, but he was giving up a ton of height and bulk to the guys he defended; the combination of his smaller frame taking up less room in the paint and the Jays playing man-to-man on the perimeter left gaping holes for 12-to-15 foot jumpers, which Davidson exploited.
To give up 50 points in the half, and be down only one, means the other guys weren’t stopping you either, and that’s precisely the case. Doug McDermott had 21 points in the first half alone, making 6-7 from the field, 2-3 from behind the arc, 7-8 from the line, grabbing five rebounds and giving out two assists in 18 minutes. That’s a heckuva game for most guys…much less one half! Antoine Young contributed 13 points on 6-10 shooting with five assists; the two almost single-handedly kept Creighton in the game as Lawson and Echenique sat on the bench with foul trouble.
In the second half, Creighton initially continued to try and play Davidson man-to-man defensively, but Echenique and Lawson once again struggled to move their feet quick enough to stop defenders without fouling. Just 28 seconds into the half, Echenique picked up his third foul; 90 seconds after that, Lawson picked up his third. And once again, it was up to Wayne Runnels to play the post.
Despite playing without their two big men, the Jays were able to gradually pull away because while they continued scoring, the shots from outside stopped falling for Davidson; after making 6-13 in the first half, they made just 1-9 from three-point range after halftime. Two free throws by Doug McDermott at the 10:11 mark gave Creighton a 72-64 lead, and the crowd rose, sensing the Jays were about to blow the game open.
A 19-10 run for Davidson over the next six minutes resulted in their first — and only — lead of the second half, 83-82, with just over four minutes to go. This is where so many games have been lost for Creighton this season: they build a lead, the other team comes back late, the Jays fail to respond, and they lose a game in which they led a majority of the day. An interesting thing happened on Monday night, though. On the possession immediately following Davidson taking the lead, Kaleb Korver bricked a three off the iron and you could feel the crowd collectively thinking “Here we go again.” A bucket on the other end for the Wildcats might have given them momentum they wouldn’t have relinquished.
Instead, the Jays got a key defensive stop as two freshmen stepped up to make big time plays — first, Jahenns Manigat blocked a shot attempt by JP Kuhlman, then Doug McDermott secured the rebound. McDermott fed it to Young, who raced down court for a layup that gave the Jays back the lead. It seemed like the kind of moment where two freshmen stopped being freshmen, making big defensive plays in a critical spot late in a game. They’re the future of this Jays program, and with plays like that, the future looks good.
They would not trail again, ultimately scoring 102 points for their highest scoring total in a regulation game since hanging 110 on Houston Baptist in 2007. Doug McDermott wound up with 31 points on 8-12 shooting, 2-5 from three-point range, 13-14 from the free throw line, 10 rebounds and two assists. He had 26 points in the first round of this tournament, too. Those are ridiculous numbers in March for any player, much less for a true freshman.
Antoine Young had 22 points on 9-18 shooting with nine assists, and Josh Jones, off the bench, had 21 points on 7-11 shooting, making all four of his three point attempts. When was the last time Creighton had a player with 30+ points and two others with 20+ in the same game? I’m not sure, but it was awfully fun to watch.
Defense wins championships, but every once in a while, its kind of fun to see a good ol’ fashioned shootout, too. I’d say a 102-92 game qualifies as that.
You bet.
