Sunday I got up early so I could see the Bluejays try to salvage a win in Orlando to close out the Old Spice Classic. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be as the Jays committed 21 turnovers and just could not get a flow or rhythm to the game at all to leave 0-3 and probably left with a lot more questions than answers on the flight back to Omaha.
The Jays not once, but twice, had spurts of over 10 minutes between field goals and almost 17 minutes of that was in the second half. Put that into perspective—that was 5 field goals in the second half on 5-of-13 shooting. Kenny Lawson had 3 of those 5 field goals. Lawson had his best scoring game of the season with 18 points on 5-of-8 shooting from the field and 8-of-10 from the charity stripe.
The cement shoes were on again as Iona got a lot of easy baskets around the rim and outscored Creighton 22-16 in the paint and had a 9-0 edge on fast break points. Amazing to believe that Creighton was actually up 8 with just under seven to go in the first half.
Ethan Wragge, who has been the most consistent player during the three-day tourney didn’t get into the game until 13:48 to go in the first half. He hit a three-pointer in the first couple minutes of play. He did only finish with 6 points today in only 16 minutes, but it has to be recognized that this Wiley freshman, similar to Antoine Young last season, is an effective player when he is on the court and needs more playing time.
Like I mentioned Saturday, there needs to be some veteran leadership stepping up for Creighton and Kenny Lawson tried today, but no one else wanted to strap it up. It is unfortunate that the effort Justin Carter put on the court to come back from his injury wasn’t rewarded with wins, and the question now is whether he came back too soon and this will be a nagging injury for the rest of the season.
We now look to the big in-state rivalry game against Nebraska in less than a week. Obviously there are things to be worked out and changed, but will it be an Extreme Makeover or a tweak here or there? I guess we will find out soon enough. Obviously, with Nebraska being a rival and the chance to be back on the Qwest Center home court will be a plus, but then on the other hand Nebraska just came off of a three point road win against USC yesterday so they will be flying high.
Creighton ends November with a losing record for the first time since 1997 and the first three game losing streak since the 2003-04 season. The last time Creighton has lost four in a row was in the 1999-2000 season. I guess the good news that season is that the 1999-2000 team did make the NCAA tournament, but that it took winning the MVC tourney to get there. Many were hoping that wouldn’t have to be the case this season and there is still a huge opportunity to turn things around. We now wait to see if the team is able to respond to the extra adversity.
