Devin Brooks didn’t have much reason to bust a move in the locker room. His post-game tradition of break-dancing for his teammates and coaches after a Creighton win was dusted off on Wednesday night after Creighton’s 77-74 victory over the St. John’s Red Storm ended a nine-game losing streak and sent the Bluejays into the second half of conference play with a much needed win.
For the first time in the last one month and nine days, the Bluejays (10-12, 1-8 Big East) struggled more off the floor than on it as senior forward Ricky Kreklow was stumped when asked to describe the famous victory dance, “Interesting,” Kreklow said after pausing to coming up with a description. “He’s creative, I would say. I would compare to maybe a seizure. A lot of jerky moves, I don’t know. He was feeling it though … it was nice to finally see him do it again. It’s been a while.”
Dancing wasn’t the only thing the Bluejays were happy to see after knocking down 13 3-pointers as a team and shooting 43.3% from beyond the arc in the victory. Creighton freshman forward Toby Hegner led all players with a career-high 21 points, hitting 5-of-6 from three-point territory to pace the Bluejays’ resurgent long range shooting.
“We have faith. We have faith in each other. We have faith in our fans. We have faith in Coach,” Hegner said. “Just having faith in the ball going in the hole. We have to shoot with confidence and that’s what we did tonight.”
Before the faith in their shooting stroke was rewarded, the Bluejays had to dig through an early stretch where nothing would fall and the only way they could stay in the game was to get stops on the defensive end. Charged with doing that was each one of Creighton’s five seniors. Bluejay head coach Greg McDermott tinkered with the starting lineup again, but this time he turned to Austin Chatman, Devin Brooks, Avery Dingman, Ricky Kreklow, and Will Artino. Five players who have nothing to play for except this season. To end the nine-game losing streak it was going to start with them. And it started on the defensive end.
After Artino won the opening tip against St. John’s shot blocking machine Chris Obekpa, Chatman capped off the opening offensive possession with a jumper from the elbow to make it 2-0. That score didn’t change for the next four minutes before the Red Storm (13-7, 2-5 Big East) finally got on the board thanks to a layup by senior guard Jamal Branch. Prior to that the Bluejays forced St. John’s into six missed shots and three turnovers on the first 10 possessions.
“We were kind of ready for the older guys really take ownership of the way we are going to start a game,” said Kreklow. “The past few games, and a lot of our games in conference, slow starts have killed us. And I think tonight, offensively it was tough, St. John’s is a talented team. They’re long, athletic, and when they are playing hard they’re good defensively. But what we were able to do was forced them into tough shots on the defensive end and limit them to just one shot. I think that was nice because it didn’t let them get into a rhythm so early, and it really kind of gave us a better chance throughout the whole game.”
Both offenses eventually got going midway through the first half with Austin Chatman pacing the Bluejays by scoring nine of his 13 points early to give Creighton a 20-17 lead with 6:50 left in the opening period.
“I felt like I had to be a little more aggressive than I have been,” Chatman said. “I’ve been in the gym a lot trying to fix my shot. It was good to see a couple go in the basket and I think that helped everybody else and their confidence. Just being a little more aggressive when they saw me coming out aggressive.”
The next guy to step up for the Bluejays was Hegner. After hitting a 3-pointer earlier in the game to give Creighton a one-point lead, the redshirt freshman out of Wisconsin hit three more from deep on Creighton’s next four possessions to give the Bluejays a 29-22 edge with 3:31 left in the first half. Avery Dingman and junior guard James Milliken added trifectas of their own late in the half as Creighton took a 37-27 lead into the break thanks to 9-of-18 shooting from beyond the arc in the opening 20 minutes.
The Bluejays didn’t get to feel good about themselves for very long, because the Red Storm came out fast and furious in the second half. With Branch leading the way, scoring seven of his 17 points during a 15-2 run to begin the half that saw St. John’s take a 42-39 lead with 15:44 remaining.
“When we got up at half by 10 we knew they would come back in the second half fighting,” Chatman said. “They did the same thing against Duke the other night. They’re resilient. They like to fight.”
The comeback may not have been a surprise, but it was still a quick change of momentum that left the Bluejays dealing with some familiar adversity. “We always have a bad start either at the half or at the beginning of the game. That’s something that we have to work on. I think they cut the lead within two minutes or something like that, so we just have to a better job of getting stops and executing on the offensive end,” said Chatman.
After the big run by St. John’s, the game settled into a classic Big East tug of war. Neither team led by more than four points the rest of the way in a game that would see six ties and nine lead changes over the final 15 minutes. With under five minutes to go, the Red Storm held a 62-60 lead before Devin Brooks drove inside and missed a layup. Fortunately for Creighton, in a play that was similar to the Oklahoma game, sophomore center Zach Hanson was their to stick it back in with a follow-up dunk to tie it up.
St. John’s senior guard D’Angelo Harrison drew a foul on the ensuing Red Storm possession to lead into the final media timeout, but missed the front-end of a one-and-one at the free throw line out of the break in the action. After the missed free throw, Chatman found Milliken open in the right corner, a spot he would re-visit, for a go-ahead 3-pointer with 3:15 remaining.
That started a stretch of nine straight points scored by Creighton’s junior guard out of Siler City, N.C., the last of which came with his team leading 68-67 with under two minutes remaining. Milliken drove inside, but got his layup attempt blocked by Chris Obekpa. The ball found its way into the hands of Toby Hegner, who emerged from the play with a cut and swelling on his left cheek bone. Hegner tried to spin and pivot and pump fake his way out of a St. John’s trap before finding Milliken in that same right corner with 1:11 left. Milliken rose up and buried the big 3-pointer, to cap off his 17-point night, before coming down into his own bench and a mob of energized teammates.
“It’s definitely what the Big East is about,” Hegner said when describing the mark under his eye, “There’s going to be bumps and bruises all over the place. That’s what the conference is known for. It’ll heal. I’m not afraid. … I just tried to hang onto the ball for dear life, because I knew they were coming. I looked at the rim, saw Obekpa ready to block a shot, so I couldn’t go in there. Then I saw calling for it wide open, and I said he’s going to knock this down, I’m not afraid. I just gave it to him.”
Milliken said he was just trying to find a spot for his teammate to get him the ball in a good position to score. “I was trying to find a spot on the floor, because I saw Toby was trapped and didn’t have anywhere to go. I had just one in the same spot, so I felt more comfortable shooting that shot. It was a great find by Toby.”
St. John’s didn’t go quietly, but Toby Hegner went 4-for-4 at the free throw line and Austin Chatman knocked down a pair before that to keep Creighton in front. Harrison had one final shot to tie it at the buzzer, but his 30-footer from the left side of the court bounced off the rim as the crowd of 16,544 erupted to celebrate the end of a difficult month for their favorite basketball team.
With it being easy to point to Hegner and Chatman’s clutch free throw shooting, or the defense in the beginning of the game, or even Hegner and Milliken’s heroic effort with just over a minute to go, Greg McDermott instead praised the crowd for not only showing up, but also the impact they had on the game.
“I’d be remiss if I didn’t thank our fans. I don’t think there are many places in the country — and you can go up and down the top ten in attendance and look all you want — if there is a team that starts 0-8 in conference play and they play at 8 o’clock on a Wednesday night that arena is going to resemble a ghost town,” McDermott said. “Not here. I think it’s a credit to our guys for the way they’ve handled it. Where they haven’t pointed fingers. They haven’t questioned each other. But it’s a huge credit to our fans for sticking with us when times are tough. That was fun out there tonight. And I think our fans deserved it. They willed us, you know. Out of that timeout with “Dancing Grandma”, D’Angelo Harrison missed a huge front end of a one-and-one, because the crowd was up and loud while he was shooting the free throw. You can’t tell me that doesn’t impact a game. It really does and we’re going to need them against Saturday afternoon against Georgetown.”
Speaking of the Hoyas, John Thompson III’s club had won four straight in Big East play, including a 78-58 blowout of then 4th-ranked Villanova, before dropping a 66-53 home decision to Xavier. Needless to say, Georgetown (14-6, 6-3 Big East) will come to Omaha just as hungry to get back in the win column as they will be to complete the season sweep of the Bluejays.
The Hoyas have won two straight against Creighton, including a 76-61 home win back on January 3rd. Tip-off for the second meeting between the Bluejays and Hoyas is scheduled for 1:05 p.m. this Saturday at the CenturyLink Center Omaha and will be televised on CBS Sports Network.
