Key Stats:
Hey, look! We won’t start with the frustrating misses at the free throw line! Instead, let’s give a collective round of applause for Creighton’s composure with the basketball.
The Bluejays committed just 5 turnovers against DePaul, tied for their fewest cough-ups in a game this season. (The other time? At home against Providence; little good it did the Jays then, though.)
The Blue Demons played aggressive, physical defense on the perimeter at times, but the Creighton guards didn’t succumb to the pressure. That’s good, because you can expect more of that tonight when 2-seed Georgetown attempts to end 10-seed Creighton’s season.
Standout Performance:
James Milliken led all scorers with 22 points, including 15 in the first half. From the onset, he looked locked in. Sure, he missed his first shot attempt and his first free throw. But then he got on a roll, making his next five field goals, a stretch that included connecting on three straight triples. At the 9:30 mark of the first half, Milliken had nearly as many points (14) as DePaul (16), pacing the Jays.
The Blue Demons adjusted their defensive pressure accordingly, trying with hand checks and other methods to slow Milliken down the rest of the first half and throughout the second. He made changes, too, drawing defenders to him and then facilitating opportunities to his teammates.
Milliken played a team-high 38 minutes, topping 20 points for the fourth time this season. He’s in a hot stretch right now: an 8.2 ppg scorer entering the roadie at DePaul on February 24, he’s averaged 14.8 ppg during his last five games and made 12 of his 24 three-point attempts.
Then there’s Will Artino, who played arguably his best stretch of basketball in recent memory during a 10-minute spurt in the second half. With DePaul back ahead 41-40 with 17:23 to play, Big Swag dished a nifty pass to a cutting Milliken for an assist that put the Jays back in front. The next trip down Milliken returned the favor, finding Artino for a layup. That’d mark the first of three straight hoops Will would get for the Jays, who would parlay that offensive explosion plus a Toby Hegner three-pointer and some stops on defense to push their lead to 53-48 with 10:54 to go in the game. Artino then came up with a steal (he had 3 on the night) which resulted in a Devin Brooks layup on the resulting possession and a 7-point lead for the Jays. DePaul wouldn’t get closer than that the rest of the evening.
After 1 point and 3 rebounds in 6 first-half minutes, Artino finished with 9 points, 8 rebounds, 3 steals, and a block in 22 minutes.
Recap & Analysis:
Well, that was weird and fun! Weird because, well, play-in games aren’t exactly familiar to Creighton fans. Neither is playing in huge but largely empty arenas. DePaul is well versed in both scenarios, though, so initially I thought the Demons would have the edge.
But Milliken set a tone early offensively, catching fire from the arc and pacing a Jays team struggling with some early foul trouble. Fellow starters Toby Hegner (3) and Rick Kreklow (2) played just 5 and 11 minutes respectively in the first half, but Austin Chatman and Milliken and Devin Brooks kept the Jays in sync.
Although Chatman and Brooks didn’t have any standout moments on that end of the floor (both were just 1-5 in the first half), they were steady and got others involved. The two combined for 6 assists and no turnovers in the first half; they’d end the night with 10 assists and no turnovers, shades of the wild assist-to-turnover ratios that last year’s Bluejays posted as one of the best offenses in the country.
Trailing only by 2 at the break, 35-33, the Blue Demons seemed destine to force yet another close finish upon the Bluejays. But then something weird and fun happened; Creighton made a run, sustained said run, then – gasp – pulled away from DePaul.
It started with Artino’s spark then continued with heady play by almost everyone in blue. The moment when Creighton fans around the country probably felt that this game might finish so much better than all of those close losses, though, was just ahead of the under-8 minute media timeout.
Milliken dashed down the right blocks, drawing DePaul’s defense. But instead of kicking the ball out to the perimeter, Milliken took on the Demons and found a lot of contact. Hanging in the air amidst his defender, Milliken found a way to finish with a hoop and draw the harm. One traditional three-point play later, the Bluejays had their first double-digit lead of the night.
And, sure, the free throw shooting to that point was more of the same: a statistically decent free throw-shooting team missing almost as many as they made. But the Jays made their final 13 free throws down the stretch, keeping DePaul from getting any closer than 8 points down the rest of the night. Thanks to cold-blooded shooting from the stripe during the last 8 minutes, Creighton finished the game with nearly as many free throw makes (21) as field goals (25).
Now, just three more wins and they’ll go dancing. (Damn play-in game!)
Quotables:
Check out what Greg McDermott, James Milliken, and Will Artino had to say in the Big East Tournament post-game press conference:
And Now, Here’s What You Had to Say:
https://twitter.com/mue11er/status/575845411832905728
https://twitter.com/JPGuerette/status/575854338574270464
