Key Stats:
Creighton shot a nightmarishly ghastly 2-16 from three-point range in the first half, and 7-25 for the game…but went 2-3 from long range in the final 90 seconds of the game when it mattered most. CU outscored Marquette 34-26 on points in the paint, 13-8 on points off turnovers, 22-6 on fastbreak points, and 17-8 on bench points. Marquette outrebounded the Jays 37-33, and the teams both grabbed five offensive boards.
Here’s the wildest stat to me, though: Creighton recorded an assist on 12 of their 14 second half baskets, and Marquette assisted on 11 of their 14 second half field goals.
Standout Performance:
Maurice Watson, Jr. never came off the floor in the second half, playing all 20 minutes and scoring nine points with seven assists, while shooting 3-4 from the floor and 2-2 from the line. All the while, he did the same things to Marquette he’s done to everyone else in the Big East: relentlessly pushing the tempo faster, using the backboard and the rim to his advantage when driving inside against much bigger players, and taking advantage when the defense catches up to him by passing the ball to wide-open teammates for shots.
There were standout moments for other players — Toby Hegner hitting a trio of three-pointers in the second half when no one else could make anything, including the shot that tied the game late; James Milliken hitting the three that put them ahead; Isaiah Zierden making two clutch free throws followed by tremendous on-ball defense on the would-be game tying shot. But for the game as a whole? Watson, again, played at a different level than anyone else.
Recap & Analysis:
You’ll have to forgive Bluejay fans if they’re unsure how to react after this one — after two years of finding every possible way to lose games like this, Creighton finally won one, and it’s a bit of a shock. Last season, the Jays lost eight times in the final minute; this year, they’ve lost four more such games (to Arizona State and Georgetown after being ahead in the final minute; to Loyola and Providence in one-possession games decided in the final seconds), and of their 16 previous wins, none came by fewer than eight points.
And so when Marquette continually had answers for Creighton’s baskets late in the game, it seemed destined to be another in a very long line of missed opportunities. Another game they could have won if only they’d executed better, done this or that differently on the final possessions, made a shot or gotten a defensive stop at the buzzer.
It had been a back-and-forth game the entire night, featuring 13 ties and 10 lead changes, the type of tight game that requires a gritty performance to win. And in the final minutes, Marquette seemed to seize control. They took a 52-51 lead coming out of the under-eight timeout, and held onto that lead for nearly six minutes, turning back the Bluejays at every turn. Trailing 54-51, Mo Watson drove to the rim and got a basket with 6:00 left, but Luke Fischer responded with a jumper of his own. Down 56-53, Geoff Groselle made a shot at the rim to cut the deficit to one, but despite three straight defensive stops, they could not tie or take the lead. Watson turned it over on their next possession, then Groselle missed a close-range shot that rimmed out, and finally Watson had a shot blocked at the rim by Fischer. Three defensive stops, but three empty offensive possessions.
When Traci Carter finally countered with a bucket for the Golden Eagles, it felt unusually deflating given that there was four minutes left. Too many of these games had slipped away, too many chances in this game specifically had gone unfulfilled, and it felt like they’d had their chance but missed it.
CU called timeout to regroup, and Greg McDermott read the riot act to referee Brian O’Connell presumably because he felt like Watson was fouled on the shot that Luke Fischer blocked moments earlier (or, and this is conjecture on my part, because Marquette had gone eight minutes without being called for a foul. Just a hunch.).
Toby Hegner followed with a huge three-pointer to tie the game at 58, Fischer answered with a tough shot inside to give Marquette back the lead, and then Watson was fouled driving to the rim, but got the call this time. He calmly sank both free throws to tie it at 60-all, but Duane Wilson answered with a jumper off an assist from Fischer, and it was 62-60. Isaiah Zierden clanked a wide-open three — his sixth miss in as many attempts on the night — but then the Jays got a key defensive stop keyed by Zierden. They forced Marquette to use nearly all of the shot clock, and Henry Ellenson — a decent three-point shooter but probably not the guy you want taking a three in that situation — had to throw up a desperation three as the shot clock expired. It was a situation Marquette coach Steve Wojociechowski lamented after the game.
“We’re up two, we called a timeout to get a side out of bounds to try to set up a play for Luke (Fischer) or Henry and we don’t run it,” Wojciechowski told the media afterward. “We don’t even attempt to run it, so we don’t get a shot and they get a transition opportunity.”
It was an opportunity the Jays took advantage of. Watson found a wide-open James Milliken at the top of the arc, and the senior drilled the three-pointer to give Creighton a 63-62 lead with 1:04 to play. Another defensive stop followed, and then the Jays ran nearly all of the shot clock down before Watson attempted a shot. It missed, but Groselle tipped it volleyball-style out towards half-court, where Zierden ran it down. He was fouled, sank both free throws, and then stayed glued to Duane Wilson all the way down the court to make his last-second shot attempt as difficult as possible.
Trailing 58-55, the Bluejays ended the game on a 10-4 run highlighted by draining a pair of three-pointers and all four free throws they attempted, coupled with tremendous defense. And so one month from Selection Sunday, they’re 17-9 overall, 8-5 in the Big East, and in sole possession of third place.
As expected.
Right? Right.
They Said It:
“My only message when we were down three at that last timeout, besides giving them a couple of offensive sets and some defensive instructions, was ‘Lets make sure when the game is over, when we watch this film, that we’re the team that played the hardest the last three and a half minutes.’ If the chips don’t fall our way, or we get a bad bounce or whatever, so be it. But let’s make sure we out-compete them at the end. And I thought we did that. We didn’t give up any offensive rebounds, Geoff had the great hustle tip-play here at the end, Z protected it, and then we made four big free throws. Toby, who’s been struggling, hits a huge three to tie it. And then James, who’d been struggling, stuck with himself and hit the big one.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame
“It’s nice to find a way to win a game like that when you don’t particularly play well, but I think it was a 69 or 70 possession game. Marquette only had 62 points. That’s coming off a Xavier game where it was a 70 possession game and they had 56 points. Defensively our guys are doing a good job of following a plan and trying to do the right thing. And we didn’t turn it over, which we talked about in the pregame as a big key, so that was huge. It wasn’t pretty, we didn’t play our best and I don’t think Marquette played their best, but we found a way to get it done and I’m really proud of our team.”-Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame
“I thought our defense kept the ball out of Ellenson’s hands a lot. Especially early in the game, we were really trying to squeeze that, make some of those entry passes tough, and help off the top. In the second half, they came out and hit back-to-back threes. Now we had to decide whether to change, try to go after those shooters a little bit more, and try to front him instead. When he catches it, he’s extremely talented and can score in a lot of ways. He played 48 minutes Wednesday night and my guess is he’s a little fatigued and a little tired. I was fearful he’d get 20-some shots and we wouldn’t be able to stop him, and then he’d be at the free throw line all night because he’s touching it so much. So I thought we did a decent job of limiting his touches.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame
“I thought our guards did a good job because they had the responsibility of being in help and also trying to get back. Your vision has to be so good and your positioning has to be good to make sure you’re doing your job of keeping it out of Fischer and Ellenson’s hands, and you’re angled to make sure you can get and guard the dribble with a short close-out. It was a great team-defensive effort tonight. The plan we put together required everybody to do their job. And I thought when we switched some ball screens with Ellenson to take away the pick-and-pops our guards did a great job of being physical, and fronting him, daring him to throw that over-the-top pass. Occasionally we had breakdowns and gave up something easy but for the most part we made Marquette work tonight.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame
“We tried to play inside-out a little bit more to start the second half. For the most part, though, I would say 13 of our 16 threes the first half I was OK with. They were like step-in, nobody really guarding them shots. We had two or three where they were maybe coming off screens and we weren’t totally squared up. But we talked at halftime about Geoff getting some angles and finding a way to get some easy baskets. It really helped that we were able to get into the bonus, because that sends Watson and Zierden to the line late. If we had to inbound it again who knows what happens? The start of the second half was huge, we scored on our first six possessions and seven out of eight. Instead of letting the crowd get into it and then let Marquette get the momentum, we were able to gain it. To their credit, they came back, and as you know it wasn’t more than a three or four point game the whole half. It’s good for our guys to win a game like this, because we’ve come up short on a few of these.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame
“Marquette forces a lot of turnovers, so keeping points off turnovers down was huge. We did a good job there. With Ellenson and Fischer their points in the paint are usually pretty good. We outdid them there. And then we wanted the tempo to go, and I thought we looked a little tired tonight. Maurice looked a little slower than usual. His aunt passed away last night, so it’s been an emotional day for him. It was kind of out of the blue, and his dad called me early this morning with the news. He’s been thinking about things other than basketball today, and I just didn’t think he had quite the energy he normally does, but obviously he made big plays late when we needed them.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame
You Said It:
https://twitter.com/mue11er/status/698675324976902144
https://twitter.com/crimebait/status/698677466387189760
https://twitter.com/crimebait/status/698681647659528193
https://twitter.com/ryanholmgren/status/698685157579034624
https://twitter.com/Pneil_3man/status/698701740850356229
https://twitter.com/dannyobyrne/status/698702527861100545
https://twitter.com/dannyobyrne/status/698704439788462081
