Subscribe to our Newsletter

Men's Basketball

Recap: #14 Creighton 86, Xavier 78

By
0
Share

Doug-ThreePointer-XavierBE

[Box Score]

Key Stats: Creighton outrebounds Xavier 18-12, makes 7-15 three-pointers and 15-28 from the field in the first half. Xavier outrebounds Creighton 18-12 in the second half and 10-4 on the offensive glass, while making 19-34 from the floor.

Favorite Moment: I’ll never likely get to write this ever again about any college basketball player, much less one that plays for my beloved Creighton Bluejays, so of course it’s my favorite moment — Doug McDermott moved into fifth place on the NCAA’s all-time scoring list with a bucket in the second half. It wasn’t a spectacular shot, per se, but I mean…fifth place all time? That’s insane.

Quick Recap: For the second straight night in NYC, Doug McDermott got off to a red-hot start. He scored on a nifty drive to the rim 12 seconds into the game, then buried a three on their next trip down the court, and it looked like a repeat of Thursday night was in store. Instead of Jahenns Manigat playing Robin to his Batman, though, it was Ethan Wragge donning the superhero cape on this night. He made 4-6 three-pointers in the first half, and combined with McDermott to score 35 first-half points — or two more than Xavier as a team.

The three-point line was an Achilles Heel for Xavier on both ends; while Creighton was bombing away, Xavier was making just 2-10 in the first half and 4-16 for the game. Defensively, CU switched up the gameplan they’d used in the first two games — rather than double-team the post, they played one-on-one, knowing that it would probably lead to them giving up more two-point shots but hopefully cut down on the number of three-pointers they gave up. And it worked. Xavier outscored Creighton in the paint nearly 2:1, but they struggled tremendously from behind the arc, and Creighton was winning big.

Still, the Musketeers hung around most of the first half, and with 6:13 to play, Creighton held just a six-point lead at 26-20. Then Justin Martin, their excellent forward who had a double-double in the game in Cincinnati two weeks ago, picked up his second foul and spent the rest of the half on the bench. Combined with Matt Stainbrook playing at perhaps 75% (generously), they were desperately green in terms of post defenders, and it showed. Over those last six minutes with Martin on the bench, Creighton went on a 19-8 run to blow the game open. McDermott and Wragge each scored eight points during the run, as the Jays built a 17-point lead just before the half and would ultimately take  a 45-33 lead into the locker room.

Doug McDermott and Jahenns Manigat battle for a rebound. (Photo by Mike Spomer/WBR)

Doug McDermott and Jahenns Manigat battle for a rebound. (Photo by Mike Spomer/WBR)

The second half was a different game. Creighton turned it over six times, were bludgeoned on the glass (18-12 in favor of Xavier) and gave up 10 offensive rebounds. McDermott attempted only seven shots after the break despite playing all 20 minutes and Wragge only got three shots, but thanks to contributions from unlikely sources — three layups from true freshman Zach Hanson without a miss chief among them — the Jays were able to keep Xavier at arms length for most of the second half.

The third of Hanson’s three buckets gave Creighton a 71-52 lead with 8:06 to play, and it looked like the Jays could coast into the final. Xavier wasn’t quite done yet, though, and they scrapped, clawed, and fought their way back into the game. A 20-6 run over the next seven minutes trimmed the lead to just 77-72 with 1:20 to play, and resulted in some awfully anxious moments for Bluejay fans.

[RANT]

I’d love to tell you how it happened, but thanks to a massive technological fail, no one with Cox in Omaha was able to see the last four climactic minutes of the game (including yours truly). The feed on Fox Sports 1 switched to the start of the UCLA-Stanford game with just over four minutes to go, something that Fox had intended to do only for the state of California. Immediately, Twitter lit up like a Christmas tree with Jays fans sending angry tweets their way, but the error dragged on…and on…and on, for nearly 15 agonizing minutes, with Jays fans in Omaha left with the radio broadcast and/or live stats as their only means of following the game. As if to add insult to injury, FS1 ran a crawl along the bottom of the screen notifying fans that the start of that Pac12 game could be found on FS2 until the conclusion of the Big East game, and yes indeed, it could — meaning a game Jays fans had very little interest in at that moment in time was on TWO channels, while their Bluejays were on none.

Slowly, as satellite customers in Omaha crowed about how they still had the game, it became apparent this was not a Fox issue (as many had originally surmised) but most likely a Cox Cable issue. A statement issued by Fox an hour after the game appeared to confirm as much:

“Our plan was to take the state of California to the start of the Stanford-UCLA game on Fox Sports 1 if the Xavier-Creighton game ran long. When the switch was made, it seems that Cox Cable in Omaha inadvertently switched to the Pac-12 game as well. We don’t know why or how, and we’re investigating. In order to get Omaha back to the Xavier-Creighton game as quickly as possible, we had to take all those seeing Stanford-UCLA back to the remainder of Xavier-Creighton. We apologize to all those affected.”

According to reports from Otter and Panon, WBR’s reporters covering the tourney from NYC, Creighton made nine of ten free throws to ice the game, but those of us in Omaha wouldn’t know anything about that, seeing as we were stuck watching a Pac12 game instead. So I’ll look forward to reading Ott’s Thoughts in the morning to get his take on what must have been a dramatic four minutes of March basketball, from the perspective of someone who was actually able to watch it.

[END RANT]

Up 77-72 and clinging for dear life, Creighton did what they were unable to do in Omaha against Seton Hall two weeks ago — make their free throws. Manigat made two, Chatman made two, McDermott made four, and Gibbs made one of two. Even the one miss didn’t hurt them, as Gibbs’ miss was rebounded by Chatman, the shortest player on the court, and turned into two more free throws for Manigat.

They were able to turn back a spirited, determined Xavier team that nearly overcame a 19-point deficit, and that’s really impressive. Now they get a rematch with Providence on Saturday night for the Big East title. Sounds like a blast.

Zach Hanson goes up for one of his three second-half baskets. (Photo by Mike Spomer/WBR)

Zach Hanson goes up for one of his three second-half baskets. (Photo by Mike Spomer/WBR)

Quotables:

“We’re thrilled. In less than 24 hours, we’re playing for a Big East championship. When Ethan and Doug made the decision to come to Creighton, when I made the decision to come to Creighton, for that matter, none of us ever dreamed that would be a possibility.

So to be on the stage we’re going to be on tomorrow night is a fitting way for an incredible senior class to end their regular season careers to play for a Big East title. So they played in two championship games in the Missouri Valley Conference and won them both, and then they come back this year and get back to the championship game in a league as good as the Big East is really a credit to their career, to their perseverance, to their toughness, and to their willingness to play unselfish basketball.” -Coach Greg McDermott in postgame press conference

(On the difference between the game in Cincinnati and the game tonight) “We were 10-of-34 from the three-point line that night, and if I’m not mistaken, I think Doug took 12 threes and was 5-for-12, and I think Ethan was 3-for-9. So two of our best shooters had some decent looks at the basket and didn’t make them.

Xavier really made us pay on the other end of the floor. We didn’t have an answer for Justin Martin. I think we did a better job on him tonight. And we made the decision tonight just not to go after the post as much as we’ve done the first two games and really allow them maybe to get some tough twos, but to try to take away their rhythm three-point shots as a result of our post doubles we used the first two games.
I thought our guys without any prep time really executed that well.” -Coach Greg McDermott in postgame press conference

“We were going to do that even if Stainbrook was playing as well. We just felt we gave him too many three-point shots the first two games, and probably increased their shooting percentage because of how open they were on the back side of those double teams. We did it to try to protect Ethan because we’re asking him — he’s giving up four inches, five inches, and 40, 50, 60 pounds, whatever it is. So we’ve got to give him a little help. Obviously, he had some foul trouble tonight because we left him on an island, but we thought it gave us the best chance to win.” -Coach Greg McDermott in postgame press conference

(On playing in the Garden) “There was 3,000 or 4,000 people there tonight and just the sendoff we had and the whole vibe of the game, it doesn’t feel like we’re 500 miles away from home or however far we are.” -Ethan Wragge in postgame press conference

“How’s your geography? (Laughter).” -Coach Greg McDermott

“Whatever. It was just impressive. We’re the road team traveling the furthest and we can bring the most fans.” -Ethan Wragge

(On the season) “I think in the back of our minds we felt like we could compete in this league, simply because, besides Doug being a fourth-year player, Jahenns being a fourth-year player, Ethan’s a fifth-year player, Grant’s a sixth-year player, Will Artino’s a fourth-year player. Austin Chatman is a two-year starter. We just have so much experience and guys that know how to play basketball.

I think that trumps size and athletic ability to a certain extent and allows us to compete. But there were a lot of questions as well. When we made the decision to go with the small lineup, how are we going to be able to compete defensively? How do we compete on the boards? What do we have to do offensively to make sure the tradeoff is worth it?

If we’re going to give up something down there, we have to make sure we take advantage of something on the offensive end of the floor. To these guys’ credit, we just kept tweaking the offense and finding different ways to get our shooters loose. They’re smart enough that they can continue to take all that in and execute it. So I don’t know that we’re surprised. We’re honored, but these guys have — these guys have averaged 26, 27 wins a game over the last four years, and I think there’s something to knowing how to win and understanding how to win.

And then they play for each other, and I think any time the coach is blessed enough to have a group like that, your chances are pretty good because these guys, they don’t care who gets the credit.

Obviously, Doug takes a lot of shots. He’s a focal point of our offense. Those guys in the locker room are his biggest fans and are really happy for him when things go well, and Doug’s really happy for Ethan right now because Ethan had a heck of a game. That’s what being on a team is all about.” -Coach Greg McDermott in postgame press conference

And Now, Here’s What You Had to Say:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

0
Share
Newsletter
Never Miss a Story

Sign up for WBR's email newsletter, and get the best
Bluejay coverage delivered to your inbox FREE.