Doug McDermott skies for one of his patented hook shots. (WBR/Mike Spomer)
Creighton jumped out to an 8-0 lead Saturday night just four minutes into the game, and never looked back in a 97-62 thrashing of Houston Baptist. At the under-12 timeout, the score was 16-3, as Doug McDermott and Gregory Echenique thoroughly dominated the paint.
How much did they dominate? In the first eight minutes, as they built that 16-3 lead, those two combined for 14 of the 16 points and had more rebounds (9) than the entire Husky team (6).
Before the game, I was asked what I thought the over/under for the game might come in at, and given everything we’d read and heard about Houston Baptist — win or lose, the one thing they’d done consistently against every single opponent was score points in bunches — I figured we were looking at 150 or 160 combined points. That wound up being the right point range, but not in the fashion I thought it would happen. The Huskies were legendary bricklayers, starting out the game 1-17 from the field and making a serious run at the record for fewest points in a half in CenturyLink Center history.
Gregory Echenique throws down a dunk Saturday night. (WBR/Mike Spomer)
While the Huskies chucked up brick after brick from everywhere on the floor, Creighton had their own issues from behind the arc. They were 3-13 from three-point range in the first half, with McDermott and Ethan Wragge both going 1-4. Despite that futility, they methodically built a lead by making 11-20 shots from inside the arc. McDermott had 15 points in 12 minutes, a ridiculous statistical output, but for perhaps the first time this year, he was upstaged by a teammate having an even bigger night. Echenique had 13 points, 12 rebounds and 4 blocks in 15 minutes of play — yes, you read right — he had a double-double before halftime.
It was easily the big man’s best game of the season. He went up strong with the ball when he caught it in the post, throwing down dunk after dunk. He zeroed in on shots to swat them away with a zeal we really haven’t seen this season so far. But that’s the obvious stuff. As I took in the game with Danny from Bluejay Banter, we came up with a couple of other theories:
- He was going up against a center in Joe Latas who was listed at 6’11”, 275 pounds, but was probably closer to 290. How does that make a difference? Echenique could bang around in the paint and lean against Latas to get position without worrying about the flopping tactics that smaller centers use to counter his size.
- The referees (inconsistent as they were) also allowed them to play inside, for the most part, so Echenique didn’t pick up the early fouls that have sent him to an early seat on the bench a few times this year. As a matter of fact, he played the first seven-and-a-half minutes without a rest, not leaving the court until the 12:22 mark.
Taken together, those two facts no doubt left the big man better able to compete. How could you not be frustrated when a smaller opposing center constantly flops and picks up cheap charging fouls? That changes the way you play, and robs you of your aggressiveness.
Echenique prepares to block one of five shots on the evening. (WBR/Mike Spomer)
Up 37-10 with just over three minutes to go in the half, Houston Baptist’s Anthony Hill made a flurry of buckets in the closing minutes to make the score, and their shooting percentage, a bit more respectable. He was responsible for 10 of the team’s 13 points, including two three-pointers, as they cut the deficit to 46-23 at the break.
After the break, they made the first basket to cut the lead to 46-25, but they’d come no closer than 21 the rest of the evening. An immediate 12-0 run by the Jays over the next two minutes put any comeback hopes to rest, and they methodically built a massive lead that turned the final ten minutes of the half into garbage time.
McDermott played just six minutes in the second half, somehow scoring ten points (it’s possible that he can score in double figures in his sleep at this point). Echenique played even less, logging just four minutes and finishing with a line of 18 points, 14 rebounds and 5 blocks in 19 minutes of play. Their extended time on the bench with a nearly-40 point lead allowed Will Artino to play long stretches, and while the freshman predictably had an up-and-down performance (9 points and 4 rebounds, but four quick fouls) playing 13 minutes gives the coaches a ton of game film to break down and help him improve.
With about seven minutes to play, the reserves briefly allowed Houston Baptist to cut into the lead, and the gentleman sitting next to me expressed concern that the score would not be impressive enough to people who didn’t see the game but only saw the score in the paper — he wanted a 35-point blowout that would adequately describe the complete and thorough domination Creighton put on their opponent. I was in 100% agreement. With the game not televised, and with a top-25 ranking assuring that the score would make frequent appearances on the Bottom Line on the ESPN family of networks, a 15-point win after being up 35 just wouldn’t do.
By the end of the night, the Jays had their 35-point win, a 97-62 dismantling that accomplished a lot of very good things. Echenique got untracked and should have plenty of confidence rolling into a HUGE week of games versus Tulsa and Northwestern. They won a game handily on a night when the three-point shot wasn’t falling. They outrebounded their opponent by 20. They made 20-22 free throws when the starters were in the game. They built a huge lead, stepped on the gas pedal, and turned the game into such a blowout that the walkons began entering with 10 minutes to play.
Doug McDermott did miss out on his fifth straight double-double by virtue of his team being too far ahead to have him play enough minutes to log the necessary rebounds, perhaps the only negative on a night of superlatives. And so this is where we’ve come to: being mildly disappointed in a final line of 25 points and 6 rebounds. That’s amazing, isn’t it?
Echenique with the two-handed flush. (WBR/Mike Spomer)