In the finale of their four-game home stand to begin the regular season, the Creighton men’s basketball team easily dispatched the visiting Longwood Lancers, 105-57, on Tuesday night at the CenturyLink Center in Omaha.
Longwood (0-4) was coming off a 112-63 loss to Arkansas just two days prior, and things quickly got out of hand in this one, too. The Bluejays (4-0) broke a 4-4 tie game open with an 11-0 run starting at the 18:12 mark of the first half, and they never saw their lead get to single digits after that. A buzzer-beating tip-in by junior Doug McDermott gave Creighton a 53-24 lead going into halftime, but the lead was built thanks in large part to an impressive all-around effort by sophomore point guard Austin Chatman. The young floor general had 9 points, 6 rebounds, and 4 assists, with no turnovers, a steal, and he hit all three of his shot attempts in the opening 20 minutes.
The second half wasn’t much closer than the first as the Jays bench did most of the work, scoring 39 of the Creighton’s 52 second half points. Redshirt sophomore center Will Artino tied his career-high with 13 points to lead the Bluejay reserves.
“I started off slow those first three games, so it was good to finally get into a groove,” Artino said. “I’m just making sure to stay focused when I’m on the bench, and mentally preparing myself for when I go in. No matter how long I’m in for I just need to use all of my energy and be a spark off the bench.”
Another standout area for the Jays was forcing 19 turnovers, getting 9 steals, and scoring 30 points off of those turnovers. Compare that to the previous two games where Creighton forced a combined 19 turnovers, had just 8 steals, and scored only 12 points off of those turnovers. In fact, entering Tuesday night, the Jays had scored just 23 points off turnovers this season. The team’s field goal percentage defense has definitely been improved over last season, but until this game they had not been as disruptive on the ball or in the passing lanes, and they had been nowhere near as effective turning those opponent miscues into points.
According to guard Grant Gibbs, it may not just have been a product of a lower-tier opponent.
“We were trying to do some different stuff tonight, get up in the passing lanes and try to create some turnovers,” said the senior from Marion, Iowa. “It’s important for us to have different looks defensively instead of always playing our ‘pack and support’. We also have a zone we’re working on. Being able to have that versatility defensively I think is going to help us a lot. Obviously, any time we’re creating turnovers that means we’re flying it at them [offensively], so we have to continue to do that.”
Next up for the Jays will be their first game away from home this season as they travel to Sin City to take on the No. 24 Wisconsin Badgers (3-1) in the semifinals of the Las Vegas Invitational. The Badgers are expected to be the toughest test the Jays have faced so far in this young season. The All-American, McDermott, is eager to take the step up in competition.
“It’s a huge challenge. This is what we’ve been looking forward to. It’s one of the games we circled on our calendar, and it’ll be a tough match up. They are a really good team, well coached, but our goal is to win this tournament. We’re 2-0 right now and we’re ready to take on the third.”
Despite Wisconsin’s reputation for slowing games down and forcing opponents to execute in the halfcourt, Creighton head coach Greg McDermott thinks the game will be more about efficiency than tempo.
“Wisconsin isn’t going to be walking the ball up the floor. They’re going to work for a good shot. If that takes them 30 seconds so be it, but if they get a good shot in the first 10 [seconds] they’re going to take it. Defensively, they are so hard to score quickly against. They get their defense set, and they cover up each other’s mistakes very well. They are very fundamental in their approach, so it’s hard to go and score in 10 or 15 seconds. We’ll have to work the shot clock sometimes to get the shot that we want.”
Creighton will take on Wisconsin Friday, November 23, at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas. Tip-off is set for 9:00 p.m. central time. It can be seen on ESPN2.
Game Notes: Tuesday night marked the 19th consecutive win for the Bluejays when scoring 100 or more points. It’s been 35 years since Creighton last lost despite breaking the century mark. … Doug McDermott’s 17 points in Tuesday night’s game moved him past Eddie Cole for 13th place on Creighton’s all-time scoring list. Next up on the list is former Bluejay player and assistant coach, Kevin McKenna. McDermott needs 52 more points to pass McKenna. … The 48-point margin of victory was the largest in CenturyLink Center Omaha history surpassing a 37-point win over Houston Baptist on December 17, 2007.
Game Stats:
Creighton / Longwood
Score: 105 / 57
FG/FGA/FG%: 35-54 (64.8%) / 22-58 (37.9%)
3FG/3FGA/3FG%: 7-15 (46.7%) / 3-16 (18.8%)
FT/FTA/FT%: 28-38 (73.7%) / 10-18 (55.6%)
Rebounding: 39 / 30
Assists: 27 / 14
Turnovers: 11 / 19
Steals: 9 / 6
Blocks: 3 / 2
Scoring Leaders: McDermott, Echenique (17) / Dublin (19)
Rebounding Leaders: Chatman (7) / Dublin (8)
Assists Leaders: Gibbs (6) / Brown (4)
Steals Leaders: Chatman, Gibbs, Artino (2) / Carey (4)
Blocks Leaders: Echenique (2) / Kessens, Dublin (1)