One night after the Creighton women’s basketball team defeated Connie Yori’s nationally ranked Huskers, the CU men held up their end of the bargain for a Bluejay sweep.
Three thoughts while praying for positive news regarding Josh Jones.
No television for Thursday’s game may have been a blessing.
I spent most of the first half thanking myself for resisting the urge to pay Nebraska the price of a ticket to watch what I assured anyone who would listen to my ramblings the last few days would be an absolutely ugly basketball game. Instead I hooked the laptop up to the TV, pulled up the webcast, and watched in horror as the Jays’ high performance offense faltered once again in the Devaney Center.
Creighton clung to a 14-12 lead with a little less than 7 minutes to play before the break. A 14-3 run to end the half pushed the Bluejays’ lead to 11, but I still felt CU was letting the Huskers hang around. The Jays weren’t shooting well, turned the ball over just as much as they assisted on field goals, and missed nearly half of their free throw chances after getting NU in foul trouble.
Things got better after the break. But the evening was a difficult one for fans of, um, scoring and playing well on offense.
The Jays posted their worst shooting percentage performance of the season (46%), made just 56% of their 18 free throw attempts, and scored a season-low 64 points. Creighton’s starting backcourt, Austin Chatman, Grant Gibbs, and Jahenns Manigat, went 5-16 from the field and combined for just 13 points. And Jones, the team’s second-leading bench scorer, didn’t play: media reports indicate he blacked out shortly before the teams took the court for pregame warm-ups and went by ambulance to a local hospital for observation.
Gregory Echenique finished at the rim all evening (Mike Spomer/WBR)
All of this, and the Bluejays won by 22 points. Twenty-two.
During the throes of the game, it sure seemed like a closer contest. But Creighton trailed for only 21 seconds all evening. The Jays’ defensive plan and execution were both solid. CU held the Huskers to 32.1% shooting, the lowest output since the North Texas Mean Green made just 31.9% of their shots in the Jays’ season opener. For the second consecutive game, CU’s opponent made just 25% of its three-point attempts (NU was 4-16 from deep). Creighton beat Nebraska on the boards, 40-34, forced the Huskers to take a bunch of jump shots, and turned NU over 13 times.
Before Thursday, Creighton had averaged 54.3 points per game in the last four trips to Lincoln. The Jays went 1-3 in those games. Consider 64 points a scoring barrage, then, right?
Greg McDermott shortened the bench and rode the stars to victory.
Creighton fans can thank Doug McDermott, Gregory Echenique, and Gibbs for leading the Bluejays into the hostile environment and leaving with the largest CU win at the Devaney Center in history.
McDermott scored 27 points (third-highest output this season) in 32 minutes, despite gnat-type defense by the Huskers. McDermott attempted more field goals (19) than Nebraska made all night (18).
Echenique took over the paint defensively, grabbing a game-high 12 rebounds to go with 12 points, 2 steals, and 2 blocks. His first shot attempt of the night was blocked by Andre Almeida, and Almeida got him again in the second half. But Nebraska’s only true center lacked the speed, skill, and conditioning to keep Echenique from posting his second double-double of the season.
And Gibbs turned in his usual outstanding effort, dishing a season-high 10 assists while scoring 5 points, grabbing 5 boards, and committing just 1 turnover. He also earned two large tiger-stripe scratches on the side of his face, which were indicative of the physical and catty nature of this season’s edition of the in-state rivalry game.
Grant Gibbs led the Jays with 10 assists against the Huskers (Spomer/WBR)
Creighton starters played 160 of a possible 200 minutes against Nebraska. With Jones unavailable, only Ethan Wragge (18 minutes) and Avery Dingman (12 minutes) played substantial minutes off the CU bench. After two subpar shooting games (2-10 from three-point range against Boise State and St. Joe’s), Wragge got back on track against NU. He made 3 threes in 5 attempts, or one less make than the entire NU lineup (4).
Dingman did some dirty work against the Huskers, hitting the deck a few times to chase loose balls. One such scrum resulted in the sophomore receiving a forearm shiver to the jaw courtesy of NU sub Mike Peltz. Officials missed the jab (naturally), but the Bluejays bench didn’t; after everyone bounced up from the floor, Dingman’s teammates eagerly showed their appreciation for Avery’s effort and hustle.
It was that kind of night at The Bob. The Bluejays did the little things to leave Lincoln with a win, including taking four charges. Gibbs suffered the aforementioned scratches (albeit on a play that wasn’t whistled a foul. Shocking, right?). McDermott hit the court hard and awkwardly at one point, grabbing his left hip and leaving Creighton fans everywhere gasping for air. He was doing the same, too, later when Peltz fouled him on the baseline and then ended up in McDermott’s lap, laying on top of him.
The Bluejays again showed well against the Big Ten.
The 22-point win against Nebraska marked Creighton’s fifth straight victory against a Big Ten team, and the second such win this season (vs. Wisconsin in Las Vegas).
Aside from the yearly matchup against the Huskers, which only last year became a Big Ten opponent, Creighton doesn’t often get regular season games scheduled against teams from that conference. Creighton SID Extraordinaire Rob Anderson pointed out before the game that, “Since 2000, Creighton has played just nine games against Big Ten teams at the time of the game. Six of those games were at neutral sites, three were against ranked teams, and two of those went to overtime.” He added that entering Thursday, the Jays had 7 wins and 9 losses in 16 games against Big Ten teams since 1973.
Doug McDermott scored a game-high 27 points against Nebraska (Spomer/WBR)
During Creighton’s five-game win streak against Big Ten teams, the Bluejays are averaging a 14.6 margin of victory. The only win that didn’t come by double digits was last year’s home game against Northwestern, during with the Jays beat the Wildcats 87-79.
Individually, McDermott has dominated Big Ten teams. Entering last night and including a 2010 loss at Northwestern, Creighton’s most recent loss to a Big Ten school, McDermott averaged 24 points and 7.6 rebounds against teams from that conference. Add his 27 points from Thursday to that sample size. Impressive.
In five games against Big Ten teams while at Creighton, Gibbs has dished 38 assists to just 12 turnovers. That’s a 3.2:1 assist-to-turnover ratio.
Similarly, in his five games against Big Ten teams while at CU, Echenique has averaged nearly 10 points (9.8 ppg) and a solid 8 rebounds a game.