One night after a Wichita State meltdown in Carbondale opened the door for Creighton to grab greater control over the regular season Missouri Valley Conference championship race, the Bluejays fumbled the opportunity. Indiana State posted a resounding 19-point win over CU; frankly, it wasn’t even that close.
Want some expert analysis? The Bluejays didn’t seem fired up to play; Indiana State did. The Sycamores were aggressive on both ends of the court, and Creighton didn’t match the intensity.
Doug McDermott couldn’t get going on offense, and too many times got outrebounded. Meanwhile, Jake Odum navigated the CU defense at will, scoring when needed (team-high 22 points), drawing fouls (he shot a team-high 11 free throws), and finding teammates (team-high 5 assists, to just 1 turnover). Manny Arop (13 points, team-high 7 rebounds) was the attacking off-guard Creighton’s routinely struggled to stop this season. His counterpart, Jahenns Manigat, played one of his poorest games of the season.
Shots weren’t falling for the Bluejays. Against the Sycamores, CU shot just 41.7% from the field and 27.8% from three-point range: both percentages are second worst so far this season. The team that entered the night leading the nation in both categories got beat by the Sycamores on both measures.
A few quick thoughts before I try to erase this game from my memory.
Creighton’s 57 points was its worst offensive output this season. It was the Bluejays’ lowest point total in a loss since a 65-57 loss at Evansville almost one year ago exactly. (The Jays scored 58 in a one-point win over Alabama in the NCAA Tournament last March.) Heck, in the home win over the Sycamores, Creighton scored 52 points in the second half, almost eclipsing Wednesday’s 40-minute total in one half of play.
Wednesday’s 19-point shellacking was the second time this season the Bluejays lost by double figures. In Greg McDermott’s first season at CU, the Jays dropped games by double digits six times. Last season, Creighton lost just three; two of which came at home versus Missouri State and Wichita State, and the third in the NCAA Tournament to #1-seed North Carolina.
The loss in Terre Haute was hauntingly familiar to the home embarrassment against the Shockers last season, a game that all but clinched the regular season championship for WSU. That night, in Omaha no less, Wichita State beat the Bluejays by 21 points.
Indiana State made more free throws (19) than the Bluejays attempted (18). The Sycamores have done that all season, and they didn’t stop Wednesday night. Guards Odum and Arop routinely worked their way to the paint, either sucking the defense into the frontcourt and then working the ball back outside, drawing a foul down low, or hitting a shot. The margin of defeat could have been worse for the Jays, had the Trees made any of the 8 free throws they missed.
McDermott? Mahurin! For just the second time this season, Doug McDermott failed to crack double figures in the scoring column. His 8 points against Indiana State were his lowest output since scoring just 5 in a CU win over UAB in the second game of the season. He shot a season-worst 30% from the field, making just 3 of his 10 shot attempts.
The junior post player CU fans saw knocking down three-pointers and a few other shots in the lane was Indiana State’s 6-9 center RJ Mahurin. Doing his best McDermott impression, Mahurin went 6-9 from the field and 3-4 from three-point range en route to a season-high 17 points.
#nowraggebombs. Ethan Wragge didn’t attempt a shot in 13 minutes of action. The last time that happened? A game against Iowa State in Des Moines two seasons ago, when Wragge entered the lineup with just a few ticks left on the clock but didn’t get a look at a shot. He’d be shut down a few weeks later with an injury that cost him the rest of that season.