After a rock fight of an opening 20 minutes, Greg McDermott’s Creighton men’s basketball team shot 67% from the field and averaged 1.324 points on 34 possessions in the second half to turn a 3-point halftime lead into 74-63 win over Marquette in the quarterfinals of the Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden. Senior forward Ryan Hawkins led CU with 18 points (14 in the second half) in his first game at the World’s Most Famous Arena, but he was far from the only Bluejay to fill the stat sheet on Thursday afternoon as four starters scored in double figures, while a fifth in senior guard Alex O’Connell finished with nine points and nine rebounds.
“I thought my guys were terrific,” McDermott said. “Marquette’s a heck of a basketball team. And we’ve played them in two previous games that frankly we were probably lucky to win both of them. But kind of found a way at the end. Our roster is different than it was in those two games, without [Ryan] Nembhard. And we had to fight through some foul trouble today. But these guys, they’ve been incredible.
“We hit some big shots. And obviously that small lineup gave us some fits there for a second that let them get back in the game. But we didn’t really have an option. I only have a few guards on my team, so we don’t have a choice, but really proud of our team, what they’ve done since Nembhard went down, winning three out of five games. And two of those wins are against two teams that are in the NCAA Tournament. Really, really proud of them, and looking forward for another opportunity to play Providence tomorrow.”
Devin Davis got some minutes for the Jays in the quarterfinal win (Juszyk / WBR)
Creighton was in control for the majority of the opening half, staving off some timely baskets by Marquette to take a 29-26 lead into the locker room. Freshman forward Arthur Kaluma got off to a strong start in his Madison Square Garden debut with nine points and three rebounds early. He was 3-for-6 from the field, including a 3-pointer, but was limited to 11 minutes when he picked up his second foul with a little over eight minutes remaining in the first half. With Creighton’s hottest offensive option on the bench, the Golden Eagles rattled off a 9-3 run to tie the game at 21-all with just under five minutes left before intermission.
Sophomore center Ryan Kalkbrenner got the Jays jumpstarted again with an old fashioned 3-point play on a tip-in at the rim following up a missed driving layup by freshman guard Rati Andronikashvili. Kalkbrenner converted at the free throw line, then Andronikashvili doubled up the lead by stealing a lob pass in the lane and knocking down a corner 3-pointer in front of the Marquette bench. Kalkbrenner tied a bow on the first half with two offensive rebounds and layup on the final possession to give Creighton a 3-point edge at the break.
The newly crowned Defensive Player of the Year in the Big East picked up right where he left off at the end of the first half by starting the second with a two-handed dunk and a layup within Creighton’s first three possessions out of the locker room. A baseline drive and dunk by Kaluma over Justin Lewis, the most improved player award winner in the Big East, was followed up by five points in a row from Hawkins and a couple pull-up, mid-range jumpers by freshman fill-in point guard Trey Alexander that gave the Jays their largest lead of the game at 48-36 with 12:06 to play.
For the rest of the contest the pendulum of momentum swung back and forth from a double-digits to a two-possessions, but Creighton was always able to respond with a spurt that put them back in control. Marquette’s final push came when senior guard Darryl Morsell scored seven points in the span of 70 seconds to spark an 11-3 Golden Eagles’ run. That trimmed Creighton’s lead to 63-61 with 3:04 left, but the Jays responded again. Hawkins stepped into a 3-pointer from the top of the key and drilled it, Kaluma attacked his defender off the left wing and finished through contact at the rim, and Alexander stripped the ball away from Morsell under the Marquette basket and through a 50-foot lob in transition to Alex O’Connell to seal the deal.
“I just told them in the locker room, I take timeouts when my team looks unsure, scared or panicked. When I looked out there, even when they made the run, I didn’t see that. I saw, let’s get to the next play, let’s try to execute it a little better. And we did.”
The Jays scored on their last five possessions of the game to close it out with an 11-2 run and secure a date in the Big East Tournament Semifinals and regular-season champion and top overall seed Providence. Alexander, who started his fourth game in a row at point guard due to Ryan Nembhard’s season-ending injury, finished with 11 points, six rebounds, two steals, and a career-high eight assists in 39 minutes.
“I thought Trey Alexander played well for Creighton,” Marquette head coach Shaka Smart said. “Not only having double figures [in points] but having eight assists. Since Nembhard went out, he’s really done a great job at the point guard spot. Just hurt us in different ways.”
Creighton completed the rare three-game sweep of the season series with Marquette with Thursday’s quarterfinal win. They improved to 19-3 all-time in conference tournament games when they face off against a team that they beat in the previous two meetings during the regular season. Overall, their record on the year moves to 21-10 ahead their semifinal clash with the Friars in a rematch of a game played less than two weeks ago that Providence won 72-51 to clinch the Big East regular season title.
Both teams are locks for the 2022 NCAA Tournament, so both teams should be loose for Friday night’s matchup with nothing more than team pride and Big East supremacy on the line.
“We played them on a night when I’m not sure the Golden State Warriors could have gone in there and won that night. That place was electric. And the town was rocking. And they kind of pounced on us late in that first half. We weren’t really able to get our footing.
“We’re just excited about the opportunity to play again. And we’re excited what this win does for our postseason resumé. And I told Hawk earlier, yesterday, that we’ve been to the final three times, just haven’t been able to kick the door down and win a Big East championship. Obviously, we’ve got the best team in our league standing in front of that. We didn’t play very well at Providence. We didn’t get a chance to play them at home because of COVID. They’re the league champs. Our guys have a lot of pride, and we look forward to another opportunity to play.”
Listen to the Scurry and the Scrub Postgame Podcast
