Creighton has been training to go up and down and push tempo at a break-neck pace ever since they started practice in early July for their summer trip to the Bahamas. That muscle memory developed from day one was on display during Thursday afternoon’s NCAA Tournament first round game against Akron. Both the Zips and Bluejays got into a great rhythm offensively, especially from 3-point range, and it trapped the former in a track meet they were not equipt to sustain. Ryan Kalkbrenner led the way with a game-high 23 points, Trey Alexander finished with 19, while Baylor Scheierman added 15 as Creighton went 10-of-17 from beyond the arc to advance to the Round of 32 for the fourth consecutive season, and seventh time in nine appearances under Greg McDermott.
“[Akron] was very connected defensively, very unselfish on the offensive end, and as I mentioned a couple days ago, they lost several close games and were really not far from winning 30 games this year,” Creighton head coach Greg McDermott said. “They had our utmost respect, and I think you saw, especially in the first half it’s a quality, quality team that we beat today. We’re excited because we beat a good basketball team, and I’m proud of our guys. I thought we took really good shots, and when we take really good shots, we’re a pretty good basketball team. We have to clean up some things with some of the turnovers, but defensively I thought we adjusted as the game went on and did a much better job in the second half.”
Pace and elite shot-making were on display right away in the first half. Both Akron and Creighton came out hot offensively to start the game and it led to increased confidence and aggressiveness on the offensive end of the floor by both teams. Reigning MAC Player of the Year Enrique Freeman banked in a 3-pointer on Akron’s first possession of the game, which then led to him taking four more over the next four minutes after never attempting more than three in any of the previous 122 games during his college career.
He knocked down three of them in the process as he and Kalkbrenner went blow for blow early on in the much-anticipated battle of the bigs. Freeman scored 15 of the first 33 points for the Zips, while Kalkbrenner put up 11 of the first 29 for Creighton. That pace, especially while it was being spear-headed by Freeman’s effectiveness, worked out fine for the normally more deliberate Zips. When the shots were falling. Once they went cold and the legs got heavy, it allowed the Jays — who are much more comfortable in an up and down game — to force tough shots, rebound misses, and get loose in transition. That led to a pair of open-floor threes by Trey Alexander and Mason Miller, which helped Creighton close the first half on an 8-0 run and go into halftime with a 39-34 lead.
Halftime did nothing to help Akron slow the avalanche as Miller chased down an offensive rebound at the free throw line area on the first possession of the second half, then drilled a pick-and-pop three off a ghost screen action with Steven Ashworth. That sequence quickly re-established Creighton’s rhythm on O, and they only kept rolling from there. Through the first nine minutes of change out of the locker room, the Bluejays knocked down nine of their first 13 shots to extend the lead to 65-47. The Zips kept it respectable with a timely bucket every now and then, but they never got closer than 12 points the rest of the game. Every time they got within striking distance of a game-changing run, CU answered. After starting the game with 15 points on 6-of-10 shooting, Enrique Freeman was limited to six points on 11 shots over the game’s final 23 minutes. The Jays outscored Akron 46-26 in that span.
“Obviously hit a few threes early,” Kalkbrenner said. “We were looking at his numbers before we played, and we thought he might kick one or two in, but that he really wasn’t going to kill you. Then he went out there and hit three of four. When the first one went in off the glass, I said, ‘well, he saw one go in so now he’s going to hit a few more.’ He got a few down low, too, but part of that was that I had to adjust how I was guarding him.
“When we were looking at his film, he was really good at spinning off if you’re leaning on too much, so I didn’t want to lean on him too much. He kind of took advantage of that a little bit and got me deeper than I wanted and was taking shots a little closer to the basketball I wanted, but I adjusted to that pretty well as the game went on. He still hit some shots because he’s a really good player, but I made it a little tougher for him.”
Akron was able to match Creighton shot for shot early on, burying five of their first nine attempts from 3-point range, but water eventually found its level. Akron isn’t a team that is particular prolific from long range and the Jays are one of the best at preventing teams from bombing away on them. That resulted in the Zips missing 19 of the last 20 threes they attempted after the early heater.
“We had to make some adjustments when the bigs were hitting threes,” McDermott said. “We had to switch a little bit more, and then we got cross-matched a few times, but I thought early in the second half — I can’t remember who hit them, I think it was [Nate] Johnson hit a couple tough twos where we went over the screen, we were there, and he hit a 16 or 17-footer with a hand in his face. That’s kind of what we’re trying to do. I was happy really after the first seven or eight minutes of the game. I thought we settled in a little bit better defensively.”
The Jays improved to 24-9 on the season with the win and now have a chance to advance to the Sweet 16 for the third time in the last four seasons after only ever previously making it to that stage when the NCAA Tournament only fielded 25 teams. To do that, they’ll have to end the season of their legends as former head coach Dana Altman and the surging Oregon Ducks await the Jays on Saturday. Oregon shredded South Carolina in the second game of the day in Pittsburgh, beating the Gamecocks 87-73 to earn their date with destiny against the program their head coach helped revitalize in the modern era.
