Baylor Scheierman was honored before the game for one feat and he did another on Tuesday night (Williams / WBR)
Right before the lights went out for starting lineup introductions on Wednesday night, Creighton senior guard Baylor Scheierman met Greg McDermott at center court to receive a commemorative game ball for becoming the first player in men’s college basketball history to eclipse 2,000 career points, 1,000 career rebounds, 500 career assists, and 300 career 3-pointers. It’s the third time this season that he’s been honored for a milestone prior to the tip-off. Two hours later, Creighton already has a reason to honor him a fourth time after he dropped 15 points, 11 rebounds, and 11 assists in a 94-72 rout of Georgetown to record the first points-rebounds-assists triple-double in the program history, and the first of any kind since Benoit Benjamin finished with 29 points, 12 rebounds, and 12 blocks at Bradley on February 2, 1985.
“That’s pretty cool stuff,” McDermott said after the game. “It’s incredible and I think we’ve had some guys close. I think Trey [Alexander] was close once maybe this year and Baylor on another occasion. Those two do so much. You know we haven’t even talked about how they impact the game defensively, but they just know to play, and you can tell that they genuinely like playing basketball with each other.”
That sentiment was evident after the game when Alexander looked up to the video board, saw that his teammate was one assist away from history, and audibled a play to get him the ball in a spot to set up a teammate for his 10th assist. Sure enough, Scheierman caught the ball on the right wing, hit senior center Ryan Kalkbrenner slipping to the rim and he banked it home off the glass for history.
“I knew that we had a play that was kind of back action for ‘Kalk’ where Baylor would be catching it and throwing it in,” Alexander said. “I told him we are going to stop our next fast break for him to run it and get [the assist]. That was pretty cool. I’m happy for him.”
Trey Alexander had quite a night on his own leading the Jays in scoring (Williams / WBR)
Scheierman capped off his night with a 3-pointer, another dime to Kalkbrenner, and a bunny off the glass for himself before checking out to a standing ovation with 6:39 to go and Creighton leading 78-52. He shot just 2-of-9 from 3-point range for the game, so it was far from his most efficient 15-point effort. Something that was a source of frustration after he missed an off-balance three to end the half and let out an expletive that could be heard all the way up in the sixth-floor hockey press box. But that didn’t deter him from stuffing the rest of the stat sheet as the 11 assists he finished with produced another 30 points in addition to his own 15, a fact that was not lost on the Aurora, Nebraska native when he was asked afterwards what it meant to add another footnote to his already illustrious college hoops career.
“Coach always preaches next play and obviously my shots weren’t going down tonight, but I pride myself on being able to, you know, impact the game in other ways,” Scheierman said. “Trey had it going tonight, so I was really trying to find him. I mean, I’d say half of my assists went to him, so I got to tip the cap to him. It was a great team win overall. Obviously, you know, I put up some good numbers, but that’s more of a team thing than individual to be honest.
Photos from the game courtesy of Brad Williams. See the full gallery here.
“It’s a blessing, obviously, but I have to thank my coaches and teammates. Nothing would be possible without them, and they trust me to go out there and play a certain type of way. Like I said, my teammates were great tonight, and that’s really the big reason why I was able to do what I was able to do.”
Ryan Kalkbrenner was effective on the defensive end for the Jays (Williams / WBR)
Georgetown came in with a 9-game losing streak, but they had Creighton’s attention despite that given how they had played away from home. They hung with the Jays for a few minutes, but Kalkbrenner’s presence at the rim made it difficult for them to get into any sustainable rhythm. Although they shot 4-for-9 from 3-point range in the opening 20 minutes, they mustered up just 15 points on 24 shooting possessions inside the arc, challenging the reigning, two-time Big East Defensive Player of the Year over and over with nothing significant to show for it.
“I think that’s just generally how we like to play defense,” Kalkbrenner said. “You know that you’re never going to be able to take away every single shot so making them take the shots we want them to take is what we tried to do, and we did a good job of doing that today. We ran them off the line when they had catch-and-shoot three opportunities and we just sent them my way. I did what I normally do and cleaned most of that stuff up. We did a good job of taking away the shots we didn’t want them taking.”
After missing their first four attempts from 3-point territory, five different players combined to knock down eight of the next attempts from long range to turn what was a one-point game into a 40-23 lead with 3:28 left before halftime. The Hoyas never got closer than 14 at that point and trailed by as much as 28 in the second half. Fourth-year center Supreme Cook led them with 19 points and 11 rebounds, but most of that damage was done when the game was already out of reach in the second half.
Steven Ashworth drained more three-pointers in this one (Williams / WBR)
Along with Scheierman’s history-making triple-double, a host of other Bluejays chipped in with strong performances. Kalkbrenner finished with 17 points on 7-of-8 shooting, adding five rebounds and four blocks in 32 minutes. Alexander tallied a game-high 26 points and knocked down a season-high six threes on eight attempts. Ashworth went 4-for-10 from deep to finish with 12 points, six rebounds, four assists, and no turnovers. Mason Miller and Jasen Green combined for 13 points on 4-of-7 shooting in 30 combined minutes at the four, and Francisco Farabello made both of the shots he attempted from beyond the arc to cap of a 17-of-33 performance from long distance for the Jays.
“25 assists on 34 made field goals, that’s Creighton Basketball,” McDermott said. “It’s the way we want to play.”
Not only is it the way Creighton wants to play, but it’s the way they’ll have to play to be successful the rest of the season. With the DePaul and Georgetown round-robin portion of the league slate now in the rearview mirror, the remaining six games of the regular season are all against teams that are either trying to hit their stride for a national championship run (UConn, Marquette) or ones that are fighting for their NCAA Tournament lives in Butler, St. John’s, Seton Hall, and Villanova.
Next up is a Big Fox Saturday morning rematch with Butler at Hinkle Fieldhouse. The Bulldogs lost to Marquette on Wednesday night but have won five of their last seven games including a 99-98 firefight over the Bluejays in Omaha two weeks ago.
“We’ve had a couple tough losses and then a big win at Xavier, so it’s big for us to get our confidence back and get the train rolling again,” Alexander said. “It’s going to be fun to go play at Butler. Hopefully we can play a little defense and not let them get almost 100 points this time. That’s the plan. We’re happy to be back in the [win] column and keep climbing.”
Tip-off between the Bluejays (18-7, 9-5 Big East) and Bulldogs (16-9, 7-7 Big East) is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. CT.