There were a lot of questions surrounding Creighton as they headed into a clash with a surging Xavier squad at CHI Health Center Omaha on Tuesday night. Would the Jays have anything left in the tank after playing the equivalent of nearly a game and a half in Saturday’s triple-overtime win at Seton Hall? Would they be able to limit the Musketeers’ transition offense and bottle up their trio of dynamic guards? Would their home crowd come alive and carry them through the fatigue in crunch time?
Check. Check. And check.
Senior center Ryan Kalkbrenner had 16 points on 63.6% shooting, grabbed a game-high nine rebounds, and helped hold a potent Xavier offense to 15-of-34 shooting in the paint while only getting 99 seconds of rest all night. Junior guard Trey Alexander logged over 39 minutes and finished with a season-high 27 points — his most in a Creighton uniform since February 4th of last year. He tied Kalkbrenner for the rebounding lead with nine and came up with a critical pick-six to give the Bluejays the lead for good in the second half. Senior wing Baylor Scheierman dropped 20 points for the second consecutive game, played every second for the second consecutive game, and knocked down several big 3-pointers down the stretch of the second half for the second consecutive game. Junior point guard Steven Ashworth hit another big three, dished out seven assists while only committing one turnover, and fought his tail off defensively to hold one of the top scorers in the Big East four points under his scoring average in conference play.
All of that, plus a late push from a crowd of 17,195, allowed the Jays to improve to 6-1 in the month of January and 15-5 overall on the season with an 85-78 win over a Xavier team whose only losses over the past four and a half weeks came by one point at Villanova and by five points against now top-ranked UConn.
“If anyone wants to question this team’s toughness again — you’re barking up the wrong tree,” Creighton head coach Greg McDermott said after the game. “I’m really proud of my team. Saturday was hard. It was exciting for the fans, but it was hard on our guys. Physically, emotionally. Then to play our third game in seven days with the first two both being on the east coast, that’s tough stuff.”
Since Christmas, 14 of the 21 conference games not involving Georgetown or DePaul — who are a combined 1-14 in league play — have been decided by three possessions or less. Tuesday night in Omaha was no exception as the Bluejays and Musketeers exchanged leads nine times with CU playing from in front for a total of 19:29 and XU holding the lead for 17:24. It was the fourth straight game where Creighton has trailed by at least 7 points in the second half. Yet they found a way to grind out three wins in that stretch to improve to 6-3 in the Big East and keep themselves in the hunt for the regular season title.
“This league is hard,” McDermott said. “It’s really hard. I don’t know if people understand how hard it is. These wins are hard to come by and we’re really thankful that we were able to get it.”
Through the first 10+ minutes it appeared as if Creighton was trending towards running Xavier out of the gym. Alexander and Scheierman both knocked down the first 3-point shots they attempted, Ashworth and Kalkbrenner connected for an alley-oop dunk out of a pick and roll, and redshirt freshman forward Isaac Traudt cashed a three off the bench. That found the Bluejays in front 22-15 with 9:40 left to play in the first half. But five quick points on the other end of the floor, including a tough step-back three on the left wing by Xavier freshman guard Trey Green sparked an 18-4 run by the Musketeers that gave them a seven-point cushion of their own at 33-26 with 4:26 remaining in the opening half.
Creighton punched back on a pair of buckets inside by Kalkbrenner that were sandwiched around a mid-range jumper by Ashworth after he pulled the string on his dribble to discard his defender and draws some gasps from the crowd.
He followed that up shortly after by drawing a frustration shove by Quincy Olivari after he had been hounding him defensively for most of the first half. That gave the Utah State transfer a pair of technical foul shots, which he promptly knocked down, as the Jays crawled back to take a 38-37 in the final minutes before halftime.
The two teams traded stops on the next four possessions before Xavier sophomore wing Desmond Claude ended that streak with a bucket in the final minute to put the Musketeers ahead 39-38 at the break.
Claude led all players with 18 points on 7-of-15 shooting in the first 20 minutes of play, while Trey Alexander did his best to match him for the Jays as he headed into the locker room with 16 points, six rebounds, and three assists.
The Musketeers came out of halftime swinging as they hit six of their first 13 shots, including their first three attempts from 3-point range after going 3-for-9 from deep in the first half. That surge of efficiency from downtown allowed them to rebuild their largest lead of the game at 58-51 with 11:56 to play.
It was gut check err, Trey and Baylor time for the Jays.
With the game on the line, Creighton’s star wings shined. Alexander and Scheierman combined to score 23 of CU’s 34 points over the final 11:28 of the game. It started in a hurry with a flurry of trademark Baylor Bombs. The first came off an inbounds out of a timeout to cut the deficit to four. The second came after he missed the second of two free throws, then the first of two open threes from the left wing off of the ensuing offensive rebounds. After missing two shots in a span of four seconds, he didn’t think twice about shooting the third, and he didn’t miss it this time.
“Trey caught the ball at the top of the key and he probably could have shot it, but he saw me on the wing kind of open,” Scheierman said. “That just speaks to the selflessness of the team. I missed the last two shots and Trey still had the confidence to swing it to me on the wing and I was able to knock it down. If I’m open I’m going to shoot it again. I don’t really second guess. I put in a lot of time, and I trust my work. My teammates and my coaches trust me to let it fly if [I’m] open.”
His big man echoed that sentiment after tracking down the first offensive board off the missed free throw to initiate the scramble situation that led to Scheierman eventually burying the shot to force Xavier head coach Sean Miller to burn a timeout with 10:31 to go after watching a seven-point get whittled down to one in less than 60 seconds.
“When he caught it again, I said, ‘you better be shooting that thing.’ That was great,” Kalkbrenner said. “He let it fly without hesitating, which is what we want him to do, and he hit a big shot for us.”
As it turned out, Scheierman was just getting the pan warm at that point. With Xavier down four coming down on 4:00 remaining, the fifth-year senior curled off a Kalkbrenner screen at the top of the key and buried another bomb to give the Jays a 76-69 edge. When the Musketeers closed within two with 2:00 to go, he cashed a slick crossover, between the legs, step-back three from practically the same spot that sparked his sharpshooting outburst. Alexander added another mid-range jumper and a couple free throw to push the lead to nine and Creighton coasted home from there to earn their sixth win in the last seven games.
Alexander and Scheierman combined for 47 points, seven threes on 15 attempts, 13 rebounds, six assists, and three steals while playing 79:15 out of a possible 80 minutes.
“The game slows down for them,” McDermott said of the duo’s crunch time performance. “They are really, really talented players.”
Sean Miller agreed.
“They are really good,” he said. “They ran us off screens and they made big shots. They’re tough. They are really good players. Really good. I think they are two of the best guards, not just in the Big East, but I think they are two of the best guards in the country.”
After going for 18 points in the first half, Scheierman held Desmon Claude to only 2 points on 2-of-8 shooting in the second. Both Claude and Western Kentucky transfer Dayvion McKnight each led the Musketeers with 20 points, but it took them 40 shots to produce their 40 points.
The key defensive performance, however, came from perhaps the most unlikely source: Steven Ashworth.
The 6-foot-1, 170-pound point guard held 6-foot-3, 200-pound Quincy Olivari to 15 points on 5-of-12 shooting in 30 minutes. Olivari was coming off of a 27-point performance in a win over Georgetown, had hit five threes in each of his last two games, and was sitting at third in the conference with an 18.9 points per game scoring average in Big East play. Ashworth held him four points under that average and forced him to go 1-for-4 from beyond the arc. It was just the fourth time that Olivari has made fewer than two 3-point shots in a game all season.
“Steven was terrific,” McDermott said. “He guarded [UConn’s Cam Spencer] and did a great job. [Seton Hall’s Al-Amir Dawes] was scoreless at halftime [on Saturday] and only got started on a couple switches when Steven wasn’t on him, and tonight he was terrific on Olivari.
“Six weeks ago, Steven Ashworth couldn’t do what he’s doing today. But his mindset has changed. He went from someone who was somewhat of a liability defensively to someone that is hard take off the floor because of what he’s doing defensively. And then on top of that, 15 assists and one turnover the last two games — in the Big East — that’s incredible stuff.”
Next up for the NET No. 12 Bluejays, who now find themselves a game and a half back of UConn for first place in the Big East, is their 14th annual Pink Out game on Saturday night against last place DePaul.
Creighton won the first meeting, 84-58, on January 9 in Chicago. Tip-off between the Bluejays (15-5, 6-3 Big East) and Blue Demons (3-15, 0-7 Big East) is set for 6:00 p.m. (CT) on FS1.
