Baylor Scheierman flirted with a triple-double and people’s imaginations with some clip-worthy passing, Trey Alexander yammed on his former teammate’s younger brother, and six guys scored in double figures as Creighton ran Drury ragged in a 109-57 exhibition win on Sunday night at CHI Health Center Omaha.
Ben Shtolzberg fouled going up for a basket against Drury on Sunday night (Juszyk / WBR)
Arthur Kaluma led all players with a game-high 17 points. Ryan Kalkbrenner chipped in 16. Alexander added 15. Freshmen Ben Shtolzberg and Fredrick King put up 13 and 10, respectively, off the bench, and Scheierman finished with 14 to go along with 10 rebounds, seven assists, and only one turnover in just 18 minutes of action. The Bluejays shot 72.1% from inside the arc and 40% on 25 attempts from 3-point territory. They held the Panthers to six points on the first 23 possessions of the second half and stretched a 23-point halftime lead into a 56-point cushion, all in the span of under 13 minutes.
“I think we got out of it what we wanted to get out of it,” Creighton head coach Greg McDermott said. “Drury is a very atypical team offensively in that they have five guys that can spread the floor and shoot the 3-point shot. They play 5-out, so it really neutralizes our ability to protect the rim with Kalkbrenner and Fredrick, but I thought our guys adjusted to it, especially early in the second half. We challenged them at halftime, and they came out and stopped them 12 possessions in a row and really locked into what we wanted defensively.”
Although Creighton got better at staying in front of the dribble and holding Drury to one shot and done most of the night, there was a stretch in the first half where both teams seemed comfortable getting up and down and attacking to score as quickly as possible. The Panthers hung in there for a stretch, but the breakneck pace eventually resulted in Drury looking as if they were stuck in quicksand as the Jays started to land blow after blow. A 15-5 run midway through the first half, a 20-0 run out of the locker room after halftime, and a 17-2 run not long afterwards that allowed them to hit the century mark before the Panthers even got to 50. Re-establishing a relentless pace and space style of offense was a huge priority in the offseason and throughout preseason camp. On Sunday night, they showed how those principles can both put points on the board and make their opponent too worn down to match it.
“Your pace doesn’t really impact the game that much in the first half,” McDermott said. “I think we had one stretch where there were no whistles for five minutes, and then it can [impact the game]. I’d like to think we are better conditioned to do that because we do it every day in practice. As the game goes on, I think your pace starts to wear into it.
“I thought our pace was good. Our spacing at times probably needs to be cleaned up, but 26 assists on 41 makes is pretty good. I think the exciting thing is we have a lot of guys — you know Baylor has seven assists, [Nembhard] has six, Trey has four, [Francisco Farabello] has four, Jasen Green comes off the bench and has two — we have a lot of guys who are willing passers that are making the right play. That’s going to pay dividends for us in the end.”
Trey Alexander looked confident for the Bluejays (Juszyk / WBR)
The top six players in Creighton’s rotation on Sunday night — Nembhard, Alexander, Scheierman, Kaluma, Kalkbrenner, and Farabello — combined for 22 assists and just five turnovers while approaching the temperature of the sun in the shooting department with a 76.9% mark from inside the arc and a 53.8% clip from beyond it. A lot of boxes were checked on the offensive end of the floor in the one and only tune-up before the games count for real.
“Everybody on the team likes to share the ball,” sophomore guard Trey Alexander said. “And you know how Mac has most of his teams play, we all play together and always make the extra pass. We’re always looking for how to help somebody be better on the court. It was very easy to get those guys incorporated because everybody on our team is very unselfish … it was very easy from the giddy-up. As soon as we got together the chemistry was already there.”
Junior guard Shereef Mitchell was not in uniform for the exhibition game. He went through a pre-game workout and was an enthusiastic supporter of his teammates on the court throughout the evening. Greg McDermott said his absence on the floor was due to a disciplinary issue from this summer and not because of an injury. Sophomore point guard Ryan Nembhard was shut down a couple minutes into the second half after what McDermott described as a groin issue.
“It has been bugging him a little bit and it didn’t loosen up great at halftime, so we just shut him down,” McDermott said.
The head ball coach didn’t sound overly concerned regarding the long-term ramifications of the injury and there was nothing else to report on the injury front coming out of the preseason, so it’s all systems go from here as they turn the page to their regular season opener against St. Thomas. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on Monday, November 7th and it will be televised as part of FS1’s opening night whip-around coverage, so fans should expect some interruptions if they won’t be in attendance.