James Milliken was on fire hitting 4-of-5 three-pointers in the first half as Creighton rolled to victory (Adam Streur / WBR) CLICK TO BUY
Creighton’s Senior Day scrap with last-place St. John’s was so one-sided that Chris Mullin didn’t even stick around for the final buzzer. The Red Storm’s first-year head coach drew his second technical foul of the game, then had to be restrained by several of his assistants while he unleashed a profanity-laced tirade towards the officials before heading for the tunnel with 13:42 remaining in the contest. The Bluejays (18-11, 9-7) led by 33 points when Mullin bowed out and they would go on to post a 100-59 victory to close out their final home game on the 2015-16 regular season schedule.
“We needed a performance where we played well defensively, where we did what we were supposed to do on the backboards, and where offensively our offense was a little bit more free-flowing,” Creighton head coach Greg McDermott said. “We were able to accomplish all three today. I’m proud of our team. It was a great way to finish the home portion of our schedule.”
The Bluejays were led by their two seniors, center Geoffrey Groselle and shooting guard James Milliken. Groselle finished with 22 points and 11 rebounds on 8 of 9 shooting from the floor to post the first double-double by a Bluejay senior on Senior Day since Randall Crutcher had 13 points and 10 boards in a 59-58 win over Wichita State back on February 20, 1997.
Milliken added 19 points and four of his five 3-point attempts to finish behind only Groselle for the game’s leading scorer.
“I’m proud of these two guys,” McDermott said. “You only get one senior day, and to have them both play at a high level today the way that they did, and set the tone for the game from the onset, was really good to see. Like I told them in the locker room, they’ll have a lot of great memories from today.”
One memory the the two seniors thought about making before the game was to join the list of 40-point performances that have been posted on Senior Day’s past at the CenturyLink Center. Since it was going to be difficult for either of them to do that on their own they decided to add a little twist.
“James and I talked before the game that the only 40-point games in the CenturyLink’s history have been on senior night,” Groselle said. “We decided that we weren’t going to be able to get 40 individually, so we said we have to get 40 as a team, me and him. We went out there and did that today. My teammates did a great job of getting me the ball. James was hot early. It was a great team victory.”
Geoffrey Groselle got going early when St. John’s big man got in foul trouble early. No one could stop the Creighton big man on Senior Day (Adam Streur / WBR)
Groselle established his presence early in the game. After winning the opening tip, he sealed off his man and scored with a nice up and under move on the first possession of the game. Creighton scored each of their first 16 points in the paint against St. John’s, eight of which came from Groselle in the first four minutes of action.
“Emotions were flying high on senior night,” Groselle said. “I know for myself I had to stay calm for a little bit of the game. That loss to Marquette definitely stuck in our head. We had a good couple of practices leading up to this game, and it showed on the court.”
St. John’s hung around while Creighton was landing body shot after body shot in the paint. Then all of a sudden, a team that had struggled mightily to knock down perimeter shots coming into the game started dropping bombs. Milliken hit four. Junior forward Cole Huff hit three. Junior guard Isaiah Zierden even got one to fall despite his banged up right shoulder. All together, the Bluejays hit 8 of 9 from downtown during a stretch that saw their 17-14 lead with 12:15 to play in the opening half balloon up to 47-20 with 3:13 remaining before intermission.
“We focused on moving the basketball, passing, and cutting, and I feel like it opened up a lot of opportunities for us,” Milliken said. “We got Geoff going early, and they started collapsing on Geoff, and that’s when I got my open shots.
“When we’re knocking down shots our game is flowing. I feel like Geoff established that early presence when he was scoring down there and dominating. We just set our feet and knocked down the shots.”
The Bluejays led 53-24 at the break, and the lead only grew more and more once the second half got underway. Despite going 0 for 7 from beyond the arc in the final 20 minutes, Creighton still managed to put up 47 points. For the game they shot 60.3% from the field, their second-best mark of the season. They outscored the Red Storm 52-22 in the paint.
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See photos from WBR photographers Adam Streur, Mike Spomer & Brad Williams from the victory
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Creighton got what was coming to them against Marquette after a stretch of what bad practices. On Sunday, they flipped the script, but the result of getting out only what you put in remained the same after they turned up the intensity and focus in preparation for the home finale against the Red Storm.
“Our preparation was good,” McDermott said. “I think the guys probably didn’t like what I had to say after the Marquette game, but they probably found at least parts of it to be true. I share in that as much as they do. This is a team deal. When we win, we all are happy and we all celebrate. When we lose, we’re all disappointed, and we all do self-reflection and figure out what we can do different to make it better next time.
“After the Marquette game, looking back on it, I would say as we evaluated the film a couple times we probably played harder than I thought we did, but I didn’t think we played very smart. I thought we made some uncharacteristically bad decisions offensively, and we took some chances on defense that we normally don’t take, and they cost us. Sometimes you have that happen and it doesn’t cost you. In the Marquette game it cost us, and we talked about some of that. We talked about some of the offensive things. The ball moved better. I thought we did a great job of making the extra pass in the first, and Geoff did a good job of working to get angles, and we got to him where he could do some damage. Anytime you can establish an inside presence like that early in the game it makes everybody’s life a lot easier.”
Though their home slate is over for the season, the Bluejays still have two regular-season games remaining on the road against Providence on Wednesday, and No. 5 Xavier on Saturday. With it being Senior Day for both teams, and with Creighton’s current 4th-place spot in the Big East Standings anything but secure, the stakes will be raised for both games.
“We’ve had a road warrior mentality all season,” junior point guard Maurice Watson Jr. said. “I think we’ve been pretty good on the road because of the way we lock in and focus. Sometimes I wish we had our road focus at home. These are two tough places, and we know that with the situation that we’re in we need these games. We know we didn’t give Providence our best shot, and they probably feel the same after the game here at home, and Xavier felt like they didn’t give us their best shot. We have two teams who are really going to come out to close the game out strong. Xavier lost today, so I’m pretty sure the last game they go through is going to be all out for them too. The season is going by fast, and we didn’t come this far just to stay this far. We have some more places we want to go, and some more obstacles that we need to handle. I think we can do that on the road these last two games.”
After being picked to finish in ninth place in the Big East in the preseason, the Bluejays are happy with where they find themselves after 16 conference games, but they are not completely satisfied just yet.
“It means a lot, but our work isn’t done yet,’ Groselle said. “Our goal at the beginning of the season was to make the NCAA Tournament, and that’s still our goal to this day. We’re not there and we need to get there.”
Listen to Postgame interviews with Greg McDermott, Geoffrey Groselle, James Milliken, Maurice Watson, and Malik Albert