The Creighton men’s basketball team looked every bit as good as they did last year on the offensive end, burying 14 3-pointers and shooting 48.3% from the floor as they defeated the Sioux Falls Cougars, 91-72, in their one and only exhibition game of the season.
Hegner got the Bluejays going on Friday night (Williams /WBR) $ CLICK TO BUY $
If there were any doubts about how different the offense would look after replacing four senior starters from one of the most potent offenses in the country, they were put to rest early in this one when Toby Hegner popped out on the left wing and buried a 3-pointer 31 seconds into the game. As a redshirt freshman sporting a reworked shot, Hegner said it felt good to be out there and knock down that first look.
“It felt really good [to get that first one down]. I’ve dreamt of this day. It’s been about 370 days, but who’s counting,” Hegner said. “When I let that first one go it felt really good.”
The Bluejays scored nine of their first 11 points from beyond the arc to take an 11-5 lead over the Cougars at the first media timeout with 15:44 left in the half.
The onslaught continued out of the timeout as Creighton hit from long distance on four consecutive possessions, two of which showcased the improved range of senior guard Devin Brooks, to extend the lead to 25-7 with not even ten minutes gone.
After the teams traded baskets for a few minutes, another Creighton senior started to make his mark on the game when point guard Austin Chatman scored seven straight points to push the lead to 39-19 with 6:08 to go in the opening half. Later, true freshman Leon Gilmore III banked home Creighton’s 11th 3-pointer of the first half with just under a minute left and the Bluejays took a 50-30 lead into the locker room.
Chatman led all players with 12 points in the first half to go along with three rebounds and three assists. As a team, the Bluejays assisted on 13 of their 16 field goals, while posting a 57.1% mark from the field.
In the second half, Devin Brooks helped Creighton push the lead to 73-46 by scoring eight more points by the under-12 media timeout. Sioux Falls cut into the Bluejay lead riding the strong play of guard Charles Ward, who finished the evening with a game-high 30 points. Ward took advantage of some poor closeouts and buried a couple 3-pointers. His jumper with 3:33 to go made it a 15-point game.
Sophomore guard Isaiah Zierden sparked the Jays after that, taking an outlet pass from Zach Hanson and beating Ward down the floor for a layup. Zierden drew a foul on the play, but missed the free throw. Luckily, Cal transfer Rick Kreklow picked up Zierden with an offensive rebound and Austin Chatman made the play count with a driving layup to extend the lead to 89-70.
Connealy, the walk on, connected on his only shot of the evening (Williams/WBR) $ CLICK TO BUY $
The Bluejays emptied the bench a few minutes later and senior forward Gabriel Connealy capped off the win with his basket off a Tyler Clement offensive rebound. The reaction to the shot going in might have been the loudest moment of the night other than the reaction of the crowd when learning that the Creighton men’s soccer team had wrapped up a Big East regular season title with a 3-0 win over Providence up the street at Morrison Stadium.
Connealy wrapped up the win, won his coach lunch for at least drawing iron on his shot, and fulfilled a dream all in that one moment.
“It all happened so quickly. I didn’t really realize it had happened until it went in and my teammates went nuts. It was a elation, I was happy about it,” said Connealy.
For a guy who spent the last three seasons as a team manager, the opportunity to put on a uniform and step on the floor as a player was a moment Connealy says he’ll always carry with him.
“It’s a dream come true. It really is,” Connealy told a group of reporters. “When I first came to Creighton I thought there was a chance that I would play, but then I got here and realized that everybody was a lot better than me, so I gave up on it. This year has been incredible for me, because I’ve been watching these guys for three years now and in a way wishing I was a part of it while kind of being a part of it, but not fully. This has just been incredible for me, and it’s the perfect senior year for me.”
“It’s a great story. He’s an unbelievable kid, an awesome kid,” Creighton head coach Greg McDermott said of Connealy. “To be a student manager for three years and have the opportunity to fulfill his dream of playing college basketball, and to get into a game and have his name called by making a basket is pretty cool stuff. You saw the reaction of the bench, I mean everybody on the team was thrilled for him because he’s been so selfless with his contributions to this program for three years as a manager, and now to be able to go out there and enjoy his moment was pretty cool.”
Overall, the exhibition accomplished what it should. It reaffirmed to the team some of the things they do well, particularly on the offensive end. But it also gave them some things to improve on, specifically in the defense and rebounding department.
“I was pleased with a lot of things in the first half, and not pleased with many things in the second half,” McDermott said. “Foul trouble I think certainly impacted the way we played to some extent — I think we had three guys with two fouls at halftime and we’ve got to try to limit that. But for the most part we moved the ball, we shared the basketball. We had 21 assists on 28 baskets and that’s who we have to be. We just have to be able to dig in defensively better than we did in the second half. I thought we did a relatively good job on Ward in the first half, then he went crazy on us in the second half.”
“A lot of good performances. I thought Austin and Devin did some good things. Isaiah and James came off the bench and gave us some good things, and I thought for the most part the combination of our front line gave us some positive minutes, and we just have to continue to build on it.”
Each member of the starting back court of the Bluejays, Chatman and Brooks, finished with 18 points apiece while also combining for 13 rebounds and eight assists while committing only two turnovers. Their backups in Milliken and Zierden produced 22 points, four assists, and three steals while not turning the ball over at all and each were key in making the offense click, especially in the first half.
“I was kind of nervous at first when the game started,” said Milliken, who like Hegner, spent the 2013-14 improving behind the scenes as a redshirt. “I feel like the starters set a great tone and made it feel comfortable when we came out. Then me and Isaiah came off the bench and I feel like we just fit right in whenever the starters came out.”
Though it won’t count as a official win, it counts in the mind of senior Devin Brooks, who reiterated that every game gives the Bluejays a chance to get better, “I think every game you play is important,” Brooks said. “Every game we play is a way to know what we need to improve on and what we need to get better on. Today was a good game to know what we need to get better on if we want to make it as far as we want to go. Today was a learning game and every day in practice we need to get better.”
The Bluejays will get back to practice to starting getting better Saturday morning as they prepare for their regular season opener next Friday, Nov. 14 against Central Arkansas. Tip-off is set for 8:01 p.m. at the Century Link Center Omaha, and will be televised on FOX Sports Net.