Key Stats:
Creighton finally looked like CREIGHTON on Monday night, and all they had to do was travel to the Cayman Islands to do it. They made 12-22 from three-point range, and had assists on 23 of their 33 made baskets. They had nearly a 2:1 assist to turnover ratio. And they pushed tempo to the tune of making this a 74-possession game.
But it wasn’t all good. Boise State scored 50 (50!) of their 82 points in the paint. And BSU grabbed nine offensive rebounds and turned them into 17 second chance points.
Postgame Remarks:
Recap:
For 17 minutes on Monday in George Town, Cayman Islands, Creighton’s post players were schooled by Boise State’s RJ Williams and Zach Haney. Williams made 8-of-9 field goals in that span and scored 17 points; Haney made 5-of-7 and scored 11. Combined with noted sharpshooter Justinian Jessup heating up from downtown — he made 2-of-3 from three-point range — it was clear CU was in for a battle. With four minutes left in the first half, Williams ripped the ball away from Creighton’s Damien Jefferson and raced down court for a dunk. Jessup followed with a three. It was 35-32 Boise State, Martin Krampelj was on the bench with two fouls, and the partisan Creighton crowd at John Gray Gymnasium was uneasy. Creighton fans back home in the States were uneasy too, though that could have been partially due to the Facebook webcast they were watching (and Doug Gottlieb’s insistence on turning it into a version of his radio show by talking about topics only tangentially related to the game).
Over the next 29 possessions — spanning 15 minutes of action spread across both halves — Creighton unleashed an offensive fury that Boise State’s big men couldn’t keep up with. The Jays scored 53 points (1.82 points per possession). They made 18-of-26 field goals. They had 15 assists on those 18 made baskets. And they turned the 35-32 Boise State lead into an 82-61 Creighton blowout.
It began with a 17-9 run to end the first half, erasing the Boise lead for good and sending CU to the locker room up 46-41. Unlike some huge runs we’ve seen from CU in recent years, there wasn’t any one play or one moment that triggered this one — but it was clear who the catalyst was. Marcus Zegarowski, the freshman point guard, made play after play on both ends of the floor and was probably the single biggest reason for the game-deciding run.
It began with Zegarowski converting a three-point play on both sides of the under-four timeout — a layup where he drew a foul, and then a free throw — to tie the game. Seconds later, he intercepted a cross court pass, pushed the ball down the floor, and created space for Ty-Shon Alexander to sink a three-pointer. On the next possession, he grabbed the rebound off of a missed three, raced down the court, and created a shot for Connor Cashaw, who was fouled and made both free throws. On the possession after that, Zegarowski was fouled himself and made two free throws. And he capped the 17-9 run with a three pointer with 24 seconds to go in the half. All totaled, 16 of the 17 points in that decisive run were either scored or assisted in some way by Zegarowski.
After one of the worst stretches of play in his Creighton career in the first half (three turnovers, zero points), Davion Mintz responded with one of the better ones in the second — he stuck a jumper to begin the half, assisted on a pair of three-pointers by Alexander and Mitch Ballock, then hit a three of his own to push CU’s lead to 59-45.
The two Creighton point guards combined for 21 points, 11 rebounds, 8 assists, and just 3 turnovers in the game. And with their ability to consistently force the game into a fast pace, it left Boise State little choice but to go small. Zach Haney, so unstoppable in the first half, simply couldn’t run fast enough to get back defensively in transition and left his team susceptible to short-handed run outs. He played just six minutes in the second half.
The Jays built their largest lead of the night, 82-61, after Jacob Epperson scored 10 points in the span of four minutes with Haney out of the game. Though the Broncos would cut into that lead, the outcome was never seriously in doubt.
Zegarowski finished the game with 14 points, six rebounds, four assists and zero turnovers in 23 minutes. Jefferson had 16 points (7-of-10 shooting), with six boards. Alexander led them with 18 points (6-of-11 shooting overall, 4-of-9 from three point range) with three assists and zero turnovers. And though his numbers aren’t as big, the eight points, three assists, and two boards from grad transfer Connor Cashaw were great to see after his struggles in the first three games of his CU career.
“Connor’s been pressing for whatever reason,” Coach Greg McDermott said on his postgame radio interview. “I had a chance to grab him on the plane Saturday, because it was a four-hour flight and it was really quiet. We talked one-on-one for about five minutes, and I just told him ‘Hey man, you’re trying too hard. Just be yourself. You don’t have to be someone you’re not. Make plays for other people. Make energy plays. Let’s hear your voice on the floor. If you do all of those things the rest will fall into place.'”
With the win, Creighton advances into the winners side of the bracket, where Georgia State awaits them tonight at 6:30pm. Coached by the gregarious Ron Hunter, they’re probably best known to Bluejay fans for Hunter’s reaction to his son hitting a shot to win the 2015 Sun Belt title — resulting in him tearing his achilles, and coaching his team to an upset of Baylor in the NCAA Tournament while moving around the sidelines on a scooter.
The Panthers return their top four scorers off of a team that made the NCAA Tournament a year ago, including junior D’Marcus Simonds. He’s averaging 23.0 points a game, and is an explosive player off the dribble. Through four games, Creighton’s yet to face an offensive weapon like Simonds — a Marcus Foster type player who, when nothing else is working, can simply create an opportunity for himself and then hit the shot. He will be a handful tonight.
He’s not the only slasher on the roster. Kane Williams actually leads the team in free throw attempts, and in assists, and has shown the ability to break teams down off the dribble and then use the space he creates to get shots for teammates. Then there’s senior guard Jeff Thomas, who’s made 43% of his threes so far this year, and with his long wingspan has seven blocks so far.
Throw in the fact that Georgia State is known for using multiple different zone defenses to keep opponents off balance, and this is going to be a significant challenge for Creighton. And it’s not a passive zone; Georgia State is energetic and aggressive. They’re not afraid to leave their feet to block shots, and they’re adapt at doing so without fouling. They come up with a lot of steals. Creighton has to get stops so that they can run in transition and spread out that zone before Georgia State has a chance to dig in, or they won’t like the outcome.
KenPom predicts a 75-71 win. Vegas has the Jays as three-point favorites. Jon Nyatawa in the OWH predicts a 78-77 Bluejay win. I agree with all of them — this is going to be a fight, and if the Jays win, it’ll be by a single possession.
