Coming in off of two straight nail-biting losses with a murderous slate still ahead of them, Creighton got off to an ominous start in Cincinnati with a live-ball turnover that led to a breakaway dunk the other way for Xavier. Those type of plays had a hefty price tag in their 91-87 overtime loss at Providence on Wednesday night, and it fueled early momentum for the Musketeers on Saturday.
But after falling behind by nine points early, the Bluejays stayed composed and ratcheted up their execution level on both ends of the floor to get back in the game. Senior center Ryan Kalkbrenner scored his first points of the afternoon with 13:36 left in the first half and it set off a dominant stretch of hoops by Creighton. The veteran big man hit seven of his last eight shots of the half at the rim, starting with that bucket, as part of a 28-point, bounce-back performance to lead the Bluejays to a 78-71 win over Xavier in front a packed and rowdy Cintas Center to end their two-game losing streak and move to 8-5 in Big East play.
Kalkbrenner made 12 of his 14 shots from the floor and knocked down four of his five free throws while also adding seven rebounds and four blocked shots in his 38 minutes of work. Because of his presence and production, Creighton was 15-of-20 at the rim offensively, while Xavier was 11-of-19 and missed 14 of the 18 shots they attempted in the paint outside the restricted area.
“I think he’s one of college basketball’s best players,” Xavier head coach Sean Miller said about Creighton’s 4th-year big man after the game. “His screening, his shot blocking, his defensive presence and then today, you know his scoring, catching lobs, giving them that dimension at the rim. There aren’t many teams you play that have that. He was amazing here today.”
The Musketeers scored on six of their first 10 possessions of the game and made six of their first eight shots to race out to a 13-4 lead with 14:18 remaining in the first half. Starting with Kalkbrenner’s first bucket of the day, Creighton answered the X-Men’s hot start by converting on nine of the next 13 possessions to flip that 9-point deficit into a 31-27 lead with 4:38 to go before halftime. The Musketeers went scoreless on 10 of their 11 possessions over the final five minutes of the first half as Creighton opened up a nine-point cushion at the break capped off on a steal by junior guard Trey Alexander and a rhythm three off the scramble by redshirt sophomore forward Mason Miller.
Kalkbrenner finished the opening half with a game-high 14 points and the Bluejays closed the period on a 20-6 run, shredding Xavier’s defense at every opportunity down the stretch to build a 38-29 halftime lead. Creighton shot just 4-of-16 from three in the first half, but they offset it with 26 points on 13-of-20 shooting inside the arc.
That onslaught continued after intermission with Creighton scoring its first 10 points of the second half at the rim, including a two more dunks by Kalkbrenner, while holding Xavier scoreless on six of its first seven possessions. That prompted Sean Miller to burn two of his three remaining timeouts as he watched his team’s 9-point halftime deficit balloon to 16 in the first three minutes out of the locker room.
“We didn’t start well, so we really allowed this crowd — which was already kind of on fire to start the game — we threw some gasoline on it that first four or five minutes,” Creighton head coach Greg McDermott said. “But I thought the guys really settled in. We saw some stuff after that first time out that we thought we were missing Kalkbrenner kind of behind the defense. Then they started to find him and that kind of loosened everything up and that’s kind of when our defense kicked in. But the end of the first half we stopped them seven straight times we score three in a row — it would have been four without the moving screen at the buzzer there — and then we scored six out of seven possessions coming out of the out of the chute and they scored on one out of six or seven, and we’re able to create some separation.”
Xavier’s defense tightened after Miller’s second timeout of the second half. They got stops on six possessions in a row to trim the deficit to eight, but Creighton punched back with a 17-5 run over a three-and-a-half-minute span that featured buckets on seven straight trips up the floor to make it 66-46 with 9:13 left to play.
However, the Musketeers, who entered the game 13-10 and fighting desperately to keep their NCAA Tournament hopes alive, didn’t lay down in the face of that 20-point deficit on their home floor. That started making tough shots and extended their defense 94 feet to try to trap, scrap, and claw enough mistakes out of Creighton to give themselves a chance at a miracle comeback. That effort resulted in the deficit getting cut all the way down to five points with less than a minute to play. But the reigning, two-time Big East Defensive Player of the Year had one more big-time play to add to his highlight reel when Kalkbrenner met Xavier’s stud sophomore wing Desmond Claude mano a mano at the rim for his fourth blocked shot with 37.7 seconds remaining, then junior point guard Steven Ashworth went 4-for-4 at the free throw line the rest of the way to seal the deal.
“That’s just my job in general to protect the rim,” Kalkbrenner said. “I try to cover up for my teammates sometimes and I was able to get that one.”
Greg McDermott wasn’t quite as understated about the play as his senior center, though, calling it one of the best rim challenges he has seen at the college level.
“You got two studs going up there to meet. Desmond Claude is a heck of an athlete and scores at the rim as well as anybody in our league, and those two met right at the rim.
“It’s very hard to be disciplined in that situation when a guy’s coming at you like a freight train. And [Kalkbrenner] was able to keep his hands back and made a heck of a play and then Steven was able to ice from the free throw line.”
The other three Jays that make up the rest of the core four on a nightly basis all did their thing to supplement Kalkbrenner’s dominance. Alexander had 10 points, nine rebounds, five assists, two steals, and played all 40 minutes. Ashworth had 12 points and nine assists — his most in a game since January 17th of last year. While he missed seven of the eight threes he attempted, the one he knocked down was big in the final four minutes. And senior guard Baylor Scheierman had his fourth straight double-double with 16 points, 12 rebounds, eight assists and only one turnover.
“I think Trey Alexander is an NBA player,” Miller said. “He can do it all … and Baylor Scheierman, he’s one of my favorite players I’ve ever coached against. His ability to pass at his size, rebound, shoot, [play with] toughness, make big plays — I think he’s one of the best players in college basketball.
“If Creighton gets into March Madness like they were a year ago, they are capable of winning as many games as anybody. I certainly would not want to play them … we’ve played seemingly ever great team in America east of the Mississippi, and even a couple out west; Houston, Purdue, UConn — on a given night on a neutral court, Creighton is their equal. I’m very sure of that. I thought they were really impressive here today.”
Now that they’ve split the AMP/Cintas road trip and improved to 17-7 on the season, the Jays will head back home for a quick turnaround against Georgetown on Tuesday night. It’s Dollar “Beverage” Night at CHI Health Center Omaha. Creighton will most likely be a comfortable favorite going in, perhaps the last time they’ll be in that spot for the rest of the season based on the remaining slate, but after already dropping two home games in conference play Creighton can’t afford to take anyone for granted in their own building at stage.
“Hopefully we’ll have a great crowd,” McDermott said. “These last seven games are so important as we try to get as good of a seed as we possibly can in the Big East Tournament and hopefully beyond that. But we’ve had great crowds and student [section] here today was incredible and I hope we can have that Tuesday night and then some. I think some beverages are sold for $1. I call it something else. I guess the politically correct thing is to say it’s “dollar beverage tonight,” but all our fans know what it really is, so let’s come out have a good time.”
Tip-off between the Jays and Hoyas is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. (CT).