The visiting North Carolina Central Eagles got the low possession game they wanted in the first half, but Creighton made adjustments and started dictating the pace late as they pulled away to improve to 4-0 on the season with a 65-45 victory in front of more than 17,000 fans at the CenturyLink Center on Sunday afternoon.
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“Being able to come out on top of North Carolina Central by 20 is like beating a lot of teams by 40,” said head coach Greg McDermott. “It’s difficult to play against that. I think it was a 59 or 60 possession game, which is obviously not the way we like to play. But to their credit they really controlled the tempo for certainly the first 25 minutes of the game.”
Another poor shooting opening half for Creighton made it easier for the Eagles to control the tempo as the Jays shot 8 for 28 in the first half, including a 2 for 12 mark from beyond the arc. They missed their first six shots from the field before a tip-in by sophomore center Zach Hanson got them on the board with 16:44 to go in the first half.
Isaiah Zierden scored a game-high 20 points against North Carolina Central (WBR/Brad Williams)
The Bluejays tried to push the ball when they got stops, but North Carolina Central abandoned the offensive glass in order to limit Creighton’s opportunities in transition. It worked for most of the half, while on the offensive the Eagles would often have a ball-handler stand just inside half court and let the clock tick down to about 14-15 seconds before getting into a set and attacking. With Creighton struggling to get anything to fall, the Eagles built a 20-15 lead on a three-pointer by Anthony McDonald with 6:21 remaining in the half.
The Bluejays battled back, and Hanson tipped in a missed layup by Will Artino to cut the deficit to one. Then Isaiah Zierden stole the ball away from North Carolina Central center Nate Maxey down low and drew a loose ball foul as he wrestled for control of the ball. With the Jays in the bonus, Zierden stepped to the free throw line and knocked down a pair to put Creighton ahead, 21-20, with just under five minutes to go.
After a dunk in transition by Jeremiah Ingram, the Bluejays brought the ball down for the final shot of the half. Senior Devin Brooks drove to just to right of top of the key, got two Eagle defenders in the air with a shot fake, re-adjusted and buried a three-pointer with 0.2 seconds left to give Creighton a 27-22 lead at halftime. It was a pretty ending to a play that wasn’t quite executed the way it was designed, according to Coach McDermott.
“No. Not at all,” McDermott said when asked if that was how he drew up the play. “There isn’t much that Dev does that’s exactly like I draw up. Devin will be Devin.”
Brooks said he was trying to make a play when things broke down to give his team a much-needed lift before halftime.
“I think it gave us a lift, it was kind of a tough shot,” Brooks said. “Before that it was a play we ran for me and I gave it to Zach and I got a turnover, so that next play I made had to be a big one. I made a shot. I practice those sometimes in practice, so it came together today.”
Brooks led all players with eight points in 14 minutes of action in the first half.
Coming out in the second half, another senior provided a lift for the Bluejays. Center Will Artino, who only had one point and two rebounds in the first half, came out and scored eight of Creighton’s first 10 points to extend the lead to 37-26 with 15:09 left. His final basket during that run came after he chased down a layup that he missed with no one around him, then flipped it up and in, drawing a foul and converting at the free throw line. It was the type of play he has made a habit of making.
“I’m just going through a rough patch right now, I guess. I’ll get back in the gym and get the kinks figured out,” Artino said. “I’ll get back to finishing the first ones. I’d rather finish the first ones, too.”
He added that it probably won’t be last time we see him make a play like that after a miss.
North Carolina Central responded to the big stretch, cutting the deficit to single digits with 10:09 remaining. But the Jays got some big plays by sophomore guard Isaiah Zierden in crunch time to blow the game open. First he hit a pair of three-pointers from the left corner on some aggressive drive-and-kicks by point guard Austin Chatman to extend the lead to 49-36. He later pushed the lead out to 56-39 after he stole a cross-court pass and drew a foul on a breakaway layup on the other end. He made both free throws on the foul, then hit one out of two shortly there after when North Carolina Central head coach LeVelle Moton received a technical foul for arguing with one of the officials.
Devin Brooks, Will Artino, and Austin Chatman regroup against North Carolina Central (WBR/Adam Streur)
Zierden dropped two more three-pointers from the right wing to give Creighton the 20-point edge at the end. He scored 15 of Creighton’s final 24 points, finishing with a career-high 20. It’s the third time in the first four games that he has set a new career mark for points in a game. For him, his stretch at the end of the game was just an example of the way they are coached to take the open shot in rhythm regardless of how many you’ve missed up to that point.
“We are realizing that shots aren’t going to fall every game,” Zierden said. “It is tough, but you still gotta have the confidence, because I know coach has the confidence in us to make it. We’ve put enough time in the gym to shoot those, and so they’re going to fall eventually. You just can’t stop doing what you do.”
One thing the Bluejays have done in the last two games, particularly when the shots aren’t falling, is get stops on the defensive end to keep them in the game until the shooting can recover. It’s a mindset the Jays know is important, especially early on, in order to continue to win games.
“It’s coming with experience and through practice,” Artino said. “Obviously, I think the Oklahoma game gave us a lot of confidence on defense. We were able to come back from 18 down relying on our defense. That was the thing, we started 2 for 15 or something in this game, and our defense kept us in the game. We were able to get stops. That’s the big thing is understanding that if we can get stops we know we have enough shooters that eventually somebody is going to find a hot hand like [Zierden] found a hot hand in the second half tonight. He hit like four threes or something. We know that we can shoot ourselves back into a game as long we keep getting consecutive stops in a row, we can’t be trading baskets. Multiple stops in a row is a big thing that we’ve talked about.”
Today’s win was the second game in a row won by the Jays where they faced a veteran team with postseason experience and athleticism at every position. It’s a position Creighton has and will have to continue to combat against in other ways in order to be successful.
“We’re going to play a lot of teams that have athletic advantages over us, which is okay. We’re fine with that,” Coach McDermott said. “The reality is most of the teams we played last year had athletic advantages over us. We just have to have execution advantages over them. One of my messages to the team before the game was we have to out-discipline a disciplined team this afternoon. North Carolina Central is very good in what they do and how they execute, and we had to find a way to be more disciplined than they are. Only turning it over nine times, and them turning it over 17 is what we needed to have happen. Getting to the free throw line, keeping them off the free throw line. Those are all recipes for success for us, so I think we’re getting, as Isaiah said, I think we’re getting a better understanding of who we are and where the weaknesses are, where our strengths are. I thought the guys did a good job of finding Isaiah after he hit that first one, and then bang, bang, bang he hits four in a row. Those are the type of things that need to happen and it was good to see it happen in the second half.”
Austin Chatman drives against North Carolina Central (WBR/Adam Streur)
The Bluejays will have a quick turnaround before returning to the court on Tuesday to host the Eastern Illinois Panthers, who lost 55-49 at Cincinnati shortly after Creighton finished off North Carolina Central.
Austin Chatman believes this game to important for a few reasons before the Bluejays hit the road for the first time this season.
“It’s big, because we’re still a young group, so guys don’t know what to expect going on the road. We kind of want to win this tournament, so getting this win will be big for our confidence.”
Tip-off between the Bluejays and Panthers is set for 7:01 p.m. from the CenturyLink Center and the game will be televised once again on Fox Sports 1.