Bluejay Beat Podcast:
Creighton was 6-1 last season in games following a loss, and coming off a disappointing home defeat to open Big East play Monday night, they came out determined to get one back. The Jays had a double digit lead before the game was four minutes old, building a 14-4 edge thanks to six early points from Christian Bishop and three-pointes from Denzel Mahoney, Marcus Zegarowski and Damien Jefferson.
Then Mitch Ballock picked up where he left off on Monday, burying a pair of long threes as the Jays built a 16-point lead at 28-12.
“Early in the game, he got into the paint, he sprayed it around, he got teammates involved early and that set the tone for the rest of the game,” Greg McDermott said on his postgame radio show. “Marcus set the table for us to do the things that make us so good. When you come off a loss like we did against Marquette, you hope your team will respond, and I felt like we responded in practice, and obviously, the preparation carried over to the start of the game.โ
But despite that table-setting and their fast start, they’d make just 1 of their next 11 shots, going seven-and-a-half minutes without a basket during a 14-2 St. John’s run. The prolonged drought saw their lead dwindle to 30-26. As turnovers and missed shots mounted, the Red Storm began to play their game — score fast, force their opponent to make mistakes, rinse and repeat.
โSometimes when a team makes their runs, we start to panic as a team,โ Damien Jefferson told the media afterward. โTonight I tried to tell everybody to calm down, weโre good. Itโs the game of basketball. Everybody makes runs. Letโs figure it out.โ
And so they took a deep breath and got back to playing their game, making more precise passes and better decisions with the ball to use St. John’s aggressiveness against them. The Red Storm got no closer as Zegarowski scored five quick points on a three and a floater in the paint, and then Duke transfer Alex O’Connell — playing in his first game as a Bluejay after gaining immediate eligibility the day before — hit his first basket as a Jay.
Ahead 41-34 at the break, there was a sense that a potential blowout had gotten away from them — but also a sense that perhaps they’d righted the ship in time. The latter sense evaporated quickly when the Red Storm scored the first five points of the second half, fueled by back-to-back turnovers and a missed layup. Jefferson had the answer.
First, he stole the ball from Greg Williams, Jr. and started a fastbreak that led to Zegarowski draining a three.
A couple of possessions later, he fed Bishop for a dunk. Then Zegarowski drove into the paint, collapsed the defense, and kicked it out to Mitch Ballock for a long three.
St. John’s made one last grasp for the lead when Dylan Addae-Wusu hit a jumper to cut the Jays’ advantage to 52-50. With the lead and perhaps the balance of the game in doubt, it was once again Jefferson who stepped up. For a few minutes, the game turned into the Damien Jefferson Show. He had assists on two of the next three buckets, showing off an array of skills — pump fakes, jump stops, collapsing the defense with his dribble and then dishing to an open shooter — that swung the complexion of the game in CU’s favor for good. He guarded St. John’s leading scorer in the game, Julian Champagnie, during that span and held him scoreless. He created his own offense. For a player who often does a whole lot of little things that go unnoticed, it was a showcase moment.
And his biggest play of the night was this one, where he fought for an offensive rebound, spun 180-degrees to free up space, and dropped in a short jumper. It capped a 14-2 Creighton run, opened up a 12-point lead, and took all the wind out of St. John’s sails.
“Heโs a star in his role,” McDermott said. “The role that he plays for us is really, really important. We arenโt going to realize how good he is and how valuable he is to our program until heโs no longer there. Weโre not where we are a year ago, weโre not where we are today, without him. Heโs a very important leadership component to this engine, and he makes it run in a lot of ways. He puts his fingerprints all over the game, and thatโs a sign of a really special player.โ
Jefferson echoed that sentiment, telling the media that while he knows he’s not going to be the guy that scores 30 every night, “I can be the guy who gets defensive stops, who gets multiple rebounds, who encourages his teammates. I try to be the best teammate I can be.โ
Key Stats:
Damien Jefferson finished just shy of the first triple-double by a Bluejay in 35 years, as Benoit Benjamin remains the last one to do so, with 10 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists.
Marcus Zegarowski had a massive bounce-back game after a rough one against Marquette. He made 6-of-7 from three point range, dished out five assists, and scored 20 points. But most impressive might have been his one turnover in 32 minutes against St. John’s pressure defense.
Ryan Kalkbrenner had a breakout game, scoring 15 points with five rebounds (three of them offensive) with two blocks and an assist. He made 7-of-13 from the field, and showed more glimpses of just how good he might be down the road. Combined with Christian Bishop’s line of 11 points and 10 rebounds, the Jays two primary centers had 26 points and 15 boards in 34 minutes.
And in his Bluejay debut, Alex O’Connell scored six points in 12 minutes, showing some of the offensive skillset that could make him an important piece as the season goes on.
“Alex needs to get in game condition again, and his mindset has to change. He’s been on the scout team since he got here,” McDermott said of his debut. “We went with him first off the bench tonight not because I chose to play him in front of other guys, I just thought it would be easier for him to be out there with four starters. We wanted him to get comfortable his first run out there with guys who have played together a bunch. And he did some good things. He’s going to settle in. And he’s going to get a lot better as we go.”
As a team, the Jays shot 68.8% in the second half as they pulled away, including 6-of-8 on threes. They had an assist on 23 of their 38 made baskets. They outscored St. John’s 42-30 in the paint. It wasn’t all good — they did have a season-worst 14 turnovers. But it was a bounce-back win on the road where they re-inserted themselves as one of the favorites in the league, and that’s the important thing.