The Providence Friars used a 12-2 run at the beginning of the game and an 11-2 run at the end of the half to lead to them to a 74-65 victory over the Creighton Bluejays on Saturday night at CenturyLink Center Omaha.
Coming off a home loss to St. John’s on Wednesday, the Friars (14-5, 4-2 Big East) got another big contribution from sophomore point guard Kris Dunn to help his team bounce back. Dunn scored 17 of his team-high 21 points in the second half and hit several big shots or “back-breakers”, as Providence head coach Ed Cooley called them, to keep the Bluejays (9-10, 0-6 Big East) and the crowd from gaining any momentum for a potential comeback.
“We made four or five shots today, I thought, that were back-breakers at the shot clock and end of the first half,” said Cooley. “Jalen [Lindsey] made one in the second half. Kris Dunn made two in the second half. Those are back breakers.”
After falling behind by double digits, the Bluejays fought back as they have done throughout their recent slump. They got the deficit to within one point on two occasions, the last coming with 3:01 left in the first half when Creighton freshman forward Toby Hegner tipped in a missed 3-pointer by senior point guard Austin Chatman to make a 23-22 ball game.
But Providence responded when freshman forward Jalen Lindsey buried a 3-pointer to kick off an 11-2 run by the Friars to end the half. Senior forward LeDontae Henton capped off the run by hitting a 3-pointer from the right corner with about three seconds left on the game clock to send Providence to the locker room with a 34-24 lead.
“It’s the game.” Creighton head coach Greg McDermott said of the big runs his team gave up at the beginning and end of the first half.
“We felt it was really important to get off to a good start, to get our crowd engaged to start the game,” McDermott added. “That didn’t happen. Then we regain the momentum and got the crowd into the game, and the lost some momentum right before halftime. It’s difficult, when you’re a fan, when that happens and I understand that. It’s our responsibility to do something to get them to be excited, and we did not do that at the start of the half nor at the end of the half.”
James Milliken led the Jays in scoring on Saturday night (Streur/WBR)
The Bluejays opened the second half on a 9-3 run that ended with a 3-pointers by senior forward Ricky Kreklow and junior guard James Milliken to cut Providence’s lead to 37-33 with 16:49 remaining in the period. With his team in need of an answer, Big East leading scorer Henton scored five of his 18 points as part of a 10-0 Friars run to push the lead back to double digits.
It stayed that way for most of the second half, but the Bluejays had a late rally left in them. Trailing 62-51 with 5:09 left to play, James Milliken scored six of the next eight points for Creighton to help trim the deficit to 65-59 with just over three minutes still to go. Milliken finished with a game-high 22 points on 8-of-12 shooting, but the hero of this contest was Providence point guard Kris Dunn.
The redshirt sophomore floor general proved too much to handle for the Creighton defense as he drove, dribbled, and spun his way to any spot on the floor. The result was two mid-range jumpers on consecutive possessions to make it a double digit game once again as he finished with 21 points on 7-of-15 shooting to go along with eight rebounds, seven assists, and two steals in his 37 minutes on the court.
“He’s really tough, he’s shifty, he’s really good with the ball screen,” Bluejay senior forward Avery Dingman said of Dunn. “He made big plays down the stretch.”
After getting a more comfortable lead the Friars closed out the win by knocking down 5-of-6 at the free throw line in the final minute and change to give them a much needed win after they dropped a home game earlier in the week. “We didn’t play well at home, but we are very familiar with Creighton,” Ed Cooley said. “I think this is the fourth time we’ve played Creighton in the last 21 or 22 games over a six or seven month period. So we’re very very familiar with their personnel, style of play, so I think that played into us playing today.
“I thought we had a great great effort by Kris [Dunn] today. Kris played at a high level. LeDontae [Henton] made some timely baskets. I thought our young kids came in and gave us some energy. So it’s a great team win. We were really really nervous coming in with all the energy that was in the building. The last time we played in here we got our doors blown off, so it’s a great team win. Really hard to win on the road in the Big East.”
For the Bluejays, the loss drops them to below .500 on the season, marking the first time they have lost seven games in a row since the 1994-95 team lost nine games in a row. Creighton also fell to 0-6 in conference play for the first time since the 1993-94 team started league play with seven consecutive losses before getting their first win. Even though the struggles mounting and the confidence fading, Kreklow said the team is going to stick together.
“It’s not fun,” Kreklow said. “A lot of guys here have been on a lot of successful teams. Obviously nobody is happy with the results we’ve been getting, but one thing I will say I’m proud of this team for is everyone is sticking together. When you get to conference play nothing is easy. I mean it’s one of those deals where you can lose a few in a row just as easily as you can get hot and go win three in row. So it’s something that we can’t get down on ourselves about.
“We have to start stealing games on the road and protect home floor better and put ourselves in a position, going into the middle of league play here, to give us a good shot to start working our way up the league. But we have to do that one game at a time.”
Creighton’s next opportunity to get up off the deck and get that first conference win will come on Wednesday when they travel to Hinkle Fieldhouse to take on the Butler Bulldogs (13-6, 3-3 Big East). Butler dropped a 61-59 decision at Georgetown prior to the Creighton-Providence game and like the Friars were coming into Omaha, will be looking to bounce back and stay in the race near the top of the Big East standings.
Tip-off between the Bluejays and Bulldogs is set for 8:15 p.m. (CST). The game will be televised on Fox Sports 1.