Justin Patton continued to wow the Creighton fans on Saturday night with his athletic plays (Williams / WBR) CLICK TO BUY
For about 35 minutes, the Akron Zips gave 10th-ranked Creighton all they could handle on Saturday night, but a five-minute stretch early in the second half was enough for the Bluejays to create enough separation and hold on for an 82-70 win and improve to 8-0 on the season.
Marcus Foster, Justin Patton, Maurice Watson Jr., and Cole Huff all made plays that were key to turning a three-point game into a 19-point lead.
“Our pace and what we do, it just takes one run that’s a knockout punch,” Creighton head coach Greg McDermott said. “That was it. Very similar to the Wisconsin game at about the same point in the game. Our guys just have to stay with it and keep believing in it that it’s going to pay off.”
In the early battle over tempo, it was Creighton’s fast pace that won out over Akron’s patience. Bluejay junior guard Marcus Foster, who was honored prior to the game for surpassing 1,000 points in his college career, put up 11 of the Creighton’s first 12 points on his own, punctuated by a high-flying breakaway to dunk, to help the nation’s 10th-ranked team jump out to a 12-3 lead just five minutes into the contest.
“I thought the start was really critical,” Creighton head coach Greg McDermott said. “We haven’t got off to the best starts, but we were up 12-3 and they scored on one of their first ten possessions. I thought our activity with the double teams on [Akron center Isaiah Johnson] were effective, and had it not been for two or three turnovers in transition we really would’ve had a chance to create some separation.”
Despite fast start by Foster and the Bluejays, the Zips didn’t stray from what they wanted to do. They’re patience got them back in the game when their shots late in the shot-clock started to fall. Trailing by as many as nine points early, they cut the deficit to 21-17 with 9:29 left in the first half on a straightaway 3-pointer by junior guard Aaron Jackson.
Creighton answered right away to stretch the lead out to nine on a trailer 3-pointer by freshman center Justin Patton and a driving layup against a 5-on-4 advantage by senior forward Cole Huff.
The Zips caught a break as the first half wound down when Creighton point guard Maurice Watson, Jr. joined Justin Patton on the bench with two fouls apiece. The visitors weren’t able to trim the lead down much, but a runner in the final seconds by freshman point guard Tavian Dunn-Martin sent Akron to the locker room trailing by seven, 37-30.
Marcus Foster scored 11 of the first 12 points for the Jays and got them off to a great start (Williams / WBR) CLICK TO BUY
Marcus Foster finished the first half with 19 points on 7-of-11 shooting in 18 minutes. He was the only player in double figures for either team at the half, and credited a pregame adjustment for his strong play in the opening period.
“It was just about staying focused through warm-ups,” said the Kansas State transfer. “As we talked about last week, we’ve got to have a better mental approach to the game, so I was just really focused and locked in through warm-ups, and it just carried over to the first couple plays of the game.”
Akron doubled up the Bluejays, 8-4, in the first couple minutes of the second half to make it a one-possession game. A 3-pointer by sophomore guard Josh Williams with 16:15 left to play cut Creighton’s lead to 41-38, but that was as close as Akron would get to pulling off the upset.
Over the next five minutes, Patton, Foster, Watson, and Huff ripped off a 19-3 run to give the Bluejays their largest lead of the night at 60-41 with 11:06 remaining. As the roll man to the rim in the pick and roll, Patton threw down an alley-oop and a pair of quick release layups; Huff buried to step-out 3-pointers on the wing on ball reversals by Watson, who also buried a 3-pointer of his own during the stretch, and Foster provided the exclamation point towards the tail end when he leaked out ahead, received a pass from Patton, and slammed it home.
“We are pretty solid defensive team, but the hard part with them is it’s really hard to protect the rim,” Akron head coach Keith Dambrot said. “With [Patton] running to the rim all the time it doesn’t matter if you’re in good position or not, you just can’t get it stopped. Then they do a really good job of spreading you out. Obviously they have good pieces. They have a big time point guard, a center that can run to the rim, and three guys around them that can all make shots. It puts pressure on you defensively.”
Akron hung around long enough after Creighton’s big run to put the final result in doubt somewhat, but Huff hit another big 3-pointer on a pick and pop, and Foster sealed the deal when he drove baseline and finished at the rim with an acrobatic layup to put the Bluejays up 80-70 with just over a minute to go.
Foster led all scorers with a season-high 27 points on 11-of-19 shooting. Huff finished with 16 after scoring 11 points on 4-of-7 shooting in the second half. The catalyst for it all on Saturday night was Maurice Watson, Jr. The senior point guard recorded his fifth double-double as a Bluejay with 14 points and 13 assists to go along with three steals in his 33 minutes on the floor.
“He’s the key to our success,” Foster said. “We go as far as he goes. I’ve just never seen a point guard so unselfish like him. He could have 20 points a night, but he chooses to pass and get his guys open. That’s what get him going into his shots and his layups. I love playing with Maurice, having a point guard who is going to find me and get other people involved before he thinks about himself.”
Creighton’s next game will be its first true road test of the season when they travel down to Lincoln to take on in-state rival Nebraska on Wednesday, December 7th at 8:00 p.m from Pinnacle Bank Arena. The Huskers are 5-3 on the season, but improved to 4-0 at home this season with a 73-61 win over South Dakota a few hours prior to tip-off between the Bluejays and Akron.
See photos from WBR photographers Brad Williams and Mike Spomer of the win.