Creighton showed off the type of absurdity they are capable of offensively on Saturday afternoon when knocked down 19-of-22 shots between the end of the first half and early stages of the second to turn a tie game into a 30-point cushion on their way to an 89-60 win over North Dakota State.
Trey Alexander had an all-around stat line for the day (WIlliams / WBR)
Junior guard Trey Alexander led the Jays to their second win of the season with 21 points, seven rebounds, four assists, and a career-high five steals in 31 minutes. Senior center Ryan Kalkbrenner scored 13 points — all of which came after halftime, and senior guard Baylor Scheierman added 17 points and a game-high six assists. The Bluejays shot 80.8% from 2-point range and knocked down 12 of their 28 attempts from beyond the arc overwhelm the Bison with efficiency in improving to 2-0 on the young season.
North Dakota State came out swinging with five buckets on their first eight possessions to open up an 11-6 lead at the under-16 media timeout. Senior guard Baylor Scheierman got Creighton’s offense jumpstarted with a perfect trip to the free throw line, a turnaround jumper in the lane off a baseline out-of-bounds set, and a left wing 3-ball after an offensive rebound by freshman forward Isaac Traudt to give CU a 13-11 lead.
The Jays didn’t trail the rest of the half and closed the first half with six different players combining to knock down eight straight shots to build a 41-31 lead at the break on the rout was on from there.
“We have a lot of guys who can score, and they know that, so they are willing to share the basketball and turn a good shot into a better shot,” Creighton head coach Greg McDermott said. “That was a key point in the game for us to be able to create a little separation there to give us some momentum going into halftime.”
Creighton turned the ball over at a 25.8% clip in the opening 20 minutes and lacked intensity on the defensive end, especially in ball screens, but the superb shot-making allowed them to open up a lead going into the locker room. CU shot 9-for-12 (75.0%) inside the arc, 6-for-13 (46.2%) beyond it, and 5-for-6 (83.3%) at the free throw line in the first half. Scheierman led all players with 14 points on 5-of-7 shooting in the first half. Alexander wasn’t far off the pace with 10 points of his own.
Ryan Kalkbrenner led a 16-0 run to start the 2nd half for the Jays (Williams / WBR)
The spurt to end the first half featured four different players splashing threes. The continuation to start the second half was on the back of the big man. After going scoreless and attempting only one shot in 18 minutes in the first half, Kalkbrenner went 5-for-5 and put up 11 points, including a rim-friendly 3-pointer, in the first 4:01 out of the locker room as part of a 16-0 run by CU.
“Some of that was about me being more assertive before the ball gets to me,” Kalkbrenner said. “There were a couple plays in the first half where I let them push me off my spot. In the second half I tried to stay on my spot and stay where I could get the ball easier. These guys do a great job of looking for me when I’m open. I was just more assertive before I got the ball. That was a big thing.”
Establishing their All-American man in the middle allowed Creighton’s offense to score on 15 of their first 17 possessions after halftime. By the midway point of the second half, they had opened up a 76-48 lead from what was a 10-point edge at the break.
“In the first half, we were kind of backwards in our thinking,” McDermott said. “We thought we’re going to hit some mid-range [shots], we’re going to hit some threes, and then they’ll stretch out and we’ll get it to Kalkbrenner. At halftime, we had a discussion that we were going to go about it a different way. We were able to get him touches early, and he said it, his physicality wasn’t where it needed to be either. Sometimes you can get lost when you play in our system as a big guy … it can be difficult, but we have to make sure he’s a part of what we do at all times. He’s too valuable, and once he’s established everybody else’s job becomes easier.”
Along with leading the way in the scoring column, the Jays also got a tone-setting defensive performance out of Trey Alexander. Senior guard Boden Skunberg came into the day averaging 21 points per game through NDSU’s first two outings. He was held to 2 points and forced into five turnovers with Alexander tracking him in the first half. After halftime, the Preseason All-Big East combo guard switch onto sophomore guard Damari Wheeler-Thomas and held him to 2 points on 1-of-4 shooting after he led the Bison with 13 points on 6-7 FG in the first half.
His head coach was almost at a loss for words after the game when asked about the third-year Bluejays’ impact.
“He’s really good,” McDermott said. “The problem is he can’t be everywhere, that’s the problem. But he certainly does a great job and takes a lot of pride in it — on top of everything we ask him to do offensively.”
North Dakota State was a step up from Florida A&M and that trend will continue for Creighton when they take the court on Tuesday night against Iowa at 9:00 p.m. (CT) as part of the Gavitt Tip-Off Games. The Hawkeyes finished fourth nationally in adjusted offensive efficiency, while the Bluejays came in at 21st. That sets up for some fireworks at CHI Health Center Omaha.
“A game like that is a game that I feel like always goes in our favor because I feel like we are ready for those types of games,” Alexander said. “That’s literally our motto is to let it fly. We’re trying to get up and down the court, and I think we do that as well as anybody in the country.”