Key Stats:
Creighton shot just 6-24 from three-point range, making three in each half, their worst shooting performance of the year.
Creighton outscored Villanova 59-53 with Mo Watson on the floor, and were outscored 27-11 without him.
Standout Performance:
There were huge performances on both sides in this one. Josh Hart had a double-double with 18 points and 10 boards. Jalen Brunson scored 27 points with five assists and four boards, going 10-14 from the floor and 5-7 from long range. Justin Patton scored 18 points on 9-12 shooting, made his first five shots of the game, and was two boards shy of a double-double. Marcus Foster scored 22 points in a game where he was 2-11 from three-point range, because he was 7-9 from everywhere else.
For Creighton, Watson is almost always the straw that stirs the drink, with apologies to Reggie Jackson, and that was the case again Saturday even though his line wasn’t overly impressiveย (six points, nine assists). They outscored the Wildcats by six with him on the floor, and were beaten by 16 when he wasnโt. Heโs got to stay on the floor for Creighton to reach their potential, and to do that he has to stop picking up dumb fouls.
Recap & Analysis:
Often times when a game is hyped the way this one was, the actual game doesnโt live up to the hype. A battle of two undefeated teams ranked in the top ten, one of them the defending national champ, the other a program ready to take the next step. The first game in the Big East pitting two undefeated top ten teams in a quarter of a century, the first in major conference basketball in almost a decade. The anticipation began building the minute the game with Seton Hall ended Wednesday night, and the excitement was palpable from the minute the doors to the CenturyLink Center opened Saturday morning.
Creighton students began lining up at 7:00am to get in โ a full hour before the doors to the arena lobby opened so they could wait inside for the gates to open at 10:30am. All totaled, 18,831 fans crammed into the arena, and when the lights dropped and the Jays took the court, the sight of an entire arena waving rally towels while making enough noise to register a 110 on the decibel meter was enough to give anyone with a pulse goosebumps.
Then the game started, and Creighton made five straight shots to take a 13-5 lead โ four close-range shots from Justin Patton and Marcus Foster, and a three from Cole Huff. The lead was extended to 19-9 on one of Huffโs patented fadeaway jumpers with six minutes gone in the half, and behind 11 early points from the Bluejay forward, the Jays had the champ on the ropes. The pregame noise was just a precursor; at that point it was so loud inside the CLink, my ears were ringing like I was at a rock concert and the people sitting in front of us left to go stand in the concourse because their little girl complained it was โtoo loudโ (True story).
Josh Hart told the media afterward that at one point during that run, teammate Kris Jenkins was trying to relay a message to him, and despite standing five feet away, he couldnโt hear a word he was saying.
Then Watson picked up his second foul and headed to the bench, giving the champ just enough breathing room to punch back. Patton, after starting the game a perfect 5-5 from the floor, soon joined him on the bench after picking up his second.
Within four minutes of Watson leaving, Villanova led 25-24, getting eight points from Jalen Brunson and a three from Kris Jenkins in an 11-0 run. Greg McDermott had no choice but to take the gamble of putting Watson back in, and with him back on the floor, Creighton retook the lead 39-33. He went back to the bench with two minutes to go in the half, and โNova ended it on a 9-2 run โ including a back-breaking three at the buzzer by Jenkins โ to take a 42-41 lead into the locker room.
That seven-minute stretch in the first half where Watson sat with two fouls changed the complexion of the game โ the Bluejays were running and scoring in rhythm, they were dictating tempo, and theyโd built a double-digit lead on the #1 team in the country in front a wild home crowd. Itโs always a marked difference between when Watson is on the floor and when he isnโt, but it was never more evident than it was on Saturday. With him, Creighton was going toe-to-toe with the best team in the country, and was good enough to beat them straight-up. Without him, they played slower, more tentatively, and with less confidence โ Villanova smelled blood in the water any time he left, and took advantage the way great teams do.
Creighton would lead twice more by a single point, both within in the first four minutes of the second half, but then the Wildcats began to pull away. With 10:38 to go, VU led 63-54 after back-to-back buckets from Eric Paschall and a jumper from the unheralded Donte DiVincenzo. They made eight of their first 12 second half field goals — two 3’s, five layups and a dunk — and were on the verge of putting the game on ice.
As it turned out, CU had one more run in them, and it started with their freshman center. Patton scored on two straight alley-oop dunks, the latter a lob from Isaiah Zierden that looked to be going five rows deep into the crowd until Pattonโs long arms grabbed the ball from out of nowhere to slam it home.
A three from Zierden cut it to 63-61, and then Watson tied it up on a pair of free throws. After Villanova retook the lead 66-63, Zierden tied it once more on another three, and with 4:47 to go the Jays had Villanova right where they wanted โem.
Alas, it was not to be. Hart hit a tough shot moments later to give VU a 68-66 lead, Brunson hit an equally tough one to make it 70-66, and the Jays responded by missing wide-open shots, committing turnovers, and playing tight. Foster went 0-4 over the final four minutes, missing three 3-pointers and a midrange jumper. Thomas went 0-2 from three-point range and 1-2 from the line. Watson had a crucial turnover on an ill-advised pass with 36 seconds left, and fouled out moments later. It all added up to a 14-4 run to the end the game for Villanova, and an 80-70 final score that was nowhere near indicative of the way the game went.
Itโs no consolation, and the Bluejays are far too good for moral victories, but the fact remains that for 36 minutes they went back and forth in a high-level game with the #1 team in the country. In the pressure of a tie game late, they got tight and missed shots theyโd normally make. Villanova, on the other hand, has played in more of these situations than you can count โ including on the biggest stage possible, the national championship game โ and has the experience of succeeding in those situations to call on when they arise again. And it showed.
Still, thereโs a lot to be encouraged about. Villanova is legitimately great, and Creighton was *right there* despite not playing their best game. VU led for 17:16, Creighton led for 17:01, and the game was tied for 5:43. There were nine lead changes and five ties. Thatโs the very definition of a game that could have gone either way. They showed they were good enough to play withย the top team in the country, and to beat themย without it being a flukeย or making a ridiculous number of three-pointers.ย Execution cost them the opportunity to knock off the number one team in America, not talent. Has there ever been a team at Creighton in the modern era of college basketball that you could say that about with a straight face?
This teamโs best days are still ahead of it. It hurts like hell that the Jays didnโt find a way to win it, but the beauty of the Big East is they have at least one more crack at the champs, and 16 more high-level games to get them ready for March, where they won’t likely face a team any better than the one they saw Saturday.
They Said It:
โThat second foul on Maurice was huge. It turned the game in the first half, especially with the second foul on Justin shortly thereafter, because then we had two different guys (off the bench) defending that high ball screen after weโd kept it in check early. Its disappointing that we weren’t able to build on the lead. I thought we had a chance to knock them out there. But I’m proud of the way we fought.โย -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame
โIt was 63-63 with five minutes left, and we missed two wide-open threes. Then it’s 68-63, we run a play to get Marcus a wide-open look in the corner, and he missed. As elementary as it sounds, today really came down to one team made four or five more 3-point shots than the other. If you would have told me we’d have forced them into 15 turnovers and only had 11 ourselves, and that they’d only really take six or seven free throws until we had to foul them at the end, I’d have said we’re winning the game because I’d have thought in our building we’d shoot it well and maybe they’d struggle a little. But Brunson really hurt us in the first half.”ย -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame
“Mo was doing a pretty good job on Brunson up until the point where he picked up his second foul. And then the pace of the game was different without him in the game. We just didn’t put pressure on them like we’d like to. We’re a different team when Mo’s not on the floor. There’s no question about it. That upsets our rhythm.”ย -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame
“For most of the first half the pace was more where we wanted it to be. It was a 37 or 38 possession game. In the second half…we fouled them the last three times down. If it had been a tie game with two minutes left (and weโd not fouled to extend it), it would have been an under-30 possession half. It was going to be that low. They just walked it up and took almost 15 seconds before they initiated their offense.โย -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame
โThey’re so experienced, they’re so tough, they’re so hard-nosed, they don’t make a lot of mistakes, but we fought ’em tooth and nail. We’re really, really close. The next step is not an easy step, but we’re close. And Villanova proved today — if you don’t get rattled today in this environment with us up 24-14, the way this place was popping, you’re not ever going to get rattled by anything. Credit to them, they’re a great basketball team and Jay does a great job with them. I look forward to seeing them again.”ย -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame
“I don’t know that their defense gave us a ton of problems. We only turned it over 11 times, and a few of those were foolish. We got good shots against the zone, we got to the rim some against their man-to-man. Villanova does such a good job of committing to the dribble, so that what’s open is those corner threes, and we had a fair amount of those. Cole hit a couple early. Marcus and Tazz have done a good job hitting them all year. They had pretty good looks, and today they didn’t go in. But that’s what Villanova does: they’re not going to allow someone like Maurice Watson to get to the rim over and over again. That’s what they do; they did it to North Carolina, they did it to us. You’re going to have to make some shots to beat them, and unfortunately today we didn’t.”ย -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame
“Our team has worked so hard. Khyri’s shooting has gotten so much better, Maurice’s shooting has gotten better, Marcus and Cole and Toby are in the gym all the time. But the game of basketball is so fickle. Sometimes you just have it, and sometimes you take the exact same shot and it bounces out. You can’t put too much stake in a game where you shoot 6-7, and you also can’t put too much stake in a game where you’re 1-7. It all evens out in the end. But you do have to ask yourself if there’s anything else you can do to help the team win. Marcus has not shot the ball well lately from three, but has done a great job getting to the rim and scoring at the rim. He was 7-9 on two-point shots tonight. Now, he’s a great three-point shooter despite not shooting it well the last three or four games. I think that will even out and he’s going to shoot it great as time goes on. I’ve got confidence in my shooters, and I believe in them. They’re the reason we were 13-0; the way they shot the basketball, the way they value each possession, how they’ve shared the ball all went into that. They shared it today, we just didn’t make enough shots. I knew we weren’t going to win this game in the 60’s. I knew we were going to have to score to beat Villanova. It’s hard to stop them, period. Nobody figured it out through the NCAA Tournament last year, and nobody’s really done it this year. So you have to score to beat them and we had opportunities to do that, wide open shots to change the complexion of the game, and unfortunately they didn’t go in.”ย -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame
“I told our guys before the game to make sure to look around the building and enjoy the atmosphere. I made sure I did it during the starting lineups as well. I’ve never seen this building like this. The Wichita game for the conference title, Senior Night with Doug and Jahenns and Grant and Ethan, those were incredible. But to walk out here with three minutes on the clock before the game and every seat is full, to see them into it from the start, was so cool. The guys talked about it in the media room, and said they’ll never forget it. We had a bunch of recruits in, so it’s good to be able to show them what we’re capable of.”ย -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame
“We played the game we wanted to play. A few things got away from us defensively at times, but my guess is when we go back and look at the film, 75% of the time we were doing the right things. As for the shots that didn’t go in, I don’t know that we could have drawn up anything better. When we got behind by nine, we executed a couple of plays against the zone, we got two dunks, and got the crowd back into it. We gave ourselves a chance and then got it tied up, and just couldn’t finish it. But I’m so proud of our team, of our crowd, and I just wish we could have finished the doggone thing off. I’m really disappointed in that. This just needs to be a little bit of a mole hill, not a mountain, and we need to not make any more of it than it is. It’s one loss in a very good conference. As found out with DePaul going into Villanova and almost winning, and St. John’s beating Butler, anything we thought was going to be easy is not going to be easy in this league. We’ve got to pick ourselves up quickly and get ready for the next one.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame
You Said It:
https://twitter.com/mue11er/status/815218470497288193
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