Key Stats:
What a second half for the Jays: they shot 17-28 from the floor (60.7%), committed just three turnovers, and averaged 1.243 points per possession. Their defense forced Nebraska into tough shots, and the Huskers were 1-12 from three-point range (and 13-41 overall). The only downside was offensive rebounding, where Nebraska had a 12-3 edge; seven of Nebraskaโs 13 made baskets, and their only three, in the second half were the result of an offensive board. Yikes.
It wasnโt all good for the Bluejays. Their free-throw shooting was awful (12-23) and equally bad in both halves (2-7 in the first, 10-16 in the second). That didnโt bite them in this game, but it will at some point. And the worst offenders were some of the guys most likely to be fouled: Marcus Foster was 1-4, Justin Patton was 1-4, and Toby Hegner was 2-4.
Standout Performance:
Nebraska decided to make Mo Watson beat them by shooting the basketball Wednesday night, guarding his teammates closely which resulted in space for the diminutive guard to drive. For all intents and purposes, they were daring him to shoot rather than letting him set up teammates for open looks. They did not want Justin Patton throwing down lob dunks off assists from Watson. Nor did they want Cole Huff and Marcus Foster raining in wide-open threes set up by Watson. They believed they could slow down Creightonโs offense by taking almost everything else away and making Watson shoot.
And so thatโs what he did. Watson took 20 shots, made 10, and scored 25 points, while still managing to dish out eight assists despite the Huskersโ best efforts to corral him. Fully one-third of Creightonโs shot attempts came from Watson (20 of their 59), all of them in the paint, while playing 37 minutes including every second after halftime until taking a curtain call in the gameโs final minute, where he was applauded by what was at that point a majority-CU crowd.
Recap & Analysis:
Nebraska scored the gameโs first points on a jumper by Michael Jacobson the first possession of the night. It would be nearly seven minutes before theyโd score again, and nearly eight minutes before theyโd make another field goal. In between, Creighton built leads of 14-2 and 18-4, turning Pinnacle Bank Arena into a funeral home. You could not have scripted a better start if youโd tried: in building the 14-2 lead, they got four early points from Justin Patton inside, a pair of three-pointers from Cole Huff, and a pair of driving layups from Mo Watson. Then Khyri Thomas got in on the act, stealing the ball from Anton Gill and racing down court for a bucket. At 18-4, the game was two or three possessions away from the point of no return for Nebraska.
Unfortunately, the Jays couldnโt get there. Up 20-8, Marcus Foster missed a contested three before heading to the bench with two fouls. A three from Glynn Watson and a jumper from Jordy Tshimanga, sandwiched around a turnover, made it 20-13. Another turnover gave the Huskers back the ball, and Jacobson hit a shot to make it 20-15. Creighton held serve for awhile, and led 25-19; three consecutive turnovers and three missed free throws later, it was tied at 25 with 3:18 to go.
Huff made sure that didnโt last, hitting a cold-blooded three just 13 seconds later to silence the crowd. A dunk by Martin Krampelj silenced them further. And though a three by Jack McVeigh tied it once more at 30, Huff sent the Jays to the locker room with the lead after a free throw.
The teams traded blows to open the second half, with Marcus Foster leading the charge after an ineffective first half (0-4 shooting with two turnovers in just eight minutes due to foul trouble). Foster scored baskets on three of their first four possessions, and CU took a 41-37 lead at the 15:38 mark. Their leading scorer, Tai Webster, picked up his fourth foul moments later, and Nebraska was never the same. Creightonโs defense tightened the ratchet in his absence, and for nearly seven minutes, the Huskers were scoreless. Just as they did in the first half, Creighton took advantage, using a 10-0 run to build a 51-37 lead.
Unlike in the first half, this time they didnโt take their foot off the accelerator. Even Websterโs return couldnโt stop the bleeding; Creighton eventually built a 21-point lead that sent most of the arena running for the exits, leaving no one to drown out (or hear, sadly) the โC-U! C-Uโ chants from the Bluejay faithful.
A big reason for the second half surge was Toby Hegner. The 6โ10โ junior was recruited when the Jays were in the MVC, was a starter most of his freshman year at the forward spot in the Big East, then saw his role decreased as a sophomore as he came off the bench in 21 of the 33 games. Heโs been continually recruited over, fans have openly speculated about where his minutes would come from as a junior if heโd play at all, and at the beginning of the season he ran with the scout team โ the scout team! โ in practice.
Hegner has quietly found ways to help the Jays win games this year, regardless of where heโs asked to play. He played 16 minutes of sound interior defense in the Wisconsin game, grabbing four huge second half rebounds and helping clog the paint. He played outside and made four 3-pointers in the Paradise Jam title game win over Ole Miss, stepping up on a night shots werenโt falling for others. And against Nebraska, he was a basket shy of a double double with eight points and 10 rebounds, all but one rebound of it in the second half. He had a steal and dribbled the ball โ in traffic, mind you! โ the length of the court for a layup. He had a ferocious put-back dunk over a defender that had to be seen to be believed. And he followed that up with a SECOND dunk on the next possession, 30-some odd seconds later.
Heโll likely never be the star, but great teams donโt win without players like him who are willing and able to do the little things โ boxing out to allow teammates to secure a rebound, playing solid off-ball defense, making hustle plays โ to win. Often times players like that operate behind the scenes, invisible to most observers. But sometimes players like that earn the spotlight by grabbing ten rebounds of their own, stealing the ball and going coast-to-coast for the bucket, and throwing down a dunk off a putback. And by doing those things against Nebraska, Toby Hegner forever secured a place in Bluejay lore.
Creightonโs now won 16 of the last 21 games in this series, evening it up at 25 games apiece. In doing so, theyโve erased the one thing Nebraska fans clung to through all of Creightonโs successes in March and in the head-to-head series: their overall series lead. Now theyโre left to contend with an in-state series that theyโve been dominated in for the better part of two decades, a coach either already on or very nearly on the hot seat, and a rival up the road ranked in the top ten and poised for another NCAA Tournament berth.
Itโs always a great day to be a Bluejay, but some days are better than others. Today is one of those days.
They Said It:
“It’s amazing they could commit as much as they did to defensive transition and still beat us up on the offensive glass. We’ve got to try and get out guards more involved. I talked a little bit in the pregame about Justin. He’s not big and physical, so he gets knocked around out there. It’s tough. He gets a couple of fouls, and we were really scrambling through foul trouble.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame
“It was 14-2, and we’d had layup after layup in transition. We had a good look at a three that we didn’t hit, and then two turnovers at a time where they didn’t score. We really had a chance to extend the lead and maybe blow the game open, but Nebraska didn’t quit. They kept competing and we allowed them to get some easy baskets on some breakdowns. But the game started 18-4, and they scored on only two of their first 16 possessions to start the game. It’s a one-point game at halftime, then they score on only three of their first 15 possessions in the second. We outscored them by 10 during that stretch. So that’s a 24-point swing at the start of each half, which tells you that the starters were pretty locked in to what we needed to do defensively. Offensively, when the ball moved, we were great. When it locked…ugh. We just have to keep watching the film, I guess, because there was a lot of first-side shots again. When we moved it, we got a lot of good things out of it.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame
“We had to ride Maurice pretty hard with some of the other foul trouble, but they took Justin away on the pick-and-roll, and they stayed with shooters. That basically made Maurice a finisher. Well, guess what? He’s a pretty good finisher (laughs). Now, I thought he took a couple of quick ones in transition when we didn’t have a numbers advantage, and right away he knew it, but I’ve got to get him to see that before it happens. There’s probably three or four shots that I think he’d like to have back. But the rest of them, he’s putting pressure on the rim and attacking. Two or three of the other shots he missed, we rebounded and tipped it in because he drew the help defense. Toby got a tip dunk on one of them, and I think Justin tipped one in. He was really good, besides what he did offensively he did a good job defensively on Glynn Watson as well.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame
“Toby filled the stat sheet in the second half. He was so solid. Justin was struggling with some of our ball screen coverages all night, he just wasn’t as active as he’s been in other games. Maybe the emotion of this game and being in enemy territory for the first time for a young player was tough. But Toby came in and did a terrific job. And Z didn’t stuff the stat sheet, but if you go back and watch the film, rock solid defense. In the right place, making the extra pass, and his shooting is going to come — I’m not worried about that. Those two guys, with our foul trouble, we’re in trouble. Z played 14 minutes the first half because of the foul trouble Marcus had. I thought they’d be important tonight, and they absolutely were.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame
“I love rivalries. When I was at Iowa State, we played Iowa and that’s just such a fun deal. When I was back at North Dakota, you play North Dakota State, or even at UNI when we’d play Drake or Iowa or Iowa State, there’s just a little extra…there’s so many people that care. I don’t know how our fanbases feel, but this is a very respectful rivalry between Tim and I and our coaching staffs. We have tremendous respect for each other. We’re friends off the court, we see each other over the summer on the recruiting trail, we do some things together. It’s a fun rivalry because our fans care and their fans care — the fans can get a little nasty with each other but we don’t.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame
“D-Rock always has a little extra juice for the Nebraska scout. He cracked a Red Bull before we were even in the locker room before the game. But I’m blessed to have all of my assistants, right down the line from Merf and Loo to Preston and Lutz, to Tim McAlister our video guy. Those guys all do a fantastic job, and a lot of it goes unnoticed. But with D-Rock, Preston and Lutz, there’s some pretty good players running around out there for us, and somebody recruited those guys (laughs). It’s those three guys. Sometimes head coaches get a little too much credit for recruiting, we’re part of the process but I’m just doing what they tell me, really. Those guys have done a terrific job of helping us build this team, and helping us develop this team. And when it comes to scouting, they’re also good at that part. I’m so lucky I’ve got a staff that’s not one-dimensional. I’ve got guys that can recruit, I’ve got guys that can coach, and I’ve got guys that understand how to put in a gameplan and that have the respect of our players to do that. Trust me, that does not exist everywhere. I’m blessed to have them.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame
You Said It:
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