Key Stats:
Xavier scored 22 points in the first seven minutes…and 39 the rest of the way. The Musketeers made four of their first 8 threes, and four of their last 24.
Creighton meanwhile missed eight of their first 10 shots, got hot the rest of the first half to make 12 of their next 26, and that got the game back to even.
Then both teams went ice cold. The rest of the game had no offensive rhythm on either end, full of missed shots that were wide open, silly turnovers, and missed opportunities galore. They combined to shoot 16-for-60 from three point range. CU made only eight field goals after halftime.
Individually, Antwann Jones led Creighton with 13 points, along with four rebounds, two assists, one very big turnover and two equally big free throws in just 13 very very active minutes. His performance was huge because the big three of Marcus Zegarowski (2-of-11), Mitch Ballock (2-of-9) and Damien Jefferson (2-of-6) all had off nights shooting.
And how’s this? Creighton, which trailed by as much as 13 (22-9), now owns 21 comebacks under Greg McDermottย when down by double-figures at some point in the game.
Recap:
After six home games played in an empty arena, it was a bit jarring to hear the cheers and jeers of Bluejay fans inside CHI Health Center on the TV broadcast. Those fans were treated to a starting lineup introduction courtesy of the players’ families, which CU shared on social media for everyone else watching at home:
The cheers didn’t last long; by the time Xavier made 7 of their first 10 shots, including 3 of their first 4 three-pointers, the arena was as silent as it had been when it was empty. A 15-0 run for the visiting team tends to have that effect. Before the game was eight minutes old, Xavier led 22-9, making nine of their first 13 shots (69.2%).
“We were just a half-step slow and on our heels,” Coach Greg McDermott said on his postgame radio interview. “Our bench changed the energy of the game defensively and changed the pace of the game offensively. I’ve got a really tired basketball team. You can see it on their faces. They haven’t seen their families since August 15. They need a break.”
His point is correct: Creighton doesn’t win the game without those contributions. Shereef Mitchell played tremendous defense and forced the much bigger Zach Freemantle to travel, and on the next trip went coast to coast for a layup. Antwann Jones scored six points and dished two assists in a Bluejay surge that cut the lead to 28-22. It was the type of energetic jolt that the Jays need from Jones — with the starting five struggling to gain their footing, he was a difference maker on both ends.
“My goal was to play confident, be assertive and play free,” Jones said on the postgame radio show. “Coach talks a lot about being a star in your role, and that’s what I tried to be.”
Jones kept cooking, scoring five more before exiting after a Xavier timeout at the 5:17 mark, their 13-point lead down to a single point at 31-30. A putback soon thereafter from Alex O’Connell erased the lead entirely, and with three minutes to go in the half, it was all tied up at 34-34.
And that crowd we talked about at the top? They were a noticeable factor in that run, giving Creighton the type of adrenaline they needed to keep the foot on the gas after Jones and Mitchell jump-started things. And when a turnaround jumper by Christian Bishop out of the timeout made it 36-34 Jays, the massive comeback was complete. CU went into the locker room with a two-point lead after trailing by 13, but both teams looked gassed — Xavier went scoreless over the final 5:05 of the half, and Creighton didn’t score after Bishop’s bucket, a span of nearly three minutes.
The Jays came out of the locker room and put them separation between the teams, perhaps motivated by a bizarre FS1 halftime show where analyst Casey Jacobsen dissed Zegarowski’s play and called him a “fringe Big East Player of the Year candidate” despite, you know, being the preseason Player of the Year. Bishop blocked the first shot attempt of the half. Zegarowski made a vintage Zegarowski drive to the rim for an acrobatic layup, and made a three the next trip down. Mitch Ballock hit a three on the next one, and suddenly it was 44-34 Creighton — a 23 point swing.
Xavier slowly crept back into the game, though, and that separation the Jays had created early in the half came in handy. With CU clinging to a 51-46 lead, Bishop snapped a long scoreless drought with a big basket — and was promptly T’d up for taunting afterward. A curious call from where we sit, because how many T’s would the taunting, talkative UConn team on Sunday have had if that’s the standard? Quite a few, probably.
And Xavier continuing hanging around, cutting the lead to 57-56 as the game crept under three minutes. Denzel Mahoney made a huge play, driving to the rim on a backdoor cut for a layup and a free throw, fouling out Zach Freemantle in the process.
Xavier answered with a putback by Adam Kunkel. Zegarowski could only hit one of two free throws on the other end, leaving the door open with 1:42 to go. The ensuing possession ended in a wild scrum for a loose ball, with Bishop winding up with the ball and somehow passing it out to Ballock who was fouled. A big play, to be sure, but Ballock could only make one of two from the line.
In the final minute, Xavier got two good looks at three-pointers, and missed both. In between, they had a questionable possession where Paul Scruggs wasted several seconds trying to post up Shereef Mitchell, ending in a foul call but no free throws because Xavier wasn’t in the bonus yet. The Jays cleared the glass on both of those misses, and then Zegarowski hit a pair of free throws for a six point lead with 15 seconds left. Game over?
Not so fast.
Scruggs nailed a three in just six seconds, and then the Jays couldn’t get the inbounds pass in. As the five-count neared, they got the ball to Jones, who got trapped without being fouled, and appeared to panic. He had a timeout in his pocket, but instead he attempted to throw the ball out of bounds off of a Xavier defender, and it was instead intercepted.
Wide open for a game-tying three? The hero of Sunday’s win, Adam Kunkel, who had made the buzzer-beating game winner.
Flashbacks to blown leads of the past, most notably the Marquette game two years ago that turned on a bad inbounds pass, too, flashed through the minds of Bluejay fans everywhere. The WBR group text was lit on fire. But Kunkel’s shot misfired, Jones rebounded the miss, and then he calmly made both free throws. NOW the game was over.
But what about that inbounds play?
“The ref didn’t want to call a foul, man, so I tried to throw it off the other player because I was so sure they were going to call the foul,” Jones said on the postgame radio show. “It ended up being a turnover because they didn’t want to call a foul. I knew I had a timeout, but I kept thinking they’d call a foul. It is what it is. We won the game and I’m happy.”
“I reminded him there is no five-second call in the backcourt,” McDermott said. “We got lucky there.”
Afterward, the players got an early Christmas gift…their 2019-20 Big East Championship rings, giftwrapped and ready to open.
Big picture, Creighton goes into the new year at 7-2 and 3-1 in the league, with a pair of road wins under their belt. The last of those league wins came in a game where Zegarowski, Ballock and Damien Jefferson all had poor games, which not that long ago would have doomed them to a loss. But they grinded out a win over a previously undefeated, 22nd ranked team in spite of that. It’s encouraging. But they can’t get anywhere close to their ceiling without those three playing a major role. Here’s hoping the team’s upcoming time off lets them hit refresh and come back in 2021 at full steam.