Bluejay Beat Podcast:
Inside the Box:
The Jays haven’t shot this well from the field (60.3%) against a Big East team in three years — dating back to a 93-58 home win over DePaul on February 11, 2017 where they made 60.7% of their shots. All six players who played significant minutes scored in double figures — and four of them made at least three 3-pointers.
CU had 21 assists on 35 made baskets, the most assists they’ve had against a D1 team this year. Their 1.40 points per possession were far and away their most this season. Christian Bishop, Denzel Mahoney and Damien Jefferson were a big part of that — they combined for 44 points on just 25 shots.
Individually, Marcus Zegarowski led the way with 23 points, seven rebounds and four assists in 36 minutes. It was one helluva bounce-back game after his 1-for-10 night at Providence.
“I was pretty pissed off after the Providence game,” Zegarowski said on the postgame radio show. “I didn’t play well. That’s really close to home and I really wanted to beat them.”
The same could be said for Denzel Mahoney, who went scoreless against Providence and took just five shots. He scored 18 on Saturday on 7-of-10 shooting, including 3-of-5 from three-point range.
“Denzel and Marcus both did not play well at Providence. They had two of their poorest offensive performances of the season,” Greg McDermott said on his postgame radio interview. “They didn’t hang their head, and they didn’t pout. They got back to the practice floor and they did what they did tonight within the scope of our offense.”
Mitch Ballock only took six shots, but made three 3’s and had an enormous stat line despite scoring “only” 10 points — he had eight assists and six rebounds, plus a steal, in 39 minutes.
“We shared the basketball unbelievably well,” McDermott said. “Mitch Ballock didn’t take a lot of shots, but hit a couple at critical times — and got eight assists. That’s what this team is about.”
And most importantly, against a St. John’s team that averages over 10 steals per game, Creighton gave up just one — the lowest for a Red Storm opponent this season. They had just eight turnovers — no St. John’s opponent had fewer than 13 in a game this year until Saturday night.
“We took care of the basketball. I really feel that when teams press, if you handle it right, you can use that pressure against them,” McDermott said. “You can get easy opportunities. And we were able to get out in transition against some of their pressure, hit some threes, get to the rim, set our feet and spray it.”
On the down side, St. John’s had 18 offensive rebounds and turned them into 18 second chance points. And St. John’s had 1.2 points per possession.
“We gave up 82 points on 67 possessions so there’s not much I liked about our defense,” McDermott noted. “But (Marcellus) Earlington was the guy, he was 3-of-21 shooting threes for the year coming in and made three tonight. But they’re hard to guard. They cut extremely hard, they screen well, they’re very disciplined, they’re very spaced. And they’re willing to make the extra pass. But I liked that Mustapha and Figueroa only had seven and eight shots respectively. Their two best players didn’t have a lot of opportunities. We made some of their secondary guys beat us.”
Recap:
If there’s a cliche that comes to mind after CU’s 94-82 win on Saturday night, it’s this: Be careful what you wish for. St. John’s loves to turn games into a track meet, using its’ press to force turnovers and get them into transition where they can take quick shots. Though they didn’t use their press as often as most expected them to, the pace of the game was every bit as quick as expected. And that almost always plays into Creighton’s hands, especially at home.
“We like any team that likes to run with us. We feel we have the advantage there,โ Marcus Zegarowski said in the postgame press conference. โI think down the stretch, they got a little tired. We kept pushing. Thatโs just a testament to our system and how we play.”
CU had their foot on the gas pedal all night, and three minutes into the game they took the lead for good on this 60-foot pass in transition from Mitch Ballock to Christian Bishop.
It put them ahead 7-5, and then a barrage of threes built a lead. Damien Jefferson, Ty-Shon Alexander, and Denzel Mahoney each hit one in an 11-5 burst, and then Ballock hit one of his patented #BallockBombs from the parking lot (Ed. Note: only a slight exaggeration). Shooting from five feet beyond the line, there wasn’t a Red Storm defender within six feet of him. When Ballock is that wide open and in rhythm, it’s practically a layup. (Ed. note: this is an even slighter exaggeration. We’ll allow it.)
Time after time, they made the extra pass and turned down good shots for better shots. There was this one from Jefferson, where he caught the ball, stopped, and threw a dart to a cutting Mahoney for a layup.
And this one, where Mahoney threw a cross-court pass to a wide-open Alexander on the other side of the floor for a three.
St. John’s was hanging around because they were dominant on the glass. In fairness, long misses create long rebounds that are tough to be in position for, and in the first ten minutes of the game the Red Storm were 4-of-13 from three point range. But to their credit, they secured the offensive rebound on those misses more often than not. During one stretch, they had six second chance points on six possessions, allowing them to keep pace — and so despite CU’s three-point assault, it was only a 28-22 lead with 10:03 to go in the half.
Four minutes later, the Red Storm had cut it to 33-31 after scoring on eight of nine possessions. The Bluejays answered with a 10-2 run that started with a three-point play from Jefferson, included this play where Ballock flung a pass into the corner for an Alexander three:
And ended with Mahoney rebounding his own missed shot, taking the ball directly to the rim with a nifty move in the paint, and scoring a layup. Just like that, it was 43-33 Creighton.
They ended the half on an emphatic note, with Marcus Zegarowski throwing a lob to Christian Bishop for a dunk as time ticked away.
“I trust my instincts. When the defense wants to be aggressive, that gives me way more space to operate,” Zegarowski said in a postgame radio interview. “I actually thought I threw the pass too high, so I was worried. I was looking at my feet instead of at him (afterward), like ‘my bad!’ But Christian said ‘No, no, it’s OK, I got it!'”
Heading into the locker room ahead 47-37 with that play as the exclamation point — and in a shootout on their home floor — things were looking pretty good. Or so it seemed. Their defense had ratcheted down the clamps at the right time, holding St. John’s to just 11 points on their final 14 possessions after they’d cut the lead to two. But McDermott was displeased with his team’s effort. On his postgame radio interview, he shared his message to the team in the locker room.
“I gave you guys Thursday off to do nothing,” McDermott recalled. “We gotta pick it up. That effort on the glass and everything wasn’t good enough.”
Sure enough, in the first six minutes of the second half his fears were coming true. After cutting the lead to four just 90 seconds into the half thanks to Marcellus Earlington hitting a pair of threes, St. John’s was within striking distance for a large chunk of the second stanza. At the 14:57 mark, Creighton’s defensive rebounding percentage was 51.7%, which is worse than bad. Embarrassingly bad.
Surprisingly, CU shifted to a 1-3-1 zone. Surprising because it’s generally harder to rebound out of a zone than out of man-to-man, and surprising because CU doesn’t play zone very often. St. John’s made four 3’s in that early second half run, and when Marcellus Earlington hit his third 3 at the 11:18 mark, it cut the lead to 62-60. There was a nervous rumble in the arena, as 18,000 fans sensed the momentum shifting — if it hadn’t already shifted.
27 seconds later, Ballock drained a three-pointer. And then Zegarowski scored five straight, dribbling through traffic to make a contested layup, followed by a three-pointer that pushed the lead to 70-62.
St. John’s called timeout to regroup, but to no avail. Ballock hit another long three, this one with one foot on the logo, to make it 73-64. On the play, L.J. Figueroa was whistled for a deadball contact technical foul, and after a pair of free throws by Alexander the Jays were up 11, 75-64.
And then Creighton went to a five-guard lineup with Mahoney at center. They made five straight shots, rattled off a 12-5 run, and with 4:13 to play had blown the game wide open at 87-72. Mahoney led the charge, scoring eight points in the stretch including this three from the corner.
“With Denzel, it takes time,” McDermott said. “It takes time for his teammates to understand what he brings, where can we get him the ball to where he can be effective. And Denzel has gone from thinking when he gets the ball he has to go make something happen, to knowing he can wait and the offense will make something happen for him.”
Zegarowski agreed, saying that he feels Mahoney is really starting to fit into the Jays’ offense.
“At first, it’s going to be hard for any team to add someone like that midseason and gel right away,” he said. “It takes time. And I still think we can get even better.”
They’ll carry that confidence into Wednesday’s showdown in Newark, when the first-place Seton Hall Pirates host the second-place Bluejays. Not many will expect the Jays to win, but if they do? They’ll be just two games behind with six left, and a home rematch with the Pirates awaiting on Senior Day.
Not many expected Creighton to be sitting in second place in mid-February, either. They were picked seventh in the preseason Big East poll. So don’t count them out.
“We all shot about 50% or above tonight,” Zegarowski said matter-of-factly. “We had 21 assists on 35 makes. If we do that and defend we can beat anybody.”