Recap:
Of all the ways Saturday’s regular season finale could go, “Creighton breaking open a close game with Ryan Kalkbrenner on the bench with foul trouble” didn’t figure to be one of them. But with five minutes left in the first half, that’s precisely what happened. Kalkbrenner headed to the bench after picking up his second foul, Fredrick King came in, and the Jays’ 23-19 lead ballooned to 35-20 in 2-1/2 minutes.
That 12-1 run started with back-to-back three-pointers by sophomores Trey Alexander and Ryan Nembhard, the latter set up by a King screen at the top of the perimeter:
King had two three-point plays (converting one) and finished the first half with nine points on 4-of-5 shooting while adding four rebounds in eight minutes of action. They were terrific minutes on both ends of the floor, and arguably the biggest reason CU led by 15 at the break.
“Fredrick gave us a huge boost off the bench when we were in some foul trouble,” Greg McDermott said. “I think sometimes when a guy like Kalkbrenner goes out and a freshman goes in, maybe (opponents) relax a little bit. But our guys have confidence in Fred. They threw it into him and he made some plays. You know, they see what he does in practice and they know that he’s very capable of scoring against just about anybody.”
But in the second half, DePaul’s offense caught fire. They equalled their 24 first half points in just eight second half minutes, making 11 of their first 14 shots. CU was just as hot, making eight of their first 11, including three buckets from Kalkbrenner and this transition layup from Ryan Nembhard off a long pass from Baylor Scheierman.
Then turnovers and foul trouble caught up to them. The Jays turned it over 12 times in the second half — a combination of sloppy decision making and the Blue Demons’ length disrupting their rhythm — and they turned those 12 turnovers into 18 points. Ahead 54-44, Kalkbrenner picked up his third foul with 13:32 to play, and this time King was not up to the task.
DePaul guard Caleb Murphy was able to get into the paint repeatedly, and when he wasn’t scoring over King, he was drawing fouls on the Jays’ backup big man. Murphy scored 13 second half points, making 4-of-6 at the rim and 5-of-7 from the line.
“They were setting him some back screens after the ball screen,” McDermott said, “and we didn’t navigate it very well. I thought there were a couple opportunities to switch. There were a couple plays that he really made good plays at the rim against us. And when somebody does that, you have to tip you hat to them.”
Murphy’s alley-oop at the 10-minute mark cut the Jays’ lead to five, and led McDermott to call timeout to regroup…and to get Kalkbrenner back into the game.
CU outscored them 25-16 the rest of the game, with Nembhard hitting a massive shot out of the timeout — a long three that both quieted the crowd and stunted DePaul’s momentum. Then Kalkbrenner followed with a strong veteran post move that let the Blue Demons know they weren’t facing a freshman anymore. His first shot at the rim was blocked, but Kalkbrenner stayed with it, grabbed it, and calmly laid in a outback.
A baseline drive for a dunk by Arthur Kaluma pushed the lead back into double digits, 90 seconds after DePaul thought they were getting back into the game.
And then Trey Alexander slammed the door shut on them, scoring 12 points over the final six minutes — one dagger after another. First, a three-pointer from in front of the bench:
Then came a midrange jumper, another three, and another short jumper:
Just like the game in Omaha, it was DePaul’s trash talk that lit a fire under Alexander and led to him torching them.
“He stripped the ball from me one time, and after that he started chirping,” Alexander said. “It’s a very…uh…competitive game every time that we play them, whether it be the coaches or just the players talking to each other. Like I said after the last game, that’s fun and it kind of gets me going a little bit.”
With the 84-70 win, Creighton clinched the ‘3’ seed in the Big East Tournament where they will play the winner of Villanova/Georgetown; those two will play Wednesday night. Barring a historic upset — Georgetown finished 2-18 in the league and has only won twice since December 7 — the Jays will take on the Wildcats in the quarterfinal. That means they’ll need a plan for stopping Eric Dixon. The 6’8″ big man torched the Jays’ drop coverage, scoring 31 points in Philly two weeks ago on the strength of 6-of-8 shooting from long range. In two games against CU, he has 51 points, and his lone made three-pointer in Omaha briefly gave them the lead in the final minute. How McDermott schemes to slow Dixon down (or not) could well define how long CU’s stay in NYC is.
Inside the Box:
Baylor Scheierman’s shooting slump continued; since making 5-of-10 from three-point range on February 8 at Seton Hall he has made just 12-of-45 (26%) in his last seven games. Prior to this stretch, he had been 62-of-157 (39.5%). Still, he kept alive his streak of making at least one 3-pointer in every game he’s played as a Bluejay, and with 31 straight he’s tied with Booker Woodfox (2008-09) for the second-longest in Creighton history — two games shy of Ty-Shon Alexander’s record set in 2018-19.
He continued to contribute in other ways, grabbing 10 rebounds (four offensive) with four assists and three steals. Over the seven games where his shot has been off, he’s averaging 8.2 rebounds per game.
Meanwhile, Ryan Nembhard scored 20 points with 11 rebounds and three assists, making 3-of-5 from outside the arc and 5-of-9 inside of it. Ryan Kalkbrenner had 20 points on 8-of-12 shooting. And Trey Alexander scored 21 on 3-of-6 from three-point range and 5-of-8 on two-pointers, with 14 of his points coming in the second half and 12 in the final six minutes.
Alexander’s defense on Umoja Gibson was incredible — he came into the game having made 84 three-pointers at a 42.2% clip from deep (tops in the Big East and 14th best nationally), and was the league’s fifth-highest scorer in conference games, averaging 16.5 points per game. In this game, Gibson scored four points on 2-of-14 shooting and missed all five 3-pointers he attempted. It’s the first time since January 1 against Providence that he was shut out from the perimeter, and just the third time all season.
Highlights:
Press Conference:
