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Men's Basketball

Morning After: Creighton 65, North Carolina Central 45

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[Box Score]

Key Stats: Creighton once again struggles offensively in the first half, making 8-28 (28%) and 2-12 (16%) from three-point range. CU forces 17 turnovers, including 8 steals, and turns it over just nine times themselves. Creighton attempts 25 free throws to just three for North Carolina Central (a fact that earned their coach a “T” when he argued it a bit too vociferously).

Favorite Moment: In a game bereft of momentum, the Jays created some with a buzzer-beater at the end of the half. Seconds after surrendering a dunk on the other end, and one possession after committing a careless turnover, Creighton got the crowd on their feet when Devin Brooks connected on a three-pointer to make it 27-22 at the break. It sent the team into the locker room with a hop in their step, and allowed them to end the half on a 12-2 run. Combined with the 10-4 run they opened the second half with, the last four minutes of the first half and the first four minutes of the second half proved to be the deciding segments of the game — and Brooks’ three was the highlight.

Quick Recap: The pace of play on Sunday resembled some of the mid-winter Valley games from years past — looking at you, Southern Illinois — as North Carolina Central did everything in their power to limit the total number of possessions in the game. They had their point guard stand at half court for 15-20 seconds each possession before starting an offensive set. When they did shoot, they all-but-abandoned the offensive glass and sent their players back on defense to keep Creighton from getting out in transition. And while their defense was nowhere near as ferocious as those SIU teams, the result was the same: an ugly, plodding, methodical game where free throws and turnovers were the keys to victory.

To their credit, Creighton figured out a way to win by 20 in that type of game. Part of their recipe: going big. Trailing 20-15 with 6:21 to play, the Jays subbed in Zach Hanson and had him play alongside Will Artino. The two big men hadn’t really played together this season, at least not for any prolonged period of time, and they were instrumental in turning the game around. With them on the floor for the final six minutes of the half, CU turned a five-point deficit into a two-point lead. In that stretch, Hanson had three rebounds, two points and a block, while Artino had two rebounds, one block and a made free throw. And when Devin Brooks made his buzzer-beater to end the half, the Jays capped a 12-2 run to take the lead, 27-22.

In the second half, the lead grew slowly but surely, as North Carolina Central was once again successful at grinding the game down to their preferred pace. Isaiah Zierden keyed the offensive attack, making 4-4 from three-point range, and 3-4 from the line en route to a career high 20 points — 15 in the second half alone.

Overall, they limited their turnovers (9), made their free throws (22-25), held their own on the glass (35-33 edge), and kept their opponent off the line (just three FT attempts), and that’s what you have to do to win games like this. It wasn’t pretty, but a 20-point win over a team that made the NCAA Tournament a year ago and just might go back this year is impressive. With the win, they’re 4-0 with one more game to go before heading to Florida, and have an excellent chance to be undefeated before that holiday trip.

Quotables:

“We were kind of struggling shooting the ball in the first half, but this is just kind of one of those games where its a grind. They were holding the ball at half court for 10 or 15 seconds, so it’s really a game where you have be patient, and stick with the stuff we do.” -Zach Hanson on 1620AM Postgame

“We all have something different to offer, so each of us just has to come in and play hard for as long as we’re in there. Who gets minutes kind of depends on who we’re playing that night. Will might have a better matchup some nights, other nights it might be me, and other nights it might be Geoff. That’s good, though. We’ve got a lot of guys that can contribute.”-Zach Hanson on 1620AM Postgame

“Wednesday was such an exciting game, and to have the opportunity to be out there was awesome. The crowd was rocking, and it’s definitely a game I’ll remember for the rest of my life. I know what I’m capable of, and the guys have been really good about supporting me and keeping getting the ball to me even when I struggled. It was good to see that pay off.”-Zach Hanson on 1620AM Postgame

“After the injury last year, it gave me a lot of time to go back and work on my shooting form. Last year, I got away from my mechanics at times, and this year there’s obviously an opportunity with four big pieces leaving. I’ve just kept believing in my mechanics, and believing that the next one will go in.” -Isaiah Zierden on 1620AM Postgame

“Tonight they did a great job of slowing it down on us, and making us guard for a full 35 seconds. Then we would get an opportunity, and all of sudden we’d miss a three within the first 10 seconds of the shot clock and then have to go back and guard for 30 seconds again. That’s what was frustrating us at first. Then in the second half, in the first four minutes — nobody wanted to shoot. We wanted to make them defend a little bit. But ultimately, we needed to just stick to what we do, and get out and run our offense, and trust that it would tire them out at some point.”-Isaiah Zierden on 1620AM Postgame

“Wednesday night was a confidence booster. We know we didn’t shoot it how we wanted to that night, and we found a way to get it done. So now tonight, we’re saying to ourselves, ‘OK, same situation, we just need to dig in on the defensive end and get stops.'”-Isaiah Zierden on 1620AM Postgame

“Overconfidence was our biggest challenge after that win. We had Thursday off, so I tried to enjoy it that night and then wake up and move on. There’s always another game coming up, so you can’t dwell on the fact that it was a great win. Any given night, any team can beat you, so you have to focus. I tried really hard not to enjoy the win once Thursday came. As much as people were coming up to us saying, “Oh, great game!” and all that, I tried really hard to put that in the past.”-Isaiah Zierden on 1620AM Postgame

“This is a hard team to play against. They ran 20 seconds of shot clock before running their offense, so we couldn’t ever get the pace and the flow that we’re accustomed to playing. And for the second game in a row, in the first half we missed some pretty good shots, and shots that we have to take. I was disappointed that we didn’t take more offensive rebounds — we missed 20 shots and only rebounded four of them — we have to get better in that regard. But, we’re still developing offensively after four game, and we’re doing a good job of getting to the free throw line.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

“This team is moving the right direction. We found a way to win over a team that, before the season is over, is going to win a lot of games. To beat them by 20 is like beating somebody else by 40, because it was a 58 or 59 possession game, which is a much lower possession game than we’re accustomed to playing.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

“We need Isaiah to be a consistent performer for us offensively. He was playing really well at the end of last season when he went down, was playing more and more minutes every game, and was earning our trust more and more at both ends of the floor. That hasn’t changed in my mind because he’s worked really hard to get his knee back to where it needs to be. He’s serviceable defensively, he’s in right spots, he does the right things, he understands what we’re trying to do, he stays on the floor. And I thought tonight after he hit the first three did a good job of finding him again, and when he hit another one, it enabled us to create a little bit of separation.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

“Devin hit a three in rhythm and then the tough one at the end of the half, but, you know, Devin’s Devin. You have to take the good with the bad. He’s going to make some crazy plays once in a while. But he also makes a lot of good plays and puts some pressure on the defense. And because of his unorthodox game, he gets fouled a lot. He’s a little bit of a ‘bull in a China shop’ sometimes but he gets to the free throw line. And when you can do that, you’re in the bonus early, and that gets you to the line even more. I thought Devin played a good game tonight. He was solid on the defensive end, and I thought he picked his spots in transition in terms of when to go for it and when to pull it back.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

“It’s a challenge for us to find the right mix of guys each night right now, and when we get Avery back, it becomes even more of a challenge. Tonight, Milliken didn’t shoot it well and didn’t really have it so we didn’t go with him as much. Toby wasn’t as good as he’s been, and got in foul trouble, but we can’t forget that he’s a freshman. This is the first time he’s been through all this. So as much as I’d like him to be a rock of consistency it’s probably not going to happen until he develops throughout the season. It’s just a matter of us finding the right combinations. For example, we went with the two bigs (Artino and Hanson) for a while in the first half tonight, and that lineup took us from when we were down four or five points and got us the lead. We hadn’t used the two together much, but they were good. And so was Geoff. He gave us good minutes at times when the game was being decided. All of those guys know that we’re confident in them, and we know that they’re confident in themselves. But it’s going to be a game-by-game thing. Guys that have it going will be out there more, and guys that aren’t will just have to be ready the next game.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

(On his second-half meeting at halfcourt with Ricky Kreklow and Toby Hegner) “My message was ‘Shoot the ball!’ (laughs). I almost had each one by an ear and was going to bang their heads together (laughs). I told them, you have to quit turning down rhythm threes. It’s who we are, it’s what we practice, it’s why you’re in the gym extra at the end of the day. They’re both trying to find their way with stuff that’s new to them, in an environment that’s new to them, so I get it. But I think they have to know that that’s our expectation. We have confidence in their ability to do it, so go ahead and let it fly. That’s how we play. There’s going to be nights when we don’t shoot it well, and we’ve had two of those in a row, but we found a way to win both of those games. And the ability to show that we’re going to shoot those shots — that’s what creates those driving lanes and gets us to the line. If they’re sitting in the paint not worried about any shooters, we’re not getting to the free throw line because we’re just passing it to guys who can’t shoot the basketball. These guys are very capable shooters, especially when they’re shooting rhythm shots.” -Coach Greg McDermott on 1620AM Postgame

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