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Morning After: Creighton Blows 15-Point Lead, Then Roars Back to Beat Oregon 76-66

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[Box Score]

Each of the first two days in Las Vegas, Creighton absorbed huge hits from their opponent with no real response while the outcome was still in doubt. Heck, if you include the game at Gonzaga where they melted down in the second half, it’s happened in all three of their losses.

And on Thursday in the Players Era consolation game, it appeared to be happening again. The Bluejays’ once-15 point lead had dwindled to one, with Dana Altman’s Oregon Ducks on the verge of a huge comeback thanks to a halftime adjustment to attack the rim relentlessly — a plan of attack CU could not stop. Given the success Baylor and Iowa State had doing that, it makes you wonder why it took a halftime adjustment for Oregon to commit to that strategy, though playing without 7’0” center Nate Bittle might have given them pause initially.

The Ducks’ Kwame Evans scored eight of his 12 points in the first three minutes of the half, all at the rim. From Takai Simpkins and Jackson Shelstad to Dezdrick Lindsay, they attacked relentlessly — and when Creighton had a four-minute scoreless drought midway through the half, it gave Oregon the opening they needed. They cut the Jays’ lead to 60-59 with just over six minutes to play.

But this time, Creighton hit back.

Nik Graves struck first, drawing a foul on a 12-foot floater that he turned into a three-point play. It let Creighton take a deep breath, extending their lead back to two possessions at 63-59.

A layup by Owen Freeman followed, and then Josh Dix nailed a three and Jasen Green threw down an alley-oop as Creighton had responded with a 10-1 run.

In the midst of that run, though, Freeman picked up his fourth foul and had to go to the bench. Konan had three and was already there. They opted to bring in Isaac Traudt, trusting his veteran presence in crunch time.

And he responded with the unsung play of the game — altering a shot at the rim by Kwame Evans and forcing a miss with 2:16 to go. It wasn’t a block and doesn’t show up in the box score, but it was a great defensive play where he absorbed contact, stayed vertical to avoid being whistled for a foul, and made the shot as difficult as possible. Combined with a box-out on the rebound, it set the Jays up to run in transition the other way.

Invisible as it is in the box score, it did not go unnoticed by his coach or teammates. Noting that he didn’t feel the Ducks were a great matchup for Traudt, McDermott said he told him he might not get many minutes.

“But he instead of pouting, he stayed ready and he makes you know, what might have been the best defensive play of the game at a critical time,” McDermott said. “He cares about the team only, and he’ll do whatever he can to help us win. Obviously he’s going to play a bigger role with Jackson (McAndrew) out. We just have to help him a little bit on the defensive end of the floor to make sure he’s in the right spot and making the right reads. But as I said, I couldn’t be more proud of him. I mean, what an example for the younger guys in our program of the need to stay ready if your number is called. Isaac certainly did that, and he delivered when we needed him the most.”

And when Graves splashed a three on the possession following Traudt’s play, it secured a much-needed win and taught them something about their resiliency.

“It’s a 40-minute game. We’re going to take punches. We have to get back up,” Blake Harper said. “They came back and punched us in the mouth in the second half. And, to be honest, it’s like the first time this season that we got back up and rode together and came right back. Seeing that really just makes me a lot more optimistic. It’s a long season. We’ll play a lot of great opponents. I feel like that’s a great stepping stone for the rest of the season.”

“For really the first time this year, we took a punch to the mouth and responded to it,” Greg McDermott said, agreeing with his guard. “You know, that’s what you have to do and hopefully we can grow as a result of this.”

It also helped that they had a big lead in the first place, of course. Tied at 22 midway through the first half, Creighton outscored Oregon 22-7 through the final 9:39. The Ducks missed 13 straight shots at one point, giving the Jays plenty of chances to run in transition because they were able to secure the rebound.

There was Harper taking the ball coast to coast and attacking the rim:

Kerem Konan blocking a shot and Harper again taking the ball the length of the floor for a layup:

And this bucket, where Harper used a shot fake to create space, then stuck a fadeaway jumper.

And when transition threes from both Josh Dix and Hudson Greer followed, suddenly the Jays had opened up a 44-29 lead.

“We were able to get some stops, and you know, when we don’t have to take it out of the net, we can be really good in the open floor,” McDermott said. “I thought our guys did a good job attacking, getting to their spot in transition, and then we made a lot of unselfish plays once we got there. It was a great team effort.”

Old habits die hard, though, as turnovers and poor shot selection fueled a big Oregon run to begin the second half. The Ducks made 6-of-7 shots while Creighton shot 1-of-6 with two turnovers, cutting the lead down to three just seven minutes into the half at 52-49.

Dix hit a midrange jumper to keep the Jays ahead, and a couple of possessions later Freeman threw down an alley-oop. The 8-2 mini run temporarily held the Ducks at arms length, but when it was answered with eight straight points by UO, the Jays’ resolve was tested once more — a test they passed.

“There’s so much opportunity for growth as a result of the film that we’re gonna be able to watch with our guys from each of the three games,” McDermott said. “We were able to stick together and play in a game that it would be easy to not want to play in today because there was not a lot of people in the building. I thought our guys generated a lot of energy amongst themselves, which was good to see in that first half and we were really able to set the tone.”

Inside the Box:

Oregon scored 44 of their 66 points in the paint, including 28 of the 39 they scored in the second half. And though the Ducks were able to grab 16 offensive rebounds that they turned into 15 second-chance points, Creighton limited their turnovers (five) and the points Oregon got from them (four). The Jays scored eight points off of nine Oregon turnovers, and as a result they limited the damage done on extra-possession points — Oregon had just a 19-12 advantage.

Creighton drew 17 fouls, and made 19-of-21 from the free throw line — a huge stat that helped them overcome shooting just 5-of-17 from three and the seven-point deficit in extra possession points.

Blake Harper led the team with 18 points, and with nine rebounds nearly had a double-double.

“He was able to get downhill, get to his spots and make some plays at the rim,” McDermott said. “Obviously Blake’s very capable of that, he’s always been a guy draws a lot of fouls and being in the bonus early in the first half really helped us. Blake made some huge huge plays for us throughout this game.”

“I feel like, look, since we have been here every team has been super aggressive against us and we have been responding and responding and responding,” Harper added. “Before the game we made an emphasis that why don’t we take initiative and make them play off us, and we control the pace. I feel like that’s getting aggressive going downhill. Feeding Kerem down in the post. We got a couple good dunks. Got the energy going for all of us, and we’ll take that moving forward.”

Freeman added 14 points and seven rebounds, and other than picking up four fouls that limited his minutes, it was another game where he made steady progress.

The rotation also seems to be sorting itself out. Green, Harper, Graves and Dix all played 30+ minutes. Freeman played 18 and if not for foul trouble, would likely have played more. Konan and Greer played 14 and 13, respectively. And Traudt, Davis and Zugic split the rest.

It was the fifth meeting between McDermott and Dana Altman at their current schools; McDermott now leads the series 3-2.

“I don’t think either of us had a Thanksgiving morning meeting on our bingo card when we got on the plane to head out here. But it is what it is,” McDermott said. “You try to figure out your team this time of year. This tournament is great in so many ways — the way we’re treated, the way it’s organized. However, it’s not a great tournament to try to find yourself in because you’re going to play three good opponents no matter what, and obviously we played three high-level opponents.

So it’s not easy. It’s tough. It’s draining. I think the day off yesterday probably helped us a little bit just to try to get our feet back under us, the practice, talking about a few things that were important.”

Press Conference:

Highlights:

 

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