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Morning After: Creighton Erases an Early 10-Point Deficit to Beat Georgetown 80-69

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[Box Score]

Two months ago in D.C., Creighton led Georgetown 28-26 with three minutes left in the first half. They were outscored 55-29 the rest of the game, including a 38-13 run that spanned the end of the first half and the start of the second.

In the rematch, Georgetown led 36-26 with seven minutes left before halftime. Creighton outscored them 54-33 the rest of the way, including a 34-10 run spanning both halves — 18-6 to end the first half to turn a 10-point deficit into a two-point lead, and 16-4 to begin the second to take a 14-point advantage.

“It was basically a reverse of the game in D.C. I think we were ahead with four or five minutes left in the first half and they went on a great run to end the half and to start the second half and created separation,” Greg McDermott said. “We did exactly the same today. I think they only scored on two of their last 10 possessions and we rattled off eight out of 10 to end the half. That was a really critical part of the game, and then I think we scored 10 of 11 possessions to start the second half and created the separation that we needed.”

Jamiya Neal was key to the comeback in more ways than one. Sure, he scored five straight points to get the deficit into single-digits, including a three-pointer and this crazy shot where he spun multiple times in an attempt to create space.

“We were a little flat offensively to start the game,” McDermott said. “I don’t know if that’s a week off or or what it was, but Jamiya did some great things on both ends of the floor for us.”

“I have a sense for when my team needs me to wake them up a little bit,” Neal said on the postgame radio show. “Sometimes I look around and I’m like, ‘Alright, it’s a little stagnant and I gotta try to make a play.’ Sometimes, that’s an assist. This time it had to be a shot. On that (turnaround) shot in the corner, I’m like, ‘Ugh’ because Peavy was lurking and he gets all the steals. I was like, ‘I’d rather just shoot it and see what happens then to let him get a pick-six dunk.’ So that’s what happened right there. It’s important to be aware of the situation and know when it’s time to score.”

While those shots when CU was struggling to score were huge, his defense on Georgetown’s leading scorer, Micah Peavy, was what really allowed the Jays to come back and ultimately run away from the Hoyas. Peavy was coming off of a 30-point performance in a win over Providence, and scored 18 points in the first 12 minutes of Sunday’s game. He made 7-of-9 from the floor to start, including 4-of-5 from three.

Then McDermott made an adjustment, switching Neal onto him. And Peavy made just one more shot the rest of the game, a layup with four minutes left in the game after the outcome was more or less decided. In between he missed 10 consecutive shots — after 18 points in 12 minutes, he finished with 20 in 40 minutes; after starting 7-of-9 from the field, he went 1-of-11 to finish it, ending with a 8-of-21 line.

“We switched Jamiya on to him just to get a little bit more athletic ability and quickness on him,” McDermott said. “After that crazy start, we did a good job running him off the line and making him go to the rim and challenge Kalk. And that didn’t go very well when he went there.”

As a matter of fact, he challenged Kalkbrenner at the rim four times — and got an offensive foul and three shots blocked for his trouble. Here’s all of them in one short package for your enjoyment, courtesy of WBR’s Matt DeMarinis.

With Neal shutting off Peavy’s water defensively, the Jays went to work on offense. Trailing 38-34, Steven Ashworth scored eight straight points including a pair of threes 38 seconds apart. The first cut the lead to 40-39, and was answered by a short jumper from Georgetown’s Malik Mack. Then Ashworth answered back with his second three to tie it at 42 to cap an electrifying sequence.

Two free throws from Kalkbrenner (improbably) gave the Jays a 44-42 lead at the half, and they never trailed the rest of the way. They scored five points in less than a minute to start the second half, including a three from Jackson McAndrew that forced Georgetown coach Ed Cooley to burn a timeout. But it did little to stop the bleeding: Kalkbrenner blocked the first shot out of the timeout, then ran the floor and scored on an alley-oop. It was 51-42 Bluejays just 1:21 into the half.

Before the first media timeout, Kalkbrenner had scored six more points including a dunk and a putback off an offensive rebound. Just like that it was 60-46 Bluejays.

“Him, Dikembe Mutombo, Pat Ewing and Chris Mullen are all on the same (level),” Ed Cooley said afterward. “Jesus Christ. It seems like he’s been here forever. Man. I will give him his graduation gift or his doctorate or triple doctorate, however long the hell he’s been here.”

“He represents the Big East and Creighton in a first-class manner in how he handles himself,” Cooley added. “Those guys are jewels if you’re able to coach someone like that … us coaches die for those types of players. Those guys don’t come every day.”

The Hoyas would cut the lead down to just five midway through the half after switching into a matchup zone. It briefly flummoxed the Jays, who went scoreless on six straight possessions as part of a 13-4 Georgetown run. And it featured a brutal stretch from Mason Miller, who didn’t have the confidence to pull the trigger on a three late in the shot clock, and turned it over when the clock hit zeros. Then he compounded the mistake by fouling Jayden Epps while attempting a three. After a timeout by a visibly frustrated McDermott, the Jays answered with a dunk from Kalkbrenner and a three from Fedor Zugic to push the lead back to 10. And then three 3-pointers from Isaac Traudt in just 2:05 put the game on ice.

The win was Creighton’s 10 in their last 12 games, and by flipping the script in the rematch with Georgetown and avenging the ugliest loss of the season, they showed just how much they’ve improved in that time.

“I think we’re just a completely different team in terms of how we play with each other and how we just make things happen for each other,” Kalkbrenner said. “We always believed in each other from the beginning of the year, it was just a somewhat different group. So just finding that chemistry and working together and staying with it — it’s come a long way.”

Inside the Box:

Georgetown forced 16 turnovers and converted them into 20 points in the first meeting; 12 of the 16 turnovers were steals, and the Hoyas turned those into six fastbreak dunks. Cutting down on those numbers was seen as key in the rematch — and the Jays succeeded. They had just nine turnovers, and three of them occurred in the final 3:45 after the game was more or less over. Georgetown got only eight points off turnovers; combined with 14 second-chance points, they had 22 extra possession points. They had 31 in D.C. A nine-point improvement in an 11-point win was huge.

And while the Jays’ primary ball-handling guards (Ashworth and Neal, both of whom played the entire game) didn’t shoot terribly well — they were 5-of-19 from three and 11-of-32 overall — they set the table for everyone else. Ashworth had seven assists and just two turnovers. Neal had nine assists and only one turnover.

“I think Peavy probably surprised us the first time,” McDermott said. “I’m not sure that his anticipation skills really showed through on film until you saw him in person, and I don’t think his physicality did either, you know, his ability to just blow up a screen. We were able to get him off Steven by cross-matching with some ball screens to try to get him off because he’s so hard to guard one-on-one, he’s so physical and he’s hard to screen. He’s a terrific player. And you know, we I think we were much more prepared for the pressure this time around.”

Jamiya Neal played all 40 minutes, and had 13 points, 12 rebounds and nine assists. He fell just one assist shy of a traditional triple-double, which would have been just the second in CU program history. And he might have gotten it had Kalkbrenner attempted a late-three where he took a pass from Neal and found himself wide-open. But the perpetually unselfish Kalkbrenner turned down a good shot for a (potentially) great one, passing to the corner where Jackson McAndrew also stood wide-open.

“Kalk’s mad. He didn’t shoot that three at the end. He didn’t realize Jamiya was one assist away,” McDermott said. “But like I jokingly told Kalk, ‘you think you were going to make that one, huh?’”

“I feel so bad, man,” Kalkbrenner said. “I had no idea. I had no idea. If I had known that I would have absolutely shot it. I had no idea. I’m sorry, Jamiya.”

“I didn’t know about this. No, I didn’t,” an audibly surprised Neal told John Bishop on the postgame radio show. “But we won. That’s all that matters, you know. That’s all I care about.”

Jasen Green scored a career-high 14 points on 5-of-7 shooting, and had seven of the Jays’ first nine points. Through the first 23 games of the season, Green averaged 2.8 points on 48.3% from the field and 28% from three, with 16 free-throw attempts.

Over the past four? Green is averaging 10.3 points, 4.3 rebounds and 1.0 block per game while shooting 68.2% from the field with a pair of 3s and 14 free throw attempts. Three of those four games were against the Big East’s top three defensive teams: St. John’s, Marquette and Georgetown.

“He’s gotten so much better, and while his statistics defensively don’t jump off the page, he does a great job of shot challenge. He’s in the right place. He knows the scouting report inside and out,” McDermott said. “And his guy seldom gets an offensive rebound, although I’ve talked to Jasen about that — we need him to defensive rebound a little bit better.”

“But he’s improved in every facet of the game. It’s been fun to see. Really, because of the injury last year, this is his first full year. You hope to see that kind of development year over year, but you don’t always see it. Jasen’s really worked at it and he’s worked on the three-point shot so that if they leave him he can knock one down like he did today.”

“I wasn’t always sure what my role was going to be in the past,” Green said. “To have a specific thing that I know I’m out here to do is really comforting. It’s just allowed me to become much more effective both on both offense and defense. It’s really good for me.”

Ryan Kalkbrenner scored 19 points to move into sixth-place on the all-time Big East scoring list with 1,305 points in conference games. He passed the great Kerry Kittles (1,288) and Chris Mullin (1,290) in this one. In the process, he became the second Bluejay in program history to make 900 or more career field goals, as he ended the game with 901. Doug McDermott owns the program record with 1,141, if you’re curious.

And his four blocks gave him 41 this year at home, breaking his own CHI Health Center Omaha single-season record of 38 he set in 2021-22. He now has at least 10 points and one block in 12 straight games.

Press Conference:

Highlights:

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