Bluejay Beat:
Inside the Box:
Rarely does one stat encapsulate a game, but offensive rebounds tell the story in this one. North Florida had eight offensive boards in the first half and scored 12 second-chance points on them; Creighton had two, and scored just two points on them.
In the second? Creighton had seven offensive rebounds that they turned into 16 points. North Florida had five, and scored one single point on them.
Individually, the Big Three came up big again. Mitch Ballock had his first career double-double, with 15 points and 11 boards (two offensive) in 38 minutes, and had four assists, too. Ty-Shon Alexander had 18 points, six rebounds and four assists. Marcus Zegarowski had 19 points, four rebounds and three assists. And Damien Jefferson had his second straight outstanding game, making a case that this team might actually have a Big Four — he had 12 points, five rebounds (three offensive) and was back to his early-season form of a season ago where he was out-leaping opponents for rebounds and putbacks.
Recap:
Almost as if they flicked a switch from “meh” to “on”, Creighton erased 20 minutes of lethargic basketball in the span of seven possessions to begin the second half. Christian Bishop scored on a layup just 19 seconds in to cut the deficit to 36-33, and then stood his ground in the paint against a driving Osprey moments later. It wasn’t a charge, but it was a traveling violation, and it was an indication of what was to come: higher energy, more communication, and more physicality.
Mitch Ballock soon hit a three to cut the deficit to 38-36. Damien Jefferson converted a three-point play on a putback and a free throw that made it 41-39. And then Ty-Shon Alexander sunk a three pointer in transition to give Creighton their first lead since it was 6-5.
Regaining the lead lit a fire under the CHI Health Center crowd, which in turn seemed to shift the Bluejays into another gear. An 8-0 run created separation, starting with a vicious dunk by Kelvin Jones:
Another three from Alexander followed, and then Shereef Mitchell ripped the ball away from a North Florida player, drove the length of the floor, and had his missed layup cleaned up by a trailing Jefferson. It was now a 19-5 run to start the half:
The surge continued with another tough layup in traffic by Jefferson, a pair of threes by Marcus Zegarowski, and another three from Alexander. Zegarowski’s second three made it 59-45 Creighton, and capped a game-changing 28-9 stretch over the first eight minutes of the half. It was a stunning turn of events, and it (mostly) happened with Creighton rolling out a five-guard lineup out of necessity after Bishop and Jones picked up their third fouls.
“We were going to try to buy a couple of minutes (with the small lineup),” Greg McDermott explained. “But Damien did such a good job switching screens, staying out on their shooters, and our guards when they got switched into the post did a good job of fighting. D.J. is so versatile. He allows us to do a lot of different things, and I thought he was one of the unsung heroes today.”
More than just buy a couple of minutes, CU was able to play a large chunk of the second half with that small lineup. Bishop (16) and Jones (17) played some of their fewest minutes of the season. It won’t work every night, but it did on Sunday. Jefferson’s ability to play bigger than his size was a big reason why.
Still, North Florida tried to mount a comeback, and did manage to get the deficit back to single digits with six minutes to play. Then Creighton pulled out a set play — a lob pass over their zone — to Bishop for a dunk. It pushed CU’s edge back to double digits, and except for a brief moment in the final minute when missed free throws threatened to make the outcome more nerve-wracking than it needed to be, Bishop’s alley-oop was the nail in the coffin for UNF’s upset bid.
Prior to the switch being flipped at the start of the second half, Creighton was very much on upset alert. They trailed 36-31 at halftime, and their effort (or lack thereof) on the glass was the main culprit. 8 offensive rebounds by North Florida became 12 second-chance points. That did not sit well with CU’s staff.
“Coach came into the locker room at halftime, and pretty much was just fussing at us,” Ty-Shon Alexander recalled on the postgame radio show. “He kept saying they were out rebounding us, and their size is not any bigger than ours. He basically just told us ‘We gotta do more.’ We have to create for others. We have to keep getting stops no matter what. That’s what we did, and it turned the tables quick. We got out to a big start, and that gave us all a second wind.”
CU had survived a first half where they shot an atrocious 3-of-13 from three-point range and gotten outworked on the glass to the tune of a 23-15 rebounding disadvantage — including the aforementioned eight offensive boards — because their defense kept them in the game. Their leading scorer, J.T. Escobar, was blanketed by Alexander all afternoon. A 45% shooter from three-point range, he went 0-for-5 in the first half and 0-for-7 on the day. Standout point guard Ivan Gandia-Rosa was similarly blanketed by Zegarowski; he missed his first five attempts from three-point range before hitting one in the final minute. Perhaps more importantly, one of the nation’s premiere assist artists was prevented from setting his teammates up for open shots because of Zegarowski’s defense. His five assists for the game were well below average for a player who ranked 16th in the country in assists a year ago.
“I’ve been hearing a lot from Coach telling me that my effort on defense has really been poor these last few games, and he needed me to turn it up because he knows what I’m capable of,” Alexander said. “So today I had the mindset that whoever I’m guarding, they’re stopped.”
Stopped they were. Escobar and Gandia-Rosa combined to shoot 3-for-21 in the game, and Escobar in particular — the player Alexander was tasked with guarding — was nearly invisible. 1-for-11 overall. 0-for-7 from three-point range. One rebound. Zero assists. Two turnovers.
“And when we had switches, Ty-Shon and Marcus did a good job, too,” Greg McDermott was quick to point out in his postgame radio interview. “Mitch was extremely big on the glass. We’re relying on those three so much, and it’s hard to get them off the floor. I really thought they competed defensively today.”