Foul trouble and long scoring droughts were the key storylines on Friday in Providence, with the first leading to the second, especially for the Bluejays. Creighton built a 24-14 lead after eight minutes, as Nik Graves made his first three shots, including a pair of threes where he used a pump-fake to get his defender in the air, then slid out of the way.
Slide to the right. #GoJays // 📺 FS1 pic.twitter.com/CEWCemn1gj
— Creighton Men’s Basketball (@BluejayMBB) January 16, 2026
Déjà vu. #GoJays // 📺 FS1 pic.twitter.com/ZbzgAhl5gR
— Creighton Men’s Basketball (@BluejayMBB) January 16, 2026
But with 6:36 to go, Graves picked up his second foul. He sat the rest of the half, Creighton missed five of their next six shots as Providence cut the lead to three, and then Josh Dix picked up his second foul. Playing the final 1:46 without a point guard — Austin Swartz and Fedor Zugic manned the backcourt — Creighton limped into the locker room up by a single point after that early 10 point lead.
“I think the game started just like I hoped it would,” Greg McDermott said. “I thought we were making really good decisions with the basketball. I thought the quality of shot we were getting at that point was really good. Defensively, we forced them into some things that we wanted to force them into. And then then we got casual. We got up 10, and had a chance, really, to create some separation, and just foolish turnovers, some quick shots, some blown assignments defensively, and then some missed block outs on the other end gave them some energy to have some momentum. And obviously we didn’t start the start the second half very well.”
Obviously.
Providence tied the game on a free throw 22 seconds into the half and took the lead 50-48 seconds later. They’d tie it at 50, but then Graves and Dix picked up their third fouls on consecutive possessions. McDermott opted to keep both on the floor, and for awhile, the gamble paid off. Graves made a layup coming out of the under-16 timeout to give CU a 54-53 lead, then assisted on a three from Jasen Green that tied it at 57. But with 13:37 to go, Dix picked up his fourth foul. The free throws from that foul gave Providence a 61-57 lead; when Dix returned at the 9:51 mark, it was 71-57 after the Friars ripped off a 10-0 run with him on the bench.
Upon checking back in, Dix sparked a 10-3 run that featured just about everything you can do in 75 seconds of a basketball game: one rebound, one assist, one steal, two free throws and a three-pointer. But the 14-point hole was too deep — even after that mini-run, it was still 74-67 — and even at less than four minutes on the bench, he was out for too long.
“Too much time,” McDermott said. “He’s too important to us on both ends of the floor. We were trying to get to the 10-minute mark if we could, but that stretch when he was on the bench, obviously, was damaging to us.”
As the fouls piled up and with their best on-ball defender in danger of fouling out, McDermott switched into a 2-3 zone. Providence was stopped in their tracks — they made 3-of-13 the rest of the game against the zone and committed two live-ball turnovers. But while the 2-3 zone helped combat one problem, it exasperated another. Zone defenses are hard to rebound out of, because you’re often not as close to an opposing player to box out when a shot is in the air as you would be in a man-to-man scheme. The Friars had seven of their 19 offensive rebounds in the minutes when CU was in the 2-3 zone.
“Oswin (Erhunmwunse) killed us on the offensive glass,” McDermott said. “That’s the price you pay for playing small and playing that zone, but had we not gone to the zone, the game was going to get out of hand in a hurry. The zone, I thought, stagnated them a little bit and got us some stops, got us a couple steals and out in transition. Unfortunately, we missed some rebounding assignments during that stretch.”
Creighton outscored Providence by seven in the 33 minutes Dix played. The Friars made the most of the other seven minutes, outscoring CU by 12 without the Jays’ best defender on the floor.
The scoring droughts — 10-2 with the only two points on free throws to end the first half with Graves and Dix on the bench, 10-0 midway through the second half with Dix on the bench — sealed their loss.
Inside the Box:
Providence made 25-of-35 free throw attempts in the game, the most free throws made by a Creighton opponent in almost 10 years. The last time a team made more? Rhode Island in the 2017 NCAA Tournament, when a Rams team coached by Dan Hurley made 28.
Combined with Creighton’s 24 free throws made on Friday, it was the first time both Creighton and its opponent both made 24+ free throws since Nov. 25, 2015 when Creighton made 28 and Massachusetts made 27. That UMass team was coached by current Creighton assistant coach Derek Kellogg.
Their 23 fouls were the most since last February at St. John’s, when they also had 23. The last time they had more? In a December 20, 2020 win at UConn where they were called for 24 — though that was an overtime game. You have to go back to the 2017 Big East Tournament to find the last time Creighton was called for more than 23 fouls in a game that didn’t go overtime. On March 9, 2017 they were whistled for 25 in a 70-58 win over Providence.
“I feel like we if we just played our way, it wouldn’t even have affected our game,” Blake Harper said of the officiating. “And that’s one thing that I’m really just upset about. Everybody’s upset about the refs, but I feel like if we just played our way, the refs couldn’t even impact the game. I just didn’t like the way we came out in the second half. I felt like that set the tone for the whole game. I thought we let the officials take control of the game and this is what happens.”
And he’s right. The Jays did plenty to lose the game even without the mountain of fouls.
Providence had a 15 point edge in extra possession points, 41-26. The Friars turned 10 Bluejay turnovers into 17 points, and rebounded 44.2% of their missed shots, converting 19 offensive rebounds into 24 points. Providence’s Oswin Erhunmwunse had nine offensive boards by himself.
Meanwhile, Austin Swartz was due for a regression to the mean after a red-hot nine game stretch, and unfortunately it came in this game. Swartz had been averaging 18.1 points since moving into the starting lineup, making 52.5% overall and 48.1% from three. He scored six points in this one, making 1-of-13 from the floor and 0-of-8 from three. It’s the first time since the Iowa State game in late November that he failed to make at least one 3-pointer. He also tied a career-high with four turnovers.
“Austin’s been terrific for us. He wasn’t very good tonight shooting the ball or taking care of the basketball and that hasn’t happened much,” McDermott said. “But thankfully some other guys stepped up. I thought Nik (Graves), Blake (Harper), Fedor (Zugic) gave us some good minutes. Obviously Jasen was outstanding. But disappointing loss because we did not play the kind of basketball that we are supposed to play.”
Jasen Green scored a career-high 26 points, making 8-of-10 from the floor, 9-of-11 from the line, with seven rebounds, four assists, one steal and one block. He drew eight fouls. His four assists created 11 points, meaning he was directly responsible for 37 of their 88 points (42%).
Harper had 16 points, eight rebounds and four assists. He drew five fouls and went 6-of-7 from the line. Graves scored 13 with four rebounds and a pair of assists. And Dix had 17, making 6-of-12 overall and 3-of-6 from three, with two assists and two steals. On a night where Swartz shoots even marginally better, the Jays probably win this game even with everything else that went against them.
Alas.