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Men's Basketball

Morning After: Jays 71, Evansville 68

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[Box Score]

Key Stats: Creighton holds Evansville to 34% shooting in the second half (10-29) after allowing the Aces to hit 45% of their shots in the first half. Creighton outscores Evansville 26-20 in the paint. Creighton makes 14-17 free throws.

Favorite Moment: When the clock showed triple-zeroes and Creighton had three more points than Evansville.

500-ish Word Recap: After losing three straight games to go from first place in the MVC to potentially on the wrong side of the NCAA Tournament bubble, Creighton’s players and coaches said all the right things heading into a game they absolutely had to win…and then promptly came out and fell behind 14-3 mere moments into the game. I’d be lying to you if I told you I wasn’t frantically searching my basement man cave for the panic button, because I totally was.

While I was cursing myself for not paying extra for a panic button with GPS to make it easier to find when tragically misplaced, Creighton calmly rattled off a 12-2 run to pull within 16-15. I’m sure I wasn’t alone in exhaling as the Jays were exerting their will and playing good, solid inside-out basketball.

Just as quickly as the Jays had come back, Evansville blew back out in front, using a 13-0 run to go back up 29-15. They’d push the lead to 31-15 before Creighton took a deep breath and once again began clawing back. A 10-0 run of their own, highlighted by three field goals from Doug McDermott and a three-pointer from Ethan Wragge, brought them back in it, and the defense did the rest, holding Evansville to just one field goal over the final 7:45 of the half.

Trailing 36-31 at the break, they continued to play solid defense as the second half commenced, and took a 42-40 lead on an Avery Dingman three-pointer. They were hitting outside shots, getting the ball inside, and even scoring in transition, while defensively, they held the Aces to just 34% from the floor in the second half in busting out to a 65-56 lead with five minutes to play.

It wasn’t all positive, though. They got beat on the glass 37-25, and grabbed just two (2!) offensive rebounds all afternoon, and it was their struggles in securing rebounds that almost cost them the game. Evansville chipped and clawed their way back thanks to second and sometimes third chances on each possession, never moreso than one particularly maddening sequence with 43 seconds left. Down 68-66, Evansville’s Colt Ryan missed a jumper, but his teammate Adam Wing grabbed the rebound, kicking it out to DJ Balentine who missed a three for the lead. Again Wing grabbed the rebound, but they turned it over before getting another shot off.

On their next possession, Ned Cox missed a three with 16 seconds left, but again Evansville secured the rebound. Egidijus Mockevicius missed the putback, thankfully, and after a free throw by McDermott, Cox’s three-point attempt at the buzzer rimmed out and the Jays had the victory.

Quotables:

“Coach didn’t want to tell us in the locker room before the game that this was a must-win, but it was. We definitely felt the urgency. To start the game we didn’t play the way we needed to, but we got a few stops in a row that kept us in the game, and the next thing you know we’re playing the way we’re used to — getting the ball inside, and having guys hit shots from the outside.” -Jahenns Manigat on AM590 postgame

“The thing with Evansville is that usually Colt (Ryan) gets his, and our job is to stop the surrounding guys. He’s a great scorer, and he’s usually able to get his so the fact that he only made three shots from the field out of 18 shot attempts just speaks volumes to our attention to detail, the way that we fought off screens, the way we challenged every jump shot, the way we made him work for every point. You could tell during the game he kinda got a little frustrated, because he wasn’t making shots.” -Jahenns Manigat on AM590 postgame

(On the difference in offensive success) “We established the inside, first and foremost. Usually, our shots come from inside-out, Greg and Doug get doubled where defenders get forced to rotate off of shooters and then we make them pay. The last couple of games we kind of went away from that, where the ball didn’t go inside every trip down the floor like it needs to. When we get the ball to them, our job is quite simple — we just need to have our feet set and knock the open shot down.” -Jahenns Manigat on AM590 postgame

(On the difference between last year’s three game losing streak and this year’s) “Last year’s losing streak hit us hard because it was a buzzer-beater that started it at UNI. Then we came here next to the Ford Center, for our first game in the new building and not knowing what to expect, and the next thing you know we’re looking up at the scoreboard at the end of the game and we’re down eight points or so. Those two losses impacted us tremendously, and then we went into a white-out game in front of the largest crowd and absolutely blew it in front of our fans. But this year, we’ve had a little bit of struggles here and there. The first one, we didn’t really show up and Indiana State whooped us. Bradley at home, we were fighting, and fighting, but the luck of the bounce went their way that night. The game at UNI we fought as hard as we possibly could but it was just one of those situations. So there’s not really much difference. Sometimes teams go through something like this, especially in the middle of the season, but we’ll get it back on track and peak at the right time.” -Jahenns Manigat on AM590 postgame

“After that rough start, we knew we had to bring ourselves back and we did it on the defensive end of the floor. We got Colt Ryan and Ned Cox to cool down a little bit, we regrouped at halftime, and did the same thing the second half. It showed a lot of maturity out of our team, that’s for sure.” -Doug McDermott on AM590 postgame

(On scoring 2,000 points) “It’s just surreal. I never thought I could ever get here. After 1,000, I thought ‘Wow, that’s all I was shooting for.’ I have to give a lot of credit to my teammates, my coaching staff, because they put me in a position every night where I can get some points.” -Doug McDermott on AM590 postgame

(On the way defensive schemes change with Ethan Wragge on the floor) “It makes it so much easier when Ethan’s on the floor, because they’re so locked into him on the perimeter that it opens up so much for me and Greg in the post. That’s what he does, he puts a ton of pressure on the defense.” -Doug McDermott on AM590 postgame

“Even though we didn’t get many points out of transition in the first half, we still managed to control the pace and run. In the film room last night, the coaches were stressing that we needed to get out and run to beat these guys, and I thought we did a great job of that especially in the second half.” -Doug McDermott on AM590 postgame

“It was a must-win for us. We knew it was. No one had to say it. Everyone knew it. It’s just a sense…everyone felt it.  After they got a 31-15 lead we had to get ourselves going. It kind of reminded me of our game at San Diego State last year, where they jumped on us early, but we kept our cool and slowly got back into the game.” -Doug McDermott on AM590 postgame

“Often times, when Evansville goes small it’s to their benefit. Today, when they went small I felt it was to our benefit because we were able to get Doug established in the post. We had a hard time getting Doug touches when Gregory was on the floor, and we weren’t able to get Gregory established as much as we wanted, so we decided to go with the offensive lineup. And for the most part, Doug and Ethan when they had to guard D.J. Balentine, they did a decent job of chasing him around screens and those sorts of things.” -Greg McDermott on AM590 postgame

“Grant Gibbs was back to being Grant Gibbs. I think he had three passes to Doug where all he had to do was catch the ball and lay it in.” -Greg McDermott on AM590 postgame

(On whether they considered fouling on the final possession) “We talked about it, but we felt like we knew what they were going to run. We didn’t execute the defensive part of it as well as I would have liked. Doug was supposed to jump it a little bit more than he did. But, you know, I’ve studied those numbers too and I just feel like the percentage that people are going to make in those situations where you’re switching screens and they’re in a desperation mode…they’re not shooting 33 or 34 percent. They’re probably going to shoot in the teens and I’ll take our chances with that.” -Greg McDermott on AM590 postgame

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