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Morning After: Kalkbrenner Goes Off for 35 Points in Final 28 Minutes as Jays Pick up Rare Road Win at Providence

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Twelve years ago in Springfield, a physical Missouri State team pushed, prodded and antagonized a Bluejay superstar hoping to knock him off of his game, only to have it blow it up in their face. On that January 2013 night, the Jays led 32-27 at the break, with McDermott held in check by the Bears’ physicality. But after spending 15 minutes stewing about it in the locker room, he came out and unleashed fury.

In the second half, he went 10-11 from the field, 3-3 from behind the arc and 5-5 at the line — and the only shot he missed was his last one with roughly four minutes to play, making 10 straight shots before checking out with the Jays holding a huge lead. In their 18-5 blitz to begin the second half, McDermott scored all 18 points. He outscored the Bears 28-25 in the second half BY HIMSELF. For the game, he had 39 points on 15-of-19 shooting with 10 rebounds.

“Doug got on an unbelievable roll,” Greg McDermott said afterward. “When that happens, we just get him the ball and get out of his way.” His teammate Jahenns Manigat agreed, saying “I was kind of like a spectator, especially on offense. I would cross halfcourt and just pick a spot on the court to watch Doug do what Doug does.”

I thought about that game a lot last night after Ryan Kalkbrenner’s 35-point, 12-rebound demolition of Providence. The physical Friars knocked him off his game, and he missed his first five shots from the field. With 8:15 to go in the first half, Providence led 18-15 and Kalkbrenner was scoreless.

Then he took a lob pass near the rim, scored through contact, and gave the official a bad performance review as he ran up court. He received the first technical foul of his career for it, and the resulting free throws briefly grew Providence’s lead. But the damage was done — similar to Missouri State back in 2013, the Friars had poked the bear. And similar to that game, they’d regret the fallout.

After scoring zero points in the first 12 minutes on 0-of-5 shooting, he scored 35 points over the remaining 28 minutes while making 13-of-18 from the floor. Five of the 13 made baskets were dunks off lob passes. Two more were unassisted dunks. I’m not sure Kalkbrenner ever gets angry, at least outwardly, but after watching him play over 150 games for the Jays across nearly five seasons it was apparent he was — something. Annoyed? Irritated? Certainly frustrated. And he was taking it out on the Friars.

“I mean, it was really physical. I don’t think I’m allowed to comment on the refereeing,” Kalkbrenner said on the postgame radio show. “I’d really like to though. Sometimes I can get frustrated and it just overflowed a little bit.”

“He’s getting pushed a little bit on those lobs and he got frustrated,” Greg McDermott said on his postgame radio interview. “And, you know, I’m going to defend him and I’m okay with him defending himself. I know that all the officials across the league have great respect for him so he’s going to get a little bit of a break on some of that stuff, but I think he nipped him twice so the referee had to do it.”

In the immediate aftermath of the technical, though, it was Steven Ashworth who took over. First, he took charge of the situation by sprinting to the official to defend his guy.

“As the point guard, we meet with the officials before every game and talk about how you approach them,” Ashworth said. “So I just wanted to get my word in with the officials and let them know. If you watch our games, every single time I throw a lob to Kalk, he’s getting pushed by somebody. You never want those types of plays to happen because of injury or different types of things. He definitely felt like he got pushed and didn’t get the foul. But then next time we threw the lob, he got the foul call and one. And the rest of the night was history.”

Understandably, that reaction drew the ire of the Providence crowd. And he loved every minute of it.

“There was four probably high school age kids sitting court side. You know, shout out to their dad for paying for those tickets,” Ashworth recounted on the postgame radio show, laughing. “They definitely got me going. They were talking some trash and, you know, I said, ‘All right, it’s go time.’

He scored eight of the next 13 points, and with 5:13 left in the half CU led 30-27.

“Kalk got me fired up with the tech. He was getting pissed off, and I loved it. I had his back and, you know, took a few extra shots during that stretch to let him take a breather.”

Kalkbrenner took over from there. He scored CU’s final 10 points before the break, on a pair of dunks, a three-pointer and four free throws.

Playing without third-leading scorer Wesley Cardet or Jabri Abdur-Rahim, who’d made eight 3’s in their previous game, the Friars managed to hang around — partially because of a balanced attack where eight players scored, partially because Creighton struggled from three-point range all night.

And after going ahead 39-37 on a three from Jayden Pierre, who scored 10 first-half points, the Friars appeared likely to head to halftime with the lead. Instead Kalkbrenner drew a foul while attempting a three, made all three free throws, and it was Creighton who took the lead at half.

“I was definitely going to take that shot,” Kalkbrenner said, somewhat surprisingly, on the postgame show. “But I saw him closing out hard, so I knew could draw a foul there.”

He scored the Jays’ first four points of the second half, too, making it 14 straight across both halves. And when Jasen Green buried a three at the 17:07 mark, Creighton had taken a 49-43 lead. In the midst of that run, starting big man Oswin Erhunmwunse picked up his third and fourth fouls by shoving Ashworth to the ground on a screen, and then reacting to the call by slamming the ball against the floor.

Providence took the lead one last time seven minutes into the half when Bensley Joseph hit a tough shot in the paint. Then Kalkbrenner drew the 3rd and 4th fouls on the Friars’ back-up big man, Eli DeLaurier, and both primary centers were on the bench. Soon, Joseph would join them, as he picked up his fourth foul on an Ashworth three-point attempt. After making three free throws, CU went back ahead 56-54 and never trailed again.

The Friars did keep things close, though. And with Creighton clinging to a 64-63 lead, Kalkbrenner sealed the deal. He sank a three-pointer, threw down a dunk, and answered a Providence three-pointer by Rich Barron with a lay-up. Then a three from Ashworth gave CU a 74-66 lead, and they finished it out from there.

It’s just Creighton’s second-ever win at Amica Mutual Pavilion/Dunkin’ Donuts Center, and third win at Providence, since joining the Big East.

“This is a hard place to win. It’s been a house of horrors for us,” McDermott said on the postgame radio show. “To be able to come in here and get a victory in front of a great crowd is a feather in our cap.”

“Yeah, it’s a hard place to play,” Kalkbrenner added. “I mean, they’re a really good team, and then on top of that, the crowd really gets into it. So for us to be able to go in here and get a win is awesome.”

It’s the Jays’ eighth straight win overall, and 10th in 11 games. Since losing to Georgetown on December 18, they’ve lost just once more over a span of 49 days. It ties the school record for most consecutive Big East wins, set by Doug McDermott’s group in 2013-14. Their fifth-straight road win breaks that team’s previous record of four straight, and is the longest regardless of league since 2011-12 when they won five straight road games in the MVC.

Creighton’s 10-2 Big East start matches the 2013-14 squad for its best mark ever after 12 Big East games. They clinched a .500 or better record in league play for the 29th time in the last 30 seasons, and 10th consecutive campaign. And now it sets up one of the biggest three-game stretches since joining the Big East: Marquette on Saturday, UConn on Tuesday, and St. John’s next Sunday.

Buckle up.

Inside the Box:

Kalkbrenner and Ashworth scored 28 of the Jays’ final 34 points in the first half, and then scored 30 of Creighton’s 40 total points in the second.

Kalkbrenner’s line was absurd: 35 points, 12 rebounds, three steals, two blocks and seven drawn fouls. According to stat guru Jared Berson (@JaredBerson) he’s the first Big East player with at least 35 points/10 rebounds and multiple steals/blocks since Luke Harangody in 2008. It’s his second 35 point double-double of the season. All other Division 1 players — that’s roughly 4,700 players — have combined to do it three times.

Ashworth chipped in with 23 points, six assists, six rebounds and five drawn fouls. The rest of the team combined to score 22 points on 7-of-27 shooting. It was a two-man show, but when they’re as good as these two, it works.

“Yeah, I mean we rely on them a lot. Steven and Kalk are so good together with the reads that they make,” McDermott said. “We have some special guys in those two.”

While it didn’t show up in traditional stats, other players made key contributions.

“You know, Jamiya played great defense. I thought Jackson had a couple of huge offensive rebounds early in that second half to keep possessions alive, and the couple of threes he hit early helped settle us down. Isaac made a great drive and bounce pass to Kalk that resulted in two free throws. Fedor did a great job of walling those guys up, and you know he’s getting better defensively every single game which has been encouraging to see. So everybody contributed in their own way.”

Beyond all of that, the Jays minimized mistakes, as it was their lowest turnover percentage of the year last night (six total, or 8.6% of their possessions). And it was the third lowest offensive rebound percentage for Providence (nine, or on 23% of their missed shots, well below their 34.1% average for the year).

“We did a good job on (Jayden) Pierre and (Bensley) Joseph,” McDermott said. “I mean, they took 21 shots to get 22 points, so we made them work. The job that Steven and Jamiya did on those two wears into you, because you’re used to just catching it and instead they had to work every time to catch it. We took good care of the basketball, we stuck to our plan, and as I told the team, there was a totally different lineup out there. We came into this game thinking I was gonna have to play Mason a bunch, and then Abdur-Rahim was out. So we needed physicality and boy, Fedor wasn’t making shots but I thought defensively he did a really good job.”

Press Conference:

Highlights:

 

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