Bluejay Beat:
Key Stats:
Creighton had 23 assists on 29 made baskets, and got a career-high 10 assists from Marcus Zegarowski, who finished two points shy of a double-double. 62 of their 91 points came from two players, as Martin Krampelj (23 points, 10 boards) and Mitch Ballock (39 points, two rebounds, two assists and two steals) led the charge.
Ballock’s Record-Setting Night
Mention “The WraggeBomb Game” to a Creighton fan and chances are they instantly know what you’re talking about. Some of them probably remember exactly where they watched him rain in nine 3-pointers at #4 Villanova on January 20, 2014, and have specific memories of that historic night.
The game where Kyle Korver made nine 3’s doesn’t have a name, necessarily; Korver had so many nights, so many moments, that they belie such a singular nomenclature. We wrote a lot about the 2003 game where Korver set the school record which Wragge eventually tied in a Bluejay Rewind a couple of summers ago — a 93-56 blowout over Evansville on a cold, snowy midweek night at the Civic.
Those were the two greatest single-game shooting performances from three-point range by a Bluejay until this weekend. In Saturday night’s regular season finale, Mitch Ballock matched them — and then blew past them — sinking 11 threes to set the new standard. ELEVEN!
He was a perfect 5-of-5 in the first half, and 6-of-7 in the second, spreading out his destruction equally across the course of the game. And the final pair of threes were among the biggest shots of the game — doubling a six-point lead with 6:58 to play into a 12-point lead 90 seconds later and effectively ending whatever hopes DePaul had of winning.
And though Ballock’s reputation as a sharp-shooter is well earned, this particular performance is a bit of a surprise because he’d been in a slump (by his standards). Since he opened Big East play on fire by making 18-for-28 (64%) through the first four games, he’d made just 33-of-92 in the 13 games since (35%). He was coming off a game where he made 2 of 10 from long range. And then he did THIS.
Wow. What a night.
“I’ve been keeping my head up during this slump, and keeping my same routine,” Ballock said in a postgame radio interview. “Mac tells me all the time that he still trusts me and believes in my shot. And actually, I talked to Ras yesterday and he told me to get the ball up a little higher — to hold the ball up a little higher — and I guess that worked.”
That’s right: none other than athletic director Bruce Rasmussen, who began his tenure at Creighton as the women’s basketball coach, gave some shooting advice to a struggling gunslinger — and it was at least partially to credit for a historic night.
Here’s how historic an achievement this is: Just 19 D1 players in NCAA history have made more threes in a game than Ballock did on Saturday. And no one has ever done it as efficiently as he did — he was 11-for-12 (91.7%) to set the NCAA record for three-point shooting percentage with at least 12 attempts. This was truly a game for the ages; years from now when “The Mitch Ballock Game” is mentioned, Creighton fans everywhere will nod their heads and know exactly what game is being talked about.
Recap:
Given the off-court distractions in the 48 hours leading up to gametime, and the absence of assistant Preston Murphy who was placed on administrative leave Friday night, it was fair to wonder exactly how focused Creighton would be at tipoff against DePaul. They emphatically answered those questions, holding the Blue Demons scoreless for over six minutes and blasting out to a 16-2 lead. As it has been over the last month, their defense led the charge, with six turnovers in the first six minutes (three on steals). One of those steals came from Ballock, who ripped the ball away from DePaul’s Femi Olujobi and took it to the other end for a layup. It was his only two-point basket of the night, and it gave CU a 9-0 lead.
Seven of the first nine points came from Krampelj, who enthusiastically ran toward the sideline when DePaul burned an early timeout and yelled for the crowd to crank up the noise. It was perhaps the best opening eight minutes of any game this season, as they were locked in defensively and flawless offensively.
DePaul adjusted to the Jays’ defensive attack, and as they made a concentrated effort to get the ball to the rim, Creighton struggled to stop them from doing so — and often fouled in their attempts. Four of their guards had two fouls in the first 16 minutes of the game (Mintz, Alexander, Ballock, and Cashaw), and that further complicated their efforts. It also made them a bit less aggressive defensively, and partially as a result DePaul committed just two more turnovers the rest of the half.
Better ball security was a big reason they were able to cut into the Jays’ lead, even with leading scorer (and red hot) Max Strus being held in check by a combination of Davion Mintz and others — he had scored 73 combined points in the two games prior, and had just six in the first half on Saturday (with just four shot attempts). Drawing fouls, and then making their free throws, was also a big reason — DePaul was 11-of-14 from the line in the first half. 27 of their 34 first-half points came either at the line or in the paint.
Ballock’s first three of the game came during the Jays’ huge opening salvo; it made the score 12-2. His second gave the Jays a 21-11 lead with nine minutes left, and came from the corner directly in front of the visiting bench:
His third three of the night answered a short run by the Blue Demons who had cut the deficit to five; it put CU ahead 33-25. A couple of possessions later, he buried his fourth from near the logo at center court — a shot created by Christian Bishop, who had snared an offensive rebound and immediately kicked it out to an open Ballock:
Officially feeling it at this point, Ballock then sank his fifth three — with no misses — from near the DePaul bench. It gave Creighton a 41-34 lead with under a minute to go in the half:
While Ballock was torching the nets from deep, Krampelj was dunking on DePaul’s vaunted big men time after time. They combined for 31 of Creighton’s 41 first-half points, carrying the load while most of the guard corps was in foul trouble.
The duo continued to do so in the second, scoring 12 of Creighton’s first 17. Ballock opened the scoring with his sixth three of the game, still against zero misses. Then came this monstrous dunk in transition from Mintz, who posterized DePaul’s Paul Reed:
Moments later, Ballock stuck his seventh 3, still without a miss, this time from the CHI Health Center logo:
And after finally missing a three-pointer, he made a defensive gem by blocking Jaylen Butz at the rim:
Trouble was lurking, though. An 8-2 run by DePaul, featuring a three from Max Strus, cut the lead to 56-52. Mintz collided violently with Strus two possessions later and rather than get a foul call, was whistled for traveling; after laying face down on the floor for a minute, he was helped to the locker room and would not return. 90 seconds of game time later, Alexander picked up his third and fourth fouls on consecutive possessions, and headed to the bench. Who would guard Strus now? The crowd was getting testy. Coach Mac was livid. It had the feel of an impending meltdown.
“I thought Davion did a really good job in the first half of limiting his touches,” Greg McDermott said. “Then all of a sudden in the second, with Davion’s injury and some of our foul trouble, we had guys guarding him who hadn’t guarded him in practice. We had guys helping off the ball who didn’t guard those players because Davion and Ty-Shon are an important part of that.”
Keeping them afloat while the defense treaded water? Ballock. He hit his eighth 3 of the game at the 14-minute mark:
Then he hit his ninth to tie the school record — this one coming in a particularly big spot, on the heels of Alexander picking up his two straight fouls and DePaul having cut the lead to four. It was a shooters roll, no doubt about it, as it bounced off the rim straight up in the air, hit the front of the iron, and fell back through the net.
Down two starting guards and clinging to a three-point lead at 66-63, Creighton delivered the knockout blow with a 16-6 run. Krampelj started the run on a layup, and then Kaleb Joseph drained a three:
Ballock then scored nine points in two minutes to blow the game open. He hit his 10th three to break the school record and give CU a 74-65 lead:
And hit his 11th three a minute later to give Creighton a 79-67 advantage:
On his next attempt, DePaul fouled him, and he scored three points anyway — draining all three free throws for an 82-69 lead. With Ballock shooting “layups from 25 feet” as the OWH’s Jon Nyatawa called it on Twitter, it didn’t much matter who was guarding Strus. Or anyone else for that matter. Creighton was going to win.
With the 91-78 victory, Creighton claimed a share of third place, and the #5 seed in the Big East Tournament after tiebreakers were applied. For a team picked to finish ninth in the preseason poll, it’s quite an accomplishment, and what makes it even more impressive is the fact that Creighton appears to be playing its best basketball of the season as the postseason arrives. They’ve won five straight heading into NYC, their defense has become a strength instead of a liability, and they’ve proven they can win games without having to outscore their opponent.
“Winning five in a row in this conference is really tough. Obviously, coming off of a four-game losing streak even moreso,” Ballock said. “But we kept our composure and our approach, and we really want our seniors to have the opportunity to play in the NCAA Tournament one more time. Hopefully we can make a run in the Big East Tournament and win that to not leave anything to chance.”
First up in that quest: Xavier, in a 1:30 central tip on Thursday afternoon. The teams split two regular season meetings, each winning at home, and will enter the quarterfinal matchup as arguably the two hottest teams in the league — Creighton’s won five straight, and Xavier’s won six of seven.
