Key Stats:
Saint Mary’s outrebounds Creighton 39-31, including 11-5 on the offensive glass, with the latter leading to a 19-7 edge for SMC on second-chance points. Saint Mary’s has two players with a double-double (Brad Waldow, 11 points/11 rebounds, and Dane Pineau, 13 points/10 rebounds). I can’t recall the last time that happened to the Jays. Austin Chatman plays 40 minutes, bringing his total for the week to 87 minutes in two games; Isaiah Zierden plays 43 minutes, meaning he’s played 85 minutes in two games.
Favorite Moment:
Zierden is quickly becoming a player able to not just be a deadly spot-up shooter, but a shooter than can create his own shot. Late in the game, he illustrated this beautifully. He caught the ball on the perimeter, took one dribble to create space, pump-faked his defender into the air, and took what was then a pretty-clear three. That shot with 1:29 left gave the Jays the lead, and I noted it because I was certain it would end up being the game-winner. Alas.
Quick Recap:
Creighton was determined to stop the 6’10”, 260-pound Waldow from destroying them inside, and their constant double-teams held him to 11 points — half his season average. Those double-teams left them susceptible to open looks on the perimeter, though, and a pair of Gaels made them pay. In the first half, it was Kerry Carter, who scored 17 points on 5-8 shooting from downtown. In the second half, Carter was held to just two points, but Aaron Bright got hot and scored 16 points on 3-5 shooting from outside after scoring just three points in the first half. It was that kind of day.
Still, the Bluejays had chances to put some distance between themselves and the visiting Gaels, building eight-point leads in both halves, but failed to extend it into double-digits both times. In both instances, Saint Mary’s went on runs to erase the lead in quick fashion. In the first half, CU led 13-5 with 11:00 to go, but allowed three consecutive three-pointers from Carter in the span of 90 seconds to cut it to a one-point lead. After a timeout where Coach Greg McDermott was animated in his annoyance with Devin Brooks’ defense (or lack thereof) on Carter, they turned it over and Carter raced to the rim for a layup. The 11-2 run had erased the Jays’ 8-point lead and given Saint Mary’s a 16-15 edge. CU retook the lead moments later on a three from Avery Dingman, but was not able to build a lead bigger than one possession the rest of the half. And when Austin Chatman’s three at the horn was offline, the teams went into the locker room tied 27-27.
Early in the second half, Creighton once again had an opportunity to take a commanding lead and potentially put Saint Mary’s away. A pair of three-pointers from Zierden helped the Jays build a 37-29 lead after five minutes, and SMC coach Randy Bennett called timeout to stem the tide. Just as they had in the first, they put together a quick run to turn back the Jays and take the lead. A 13-0 Saint Mary’s run ensued, with seven points from Dane Pineau playing a key role, and they suddenly were ahead 42-37.
Creighton would once again retake the lead, but once again they were unable to get a lead bigger than one possession, missing their chance to keep Saint Mary’s at arms-length. The teams traded leads six times in the final six minutes, with Creighton’s last lead coming on a three-pointer from Zierden with 1:30 to play. Bright tied it for Saint Mary’s with a jumper moments later, and in the final minute, both teams missed opportunities to potentially win it. Instead, they played to a draw for the second straight half, and went to overtime tied 61-all.
Playing consecutive overtime games for the first time since 1994, Creighton looked gassed in the extra period. Their only lead came with three minutes to go when Toby Hegner hit a three-pointer to put them up 64-62; Saint Mary’s tied it on a layup by Pineau, and then the Jays failed to convert an alley-oop to Zach Hanson. When his dunk missed, the Gaels rebounded it and raced downcourt, where Pineau scored again to give them the lead. Devin Brooks missed an ill-advised shot on the ensuing possession, and after clearing the rebound, Bright hit a shot for Saint Mary’s to put them up 68-64, essentially clinching the win.
The loss snapped CU’s 24-game home winning streak, and was their first home loss since February of 2013 when they dropped a Saturday night contest to Illinois State. It was also their first home non-conference loss in December since McDermott’s first season — a loss to Jimmer Fredette and #21 BYU.
Quotables:
“Well, it goes without saying that it’s a disappointing loss. We had some opportunities to get some separation in the first half, but we turned it over and they were working the offensive glass much harder than we were, and that’s what hurt us. Then in the second half, we didn’t execute well at times. Defensively, we were trying to find three guards who could defend. We kept subbing, and kept putting different guys on different players trying to slow them down, and it seemed like as soon as we switched one of our better defenders off somebody, then that guy would get going.” -Coach Greg McDermott
“That was disheartening…it’s not executing an out of bounds play defensively the correct way. It’s missing a block out. It’s throwing a pass up for grabs. We had guys celebrating when they made a three-point shot, and while they’re celebrating their guy is going to the basket on the other end. Those things are inexcusable, and very, very disappointing.” -Coach Greg McDermott
“Austin’s been a warrior for us. He’s been unbelievably consistent, and we’re hardly able to get him off the floor. He just does so much for this team besides scoring the basketball. But his leadership will be tested this week, because we’ve got Finals Week and obviously that’s a huge distraction to basketball preparation, which it should be. He’ll be tested because we have some guys that aren’t doing what they’re supposed to be doing all the time. Milliken was late for shootaround this morning, so I didn’t play him in the first half. That type of behavior, there’s no excuse for it. There’s no place for it in this program. If we have to take a loss to try and teach somebody a lesson, so be it.” -Coach Greg McDermott
“Their two guards shot the daylights out of the basketball. Obviously our gameplan was to slow down Waldow, because he’s such a big part of their offense. I thought for the most part we did a good job of that. He was able to create some baskets for people when we were a little bit slow to recover out of some of the double-teams. But Saint Mary’s is a good basketball team. Randy does a great job, he always has and always will. It would have been a heckuva win for us, but we weren’t up to the challenge today.” -Coach Greg McDermott
“I think our big guys worked at it. It’s not easy to guard a guy like Waldow. We had the benefit of running three guys at him and trying to keep a fresh body on him. For the most part, I thought we did a decent job on him. We fouled him a little more than I’d like, and he’s obviously really good on the backboards, but I thought our guys worked hard. Offensively, though, we missed some shots at the rim again. We get it down deep, and aren’t able to finish at critical times in the game.” -Coach Greg McDermott
“I challenged the team to think about the ‘My bad’s. That seems to be this generation’s favorite saying, ‘My bad.’ Well, ‘My bad’s in an overtime game cost you the game. So I challenged them. Take a look in the mirror. Think about the ‘My bad’s and how those could have changed the outcome of this game. And there’s plenty of examples. As we watch the film I think guys are going to be disappointed with what they see.” -Coach Greg McDermott
“We went nine possessions without scoring after going up 37-29, and those kind of lulls have been a killer for us all season. We have to look at that and say, alright, did we get a good shot? Are we getting the ball where we need to get it? That’s what we have to evaluate. I think they’re trying to do the right thing, they’re trying to be unselfish, but sometimes turning down a good shot with 15 seconds on the shot clock is not the right choice. Then sometimes you end up taking a tough shot in the closing seconds. We have to evaluate on film those stretches of the game. We really have to evaluate the start. At the start of the game we scored on 2 of 10 possessions. In the second half, we scored on 4 out of 18 possessions. You just can’t start those parts of the game that slowly. Now, on the other hand, they start the second half scoring on 1 of 9 possessions, and 2 out of 13 to start the game. So defensively, we’re doing what we’re supposed to be doing during those stretches of the game, but offensively I don’t feel like we are the aggressor outside of Austin, and that’s something we have to try to change. And if we have to keep changing lineups to find the right guys, we will.” -Coach Greg McDermott