Louisville’s backcourt was the talk of the town all week leading up to the standalone opening game of the Round of 64, but it was Creighton’s dynamic duo of Steven Ashworth and Jamiya Neal who stole the show at Rupp Arena on Thursday afternoon.
Neal dropped a career-high 29 points on 11-of-16 shooting, grabbed 12 rebounds, and dished out six assists to become the first player to finish with at least 25 points, 10 rebounds, and five assists on 65% shooting in an NCAA Tournament game since Dwyane Wade in the 2003 Elite Eight. Ashworth went 4-of-8 from 3-point range, ending his afternoon with 22 points, five rebounds, and five assists as 9th-seeded Creighton scored an NCAA Tournament program-record 49 points in the first half on their way to a resounding 89-75 win over the 8th-seeded Cardinals.
The two veteran guards didn’t plead for more of a spotlight this week. When they were asked, numerous times, about Louisville’s Chucky Hepburn, Terrence Edwards, Jr., and Reyne Smith, they responded respectfully and gave each guy their due. When the lights flicked on and somewhere north of 15,000 Louisville fans flooded the historic home of their hated in-state rival, Ashworth and Neal let the Bluegrass State that they could hoop too.
Steven Ashworth kept orchestrating the offense (Spomer / WBR)
“I think both of us guards, Jamiya and myself, take pride in who we are as players,” Ashworth said. “Obviously they have elite level guards, but we have that same belief in ourselves too. There was some of that to it. Sometimes some people are just underrated, and that’s fine. There are a lot of great players across the country that don’t get the praise they deserve. That’s what March is built for, so that they can come and shine.”
Creighton started the game a bit cold, missing its first five attempts from 3-point range while Hepburn got the Cardinals out to an early 5-4 lead with a mid-range jumper in the lane and a 3-pointer from left wing. Freshman forward Jackson McAndrew took the lid off the basket for CU by following up his own missed three with a putback at the rim.
That bucket kicked off a stretch of three straight possessions where the Jays finished at the basket. Ashworth then got the first 3-pointer of the game to fall to put Creighton ahead 11-7 with 14:51 left in the first half.
As the Jays started to play downhill more frequently, they started to get Louisville’s defense chasing the ball instead of rotating to wall it off. The Cardinals couldn’t protect the rim, needed multiple bodies to deal with All-American center Ryan Kalkbrenner, and had no answer all game long for Creighton’s transition offense.
The dam started to spring leaks after a pair of free throws by Hepburn made it a 20-19 ballgame with 10:26 to play in the first half. Neal sank a 3-ball from the top of the key, then connected on a lob dunk to Kalkbrenner before reserve guard Fedor Zugic buried a three from the right wing to extend the lead to 28-21 with 7:36 left before intermission.
That prompted first-year Cardinals head coach Pat Kelsey to call his first timeout of the opening half. Louisville came out of it and forced two turnovers that they turned into points on the break to pull within three and force Greg McDermott to burn a timeout of his own.
The Bluejays opened the floodgates on the other side of that regroup session as Ashworth and McAndrew went back-to-back-to-back-to-back from beyond the arc to open up their largest lead of the game at 40-25.
“We were making shots and all feeding off each other,” McAndrew said. “There was a lot of energy in the ball, and I thought that helped us a lot. We were getting stops on the other end and we were able to push it and get a lot of great looks.”
Jackson McAndrew hit some huge three’s in the first half (McAtee / WBR)
This time, not even a second timeout by Kelsey could stem the tide. Sophomore forward Jasen Green split a pair of free throws before McAndrew and Neal went bang, bang once again from 3-point range to push the lead to 20 with 2:10 remaining in the opening half.
“Early on we had a lot of good looks that just weren’t dropping,” Neal said. “During that stretch we got four great looks, and we knocked them down. From there, we were just in a groove, and we just fed off that.”
Creighton led by at least 15 points for 16 of the final 25 minutes of game time and never saw their advantage on the scoreboard dip under double digits. Anytime their opponents hit a big shot or made a big play that got overwhelmingly pro-Cardinals crowd on its feet and engaged, Ashworth and Neal would silence them with a cold-blooded shot.
“Every time that we got a little momentum, it was like a dagger shot,” Kelsey said “Whether it was [Kalkbrenner’s] deep three, whether it was [Ashworth’s] three from what seemed like, I don’t know, another county down the road. That was a big, big one.
“[Neal] was hitting tough dagger middies that every time you turned around, you’re like, gosh. They have a lot of movement on offense. Chucky exerted a lot of energy chasing [Ashworth] around. He never stops moving.”
Neal credited the two-way street of him learning to trust McDermott’s philosophies and his teammates and also the self-belief they instilled in him along the way to step up and make big plays in big moments.
“That’s just a testament to my growth throughout the season and just listening to Coach Mac,” Neal said. “He’s always told me since I got here to never panic. Even with 10 seconds on the shot clock, just keep going, just keep playing. That’s what I was trying to do.”
Ryan Kalkbrenner was his reliable self on defense against Louisville (Spomer / WBR)
Aside from Neal and Ashworth, Creighton also got 14 points, six rebounds, four blocks, and two assists from Kalkbrenner; 11 points on 3-of-7 shooting from deep from McAndrew; nine points, eight rebounds, and two assists from Green; and four points and two assists in 12 minutes from Zugic.
Hepburn led Louisville with 22 points against his hometown team. Edwards, Jr. added 21. Although both combined for over 40 points, Creighton made them use up 46 shooting possessions to get it.
“They probably took more threes than I wish they would have, but a lot of those were tough and challenged,” Greg McDermott said. “We were able to force him into Ryan and make them make decisions against him.
“We didn’t feel like this could be a game where Chucky had 22 points and 14 assists. I’m okay with the 22 points on 23 shots, but we had to limit his ability as a passer, which I thought we did a good job of.”
After the Bluejays dispatched with Louisville, the top overall seed in the tournament took care of their business as well as Auburn used a strong second half to pull away from 16 seed Alabama State.
That sets up a showdown between Creighton and the SEC regular season champs on Saturday at Rupp Arena. It’ll be the second time in the last five years that the Jays have run into the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament. The previous time came when they fell to Gonzaga in the Sweet 16 in 2021.