Mitch Ballock didn’t shoot the best percentage, but got things going for the Jays (Juszyk / WBR)
For the first time in 268 days the Creighton men’s basketball team played a game to completion, and while all phases weren’t at the level they were when they dismantled Seton Hall down the stretch of the regular season finale early last spring, it was hard not to appreciate the fact that the players were back on the floor and not thinking about anything except basketball as they took down North Dakota State without much drama.
Five days after that Big East title-clinching over the Pirates, Creighton took the court at Madison Square Garden for their opening game of the Big East Tournament and reluctantly tipped things against St. John’s as the world as we know it was grinding to a halt. The Bluejays and Red Storm only got 20 minutes to hoop that day before the second half was scrapped, along with the rest of the scheduled games in New York and the NCAA Tournament. After over eight months of isolation and uncertainty regarding their immediate basketball futures, Creighton was just grateful to be on the floor on Sunday afternoon.
“It was amazing being out there again,” junior big man Christian Bishop said. “I had to catch my wind on the first run, but after I was ready to get going. It felt like we didn’t miss a beat being back out there.”
Bishop converted on six of his seven field goal attempts, and added a 4-for-5 day at the free throw line to finish with a team-high 16 points in just 21 minutes of action in the 69-58 win. After Marcus Zegarowski hit a Bison defender with a crossover fall-away jumper to give the Bluejays a 36-24 lead at the break, Bishop came out and went to work right away in the second half. He scored at the rim in the quarter court and in transtion, converted a traditional 3-point play, and even stepped out to knock down a baseline 19-footer with a hand in his face. He produced nine of his team’s 13 points in the second half to help extend the lead to 49-31 with 15:43 to play.
“Christian really gave a lot of good stuff the entire game,” Creighton head coach Greg McDermott said. “His ball screen defense probably falls under the radar a little bit, but he does a great job in that and it allows us to do a lot of things defensively because of his ability to do that. And then offensively he’s just really efficient. He took seven shots and made six of them. He got the free throw line and only missed one. No turnovers. Normally he’s going to have some assists, but [North Dakota State] packed that thing in and took away our cuts to the basket really well. Christian is really important to what we do.”
The result wasn’t ever really in doubt in the second half, but it wasn’t always smooth sailing for Creighton as they missed five of their first six shots to start the game and found themselves trailing 10-4 at the under-16 media timeout. Despite returning five of the top six scorers back from last season, they got a spark from a pair of sophomores in Antwann Jones, a 6-foot-6 220-pound transfer from Memphis, and Shereef Mitchell, the 6-foot-nothing firecracker from Omaha. Mitchell, as he is known to do, set the tone on the defensive end while Jones got rolling offensively. He scored the first nine points of his Creighton career over an 8-minute stretch midway through the first half to cap off a 23-6 run.
Christian Bishop and Damien Jefferson were excited to be out on the court (Spomer / WBR)
Jones finished with 11 points as part of quartet of Bluejays to score in double figures. Along with Bishop’s team-high 16, junior point guard Marcus Zegarowski added 12 and senior sharpshooter Mitch Ballock chipped in 11. On a night where they didn’t have the services of senior wing Denzel Mahoney — who opted to not play out of an abundance of caution given that he was only recently cleared to return to practice after being sideline due to COVID-19 protocols — they still managed to show glimpses of what they made them a top 10 team by the end of last season. The offense wasn’t always crisp and hitting on just 22.9% of their 35 3-point attempts obviously isn’t up to their typical standards. But as a team, they didn’t turn the ball until 50 seconds into the second half. They finished the game with just four giveaways — their fewest in a game against a D1 opponent since March 3, 2018 at Marquette — compared to 18 assists on 27 made baskets.
Their three-deep rotation of five men in Bishop, fourth-year junior Jacob Epperson, and true freshman seven-footer Ryan Kalkbrenner combined for 24 points, three blocked shots, and zero turnovers in 40 minutes while only missing five of their 15 field attempts — three of which were from 3-point range. Then you have what appears to be the increased confidence in senior forward Damien Jefferson and sophomore point guard Shereef Mitchell. Both combined to shoot 18.9% from 3-point territory last season on 58 attempts, but on Sunday they knocked down three of the eight long-range bombs they put up with Mitchell going 1-for-3 and Jefferson finishing 2-for-5. All of that left Creighton’s 11th-year head coach bullish on his team’s chances to replicate last season’s proficiency and balance on the offensive end of the floor.
“Tonight [North Dakota State] really tried to take away Christian’s rolls to the rim and because of that we got the throw-back a lot for 3-point shots, we just didn’t make a lot of them,” McDermott said. “On nights when Marcus gets 11 threes and Mitch gets nine threes I’d like to think they’re going to have more than 12 and 11 points if we can get them that many shots. But you know Christian’s got the ability to score, Antwann I think we saw glimpses of what he can bring to our team this afternoon to help us score, and [Damien] has always been consistent for us. And Ryan can come in and give us a lift, as can Shereef. We’ve got a lot of guys that I think can impact the game on the offensive end. Sometimes it’s going to be scoring, sometimes it’s going to be screening, sometimes it’s going to be passing, sometimes it’s going to be offensive rebounding. You just have to do your job and trust the offense, and if you trust the offense you’ll get the shots that you want to get.”
After finally getting a game on the books and adding a number to the win column, the Bluejays will turn the page to renewing a crosstown matchup with the Omaha Mavericks on Tuesday night at the CHI Health Center Omaha. It’ll be the first regular season meeting between the two programs since November 30, 1995. The Mavericks are off to a 1-2 start to the 2020-21 campaign, edging Middle Tennessee 60-59 in between losses to Austin Peay and Abilene Christian at the Gulf Coast Showcase last week. Tip-off for Creighton vs. Omaha is scheduled for 4:00 p.m. on Fox Sports 1.
Bluejay Beat Podcast
Listen to Matt DeMarinis and the OWH’s Jon Nyatawa break down the Jays win and look forward to the game against Omaha on Tuesday.