By recent measures, Creighton’s seven-point win over Drake was a blowout. After winning three straight games by a total of four points, the Bluejays outlasted the Bulldogs despites frustrating free throw shooting down the stretch and the inability to pull away from a tired opponent.
The win, in front of thousands of Bluejays fans inside St. Louis’ Scottrade Center, gave Creighton the season sweep over Drake and put CU in the MVC Tournament semifinals for the 11th time in 14 seasons. The Jays will play Evansville, after the Purple Aces advanced to their first semifinal appearance since 1999 with a win over Missouri State. After hounding Drake’s Ben Simons for 40 minutes (yes, Simons didn’t leave the game last night, after playing 36 minutes in the quarterfinals), Jahenns Manigat and Grant Gibbs and Josh Jones will spend Saturday afternoon chasing Colt Ryan.
But to a man, if you ask the CU coaches or players, they’ll say they don’t care how many points they beat Drake by or who their opponent will be in the semifinals — they won and they advanced, and that’s all that matters. That’s the familiar mantra in March. A Manigat jumper with just under 5 minutes to play gave Creighton a 13-point lead and the blowout seemed inevitable. But a 12-2 Drake run cut CU’s lead to 3 after Rayvonte Rice connected on a make with less than 90 seconds to go. The Bluejays missed a few shots at the charity stripe, including the front ends of two bonus opportunities. What could have been a blowout win and a chance to save some minutes for starters Gregory Echenique and Doug McDermott ended in a closer than necessary conclusion and Echenique limping off the court with an apparent knee injury.
Gregory Echenique scored 10 points against Drake (Spomer and Streur/WBR)
Asked about it after the game, Echenique said he’s fine. But he didn’t look it, and it would have been great to have pulled away late in that game and spared Double Zero the need to be on the floor late.
Survive and advance, though, right? Creighton endured a quick start by the Bulldogs, who jumped out to a 12-2 lead in the first four minutes of the contest. The dawgs made their first four shots from the field and added three free throws, seemingly carrying over positive momentum from the night before. But the Bluejays buckled down, playing solid defense for most of the night. Manigat and Jones played well defensively. And Avery Dingman saw 8 minutes of playing time off the bench, primarily in stretches for his defense on Rice. After shooting nearly 50% from the field in the first half, Drake cooled to 33% in the second 20 minutes.
Meanwhile Doug McDermott and Antoine Young took over. McDermott, the league’s Player of the Year, showed every facet of his game offensively. Baseline baby hooks. Pick and pop three-pointers. Finishing in the lane. He finished with 26 points and 10 rebounds, pushing his three-game point total against Drake to 80; 26.7 points per game against the Bulldogs. So much for “eliminating” McDermott, as Rice told the press was Drake’s game plan entering the quarterfinal game.
Young proved the sparkplug early as the Jays tried to rally from their 10-point first-half deficit. He hit a few pull-up jumpers to keep Creighton close early, and then provided a steady hand the rest of the way. He’s made at least half of his field goals in each of the last five games (all CU wins), he’s hit 85% of his free throws during those games, and is averaging 2.4 turnovers in that time.
Combined, McDermott and Young scored 42 of the team’s 68 points. Echenique added 10 on a bevy of lob passes into the paint. The team’s three-point shooting remained in a slump; the team only made 5 of 19 shots from behind the arc, with McDermott (4) and Jones (1) the only Bluejays to hit threes.
Whether Creighton can win a title at Arch Madness without shooting well from outside remains to be seen. The key Saturday will be defending two guys — Ryan and Denver Holmes — they struggled to stop in Omaha on February 21. You’d think, statistically, that guys like Ethan Wragge and Dingman and Manigat would find their groove from the arc. But if it doesn’t happen soon, Young will need to score in between the three-point line and the paint, where McDermott and Echenique are sure to earn the bulk of attention from the Purple Aces defenders.