Patrick wrote that yesterday’s game reminded him of previous meetings in the ongoing series between the Bluejays and the Huskers. I agree completely. I’d also add that the game reminded me a lot of some of the Nebraska High School Class A Basketball Tournament games I witnessed during my adolescence. Slow play. Sloppy execution. An uninspired atmosphere.
But there were no championships on the line Sunday afternoon, no trophies to hoist. It was just another chapter in a rivalry that now belongs solely to the home team.
After two lackluster showings offensively in their previous two games, the Bluejays needed to come out Sunday and connect on some shots early. That didn’t happen. A single Antoine Young free throw was the only scoring CU could muster for the better part of the first 6 minutes of the game, and the Jays didn’t make their first field goal until Young connected on a layup at that point. Still, the game was tied 3-3. Husker fans that had watched NU’s offense stagnate during Saturday night’s Big 12 Championship football game and then tuned into the CU-NU game had to be wondering why they punished themselves. And while neither team shot exceptionally well in the first half, the Bluejays did catch a spark during the last 10 minutes of the stanza. From the 9:20 mark until there was 2:49 to play, Creighton went on a 19-5 run that turned an 11-8 Husker lead to a 27-16 CU margin. It was during that stretch that Doug McDermott scored all of his team-high 10 points, using a mix of savvy low post moves and scrappy jumpers to turn Eric Piatkowski and Greg Sharpe into love-struck television announcers.
With 20 seconds to play in the first half, Kenny Lawson took an interior pass and dunked with two hands over two Husker defenders. It was the kind of exclamation point the big senior needed as he led his teammates into the locker room.
But if you went to the Devaney Center concourse looking for a Runza and you got back to your seat a little late into the start of the second half, Creighton’s 8-point lead disappeared like the tasty beef-and-cabbage-and-cheese-and-bread combination sitting in your stomach. The Huskers hit 3-pointers in their first three possessions of the half, ultimately tying the game on a Brandon Richardson layup with just under 18 minutes to play. There would be two more tie scores, but the Huskers would use a steady diet of 3-pointers and defensive stops to take a 4-point lead with 90 seconds left in the game.
That’s when Lawson made another solid play, converting a 3-point play to bring the Bluejays back to within one point with a minute to play. But at that point, Creighton had accumulated only one team foul. So, in what had to go down as the longest 60 seconds in the recent history of the CU-NU series, the Bluejays tried to force a turnover while at the same time fouling Nebraska repeatedly to avoid the time completely slipping away from their comeback attempt. After Darryl Ashford committed the team’s second foul, the Huskers inbounded the ball in front of their own bench. Four plays — and a few near steals/turnovers — later, the Huskers were inbounding the ball in front of the Creighton bench. But try as the Bluejays might, Lance Jeter went to the free throw line with 26 seconds to play and calmly hit two shots. Trailing by 3, Greg McDermott drew up a 3-point shot for Lawson. It missed, and in the scramble for a desperation shot NU’s Drake Beranek came away with a loose ball layup at the other end. Buzzer sounds. Game over.
***
I didn’t think it could get much worse, offensively, than it had during long stretches of the losses to Northwestern and BYU. But the Bluejays were poor on the offensive side of the ball for the majority of the trip to Lincoln. When the Bluejays’ best players, Young, McDermott, and Lawson, combine to go 12-35 from the field (34.2%) and 0-14 from 3-point range, the team will need exceptional defense coupled with lapses by the opponent in order to prevail. And, once again in a sloppy game at the Devaney Center, Creighton almost got exactly that.
During a game that no doubt made even the most apologetic basketball purist squirm in his or her seat, both teams shot 37% from the field. Neither team got to the free throw line much (Creighton attempted 7 shots, Nebraska 8). Both teams relied heavily on the 3-point shot, even though neither team came into the game shooting exceptionally well from the perimeter:
- Coming into Sunday, the Bluejays shot better than 33% from 3-point range in just three games (43.8% in a win against Alabama State; 51.9% in a loss to Iowa State; 37.5% in a win against Kennesaw State). Against the Big Red, CU connected on just 18.2% of its 3s.
- Nebraska’s been a bit better than the Bluejays, but not by much. Entering Sunday, the Huskers hadn’t hoisted more than 20 3s in any game this season. After making 45.6% of their 3-pointers in their previous three games, the Huskers shot 31 against CU, making 29%.
The Huskers looked far from the best offensive team CU will play all season. But after shooting 24% in the first half, Nebraska hit 50% of their shots in the second stanza. The Huskers connected on 46% of their 3s, too, including two each from guards Brandon Richardson, Caleb Walker, and Jeter. CU allowed yet another to score at or near their career high; Richardson’s 18 points were 8 more than he had scored all season, and just one point off his career high (19 vs. Missouri last March).
And while Nebraska was settling into an offensive groove, the Bluejays were sputtering. The Huskers made assists on 10 of 15 made field goals in the half, while committing just one turnover. Creighton assisted on 5 of 10 made field goals, but committed 4 turnovers. Save for the last 10 minutes of the first half, it didn’t seem that the Jays could find a rhythm on offense. The game came down to open looks. Nebraska hit theirs, and Creighton didn’t.
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Less than one month before the Missouri Valley Conference season begins, the Bluejays are reeling. Early this season Creighton’s played four teams inside the RPI 100; the Jays have lost all four games. They have a chance to get well during the next three weeks, with home games against St. Joe’s (3-5; #129 RPI), Idaho State (2-4; #255), Western Illinois (4-4; #319), and Samford (5-4; #220). Win those four, and the Bluejays will be riding a wave of positive momentum when they travel to Normal for the conference opener against Illinois State. Factor in the introduction of Gregory Echenique to the roster against Idaho State, and there is still plenty of time for the Bluejays to improve and be playing their best basketball at the end of the season. Forgive Creighton fans if those seem like unrealistic aspirations at this point, though; they’ve just witnessed a ragged and frustrating week full of offensive offense. The Bluejays have lost three in a row for just the fourth time since 2000-2001.