Sunday afternoon’s pivotal matchup at Madison Square Garden between the top two teams in the Big East came down to an equation. First-place St. John’s entered the day leading the conference in forcing turnovers and grabbing offensive rebounds, and they ranked fifth in getting to the free throw line. Creighton, on the other hand, led the league in keeping opponents off the offensive glass and off the free throw line, while also sitting in the top half of the conference in not giving away the rock.
Calling it the case off the unstoppable force versus the immovable object doesn’t quite fit the description, but however they wanted to describe contrast in styles, Creighton knew the primary objectives if they wanted to give themselves an honest chance to ascend to the catbird seat in the Big East with the stretch run right around the corner. At the end of the day, however, the Red Storm won the battle in all three areas to pull out a 79-73 win despite the Bluejays holding them to 38.4% shooting from the field.
St. John’s scored 20 points off 15 Creighton turnovers, converted their 20 offensive rebounds into 20 second-chance points, and used the 23 fouls — the most by a CU team in a regulation game since November 12, 2017 — committed by Creighton to go 17-of-29 at the charity stripe.
“Generally, for us, if we come on the road and hold somebody 38% from the field and 33% from the 3-point line, we’re going to have a great chance to win,” Creighton head coach Greg McDermott said. “We’ve won the free throw analytical battle all season long. We’re number one in the country in that regard. Today, we fouled way too much. For us to shoot 15 free throws and them to shoot 29 we’re not doing what we’re supposed to do. We were way too handsy, late to react, and we put them at the foul line way too much. And then we had opportunities to foul line, we didn’t capitalize.”
Junior wing RJ Luis, Jr. led the Red Storm with 23 points, 14 rebounds, five assists, and two steals in 35 minutes. The win improved their record on the season to 22-4, but more importantly it moved them to 13-2 in Big East play, a full two games ahead of the Jays in the race for the regular season crown.
Senior point guard Steven Ashworth matched Luis’ 23 points to lead the way for Creighton. He also dished out 11 assists in his 38 minutes running the show. Jamiya Neal finished with 19 points, eight rebounds, and four assists. Ryan Kalkbrenner had 12 points, nine rebounds, three assists, and a pair of blocked shots, and Jasen Green rode a strong start out of the gate to finish with 10 points, four rebounds, and two assists to round out the double figure scoring days from the Jays with an extra effort-fueled performance in a multitude of areas.
Johnnies Physicality Wears into Jays After Fast Start
Creighton got off to a strong start in all of the key areas that would ultimately decide this game once it got underway on Sunday. Over the first five minutes, they gave up two second-chance opportunities, committed one shooting foul and one turnover. That allowed them to race out to a 14-4 lead.in front of a sold-out crowd of 19,182 on “Johnnies Day” at The Garden.
After a bucket by Red Storm point guard Kadary Richmond, Creighton turned the ball over in the backcourt twice within a span of 15 seconds. They got a stop the first time, but Aaron Scott — one of the top 3-point shooters for St. John’s — made them pay on the second one by knocking down an open three from the right corner. That kicked off a stretch where the Red Storm scored on four straight possessions to cut Creighton’s lead to 19-17 with 12:20 left in the first half. From there on out, the game was a tight, back-and-forth affair that eventually went the Red Storm’s way.
“We know what St. John’s is good at,” Kalkbrenner said. “We did a good job of taking away that stuff, but they do what they do for a reason and it kind of wore into us. It wasn’t a bad start; we just weren’t able to keep it up.”
Kalkbrenner Returns After Second Half Injury Scare
With 9:45 left in the second half and Creighton trailing 56-53, RJ Luis got tangled up with Ryan Kalkbrenner and undercut him trying to keep him from securing an offensive rebound for an easy putback.
Kalkbrenner stepped awkwardly with his right foot as he tried to balance himself and tweaked something in what appeared to be his toe area. He remained on the floor covering his face while long-time trainer Ben McNair checked on him. He was eventually helped back to the locker room by a couple of his teammates.
While there was a lot of uncertainty on the court and throughout the fan base in general, it only lasted for six minutes of game as he emerged from the locker room after an examination and checked right back into the game after a dead ball with 3:47 to play.
“It was just an awkward fall,” Kalkbrenner said. “Everything is all good though.”
The Jays hung in there pretty admirably without their senior anchor and what many consider to be the frontrunner for Big East Player of the Year. They trailed by three when he was helped off the court and despite falling behind by seven at one point, they were down just four when he checked back in.
“That was big time,” Kalkbrenner said. “I wasn’t able to watch it because there was no TV where I was at, but to come out and see we’re still in the game and right there was big time, so credit to [Fredrick King] and all those other guys for holding it down while I was out.”
Creighton Gears Up for Stretch Run
Even after losses, it’s still not unusual to catch some light-hearted banter outside of the locker room throughout the season. There wasn’t any of it on Sunday. The Jays were devastated after this one. They flew to New York with a goal in mind and they knew what a win could do to position themselves to achieve it.
St. John’s sitting on a two-game lead makes Creighton chances at claiming a Big East title seem pretty slim. But the same could have been said about Marquette’s lead in 2019 and Seton Hall’s in 2020, and there were fewer games to work back then because UConn had not yet rejoined the league to expand the conference slate to the 11-team double round robin format it has now.
The Jays and Johnnies both have five still left to play in the regular season. Through the first 15 conference games, Creighton’s strength of schedule in league play is first, while the Red Storm’s is ninth. That means at this point the Bluejays have the much easier path to the finish line.
“[This game] is in the past now, so you can’t change anything,” Kalkbrenner said. “Winning the league and whatever other goals we have are still in front of us. Technically, there is still a chance to win the league, but beyond that the Big East Tournament — we still have games that are important for seeding there, and then beyond that the NCAA Tournament so we still have games that are important for seeding the NCAA Tournament.
“This is a frustrating loss, but you have to reset. Every game moving forward is still just as important as it was before.”
Creighton has played six games over the last 18 days. Five of them have come against teams that sit in the range of Top 50 or higher on KenPom and the sixth was at Providence, one of the hardest places to get a win no matter the circumstances. Now they enter the final bye week of the regular season before playing three of their final five games at home heading into postseason play.
“We’ve played a really tough stretch the last couple of weeks,” Kalkbrenner said. “Now we get a little bit of a breather, so take a big, deep breath and reset and get ready for the last run.”