Gregory Echenique goes up for a dunk against Evansville on Saturday. (Photo by Mike Spomer, WBR)
Semifinal Saturday began with Wichita State losing a shocker — pun intended, thank you very much — to Illinois State. The Redbirds went toe-to-toe with the physical Shockers, who haven’t had that happen often this year and didn’t much care for it on Saturday. WSU’s Garrett Stutz and ISU’s John Wilkins battled all day, with the latter ultimately being ejected after his second altercation with Stutz. While the first incident — a technical on Wilkins — led to a Wichita State run late in the first half, the second incident did the opposite.
With every fan not decked out in gold cheering for the upset, that’s exactly what happened. Toure Murry and Garrett Stutz both had opportunities to hit game winners in the final seconds, but both came up short. Though Creighton’s players, coaches and fans openly pined for a third game with the Shockers, seeing them lose instead to ISU was mighty delightful too. The Redbirds exited the court to a standing ovation from the one-third of the arena clad in Bluejay blue, and the Jays themselves took the court moments later determined not to suffer the same fate.
And determined they were, as Creighton put Evansville in a 7-0 hole just 150 seconds into the game. The fast start was more than just offensive, though — they had changed up their defensive gameplan in an attempt to make Colt Ryan and Denver Holmes work harder for their shots, and it was working.
“Sometimes you go into a game and put together a game plan and it works great,” Coach Greg McDermott said after the game. “Sometimes the game is over and you ask yourself ‘What the heck was I thinking?’ Against Evansville at our place, I asked myself ‘What the heck was I thinking?’ So we made some changes overnight that we basically instituted without a walk-through.”
Those changes included putting more pressure on the ball, aggressively switching on ball screens, and in the process, made it difficult for Ryan and Holmes’ to make the Jays pay for mistakes. “We gave up a few easy baskets,” Coach McDermott said, “but I understood going in that that was going to happen to take away some of the other things we were trying to take away from Holmes and Ryan.”
Though excellent throughout, their defense was downright suffocating during a 19-5 run midway through the first half, a span that featured two players making inspired plays. Gregory Echenique had two blocks in four possessions, and Josh Jones hit back-to-back threes as the Jays ran their lead out to 33-21.
Another stretch of suffocating defense came minutes later, when the Jays went on a 15-2 run over the final five minutes of the half in running out to a 49-30 lead at the break. The run was punctuated by a Will Artino dunk on a fastbreak, and after he hung on the rim for a second too long for referee Gerry Pollard’s liking, he was whistled for a technical foul. Though the call incensed the Creighton faithful, it was of little consequence to the outcome or to the momentum of the game; rather, the dunk was an exclamation point in an exhilarating first half, and a dagger to the heart of the Purple Aces.
Nine players scored baskets for Creighton in the first half, as they tried to keep their starters fresh on the second day of the tourney. “Our plan was to go to the bench early and go to the bench often,” Coach McDermott said after the game. “We felt we had a little more depth and we could keep fresh guys on Colt Ryan and Denver Holmes, and they don’t have another Colt Ryan or Denver Holmes coming off the bench to do what those guys do.”
Creighton is a team that can play with anyone, and utterly destroy teams like Evansville, when they’re making shots the way they’re capable of. They proved in their 21-2 start to the season when they repeatedly blew out teams night after night, and though over the last month they made some folks forget how good they could be when playing well, they offered a not-so-subtle reminder on Saturday.
“When we space people out like that,” Antoine Young told the media afterward, “when we’re driving and springing it out to our shooters…we’re a tough team to beat.”
They shot 60% for the half (15-25), went 72.7% from three-point range (8-11), and made 11-12 free throws. They had as many offensive rebounds — 6 — as Evansville had TOTAL rebounds, and outrebounded them overall 22-6. Isn’t that an outrageous statistic? 22-6! Gregory Echenique had six rebounds all by himself, and played with such relentless aggression that on three occasions (I counted) would-be rebounders from Evansville literally ducked out of the way rather than be manhandled by the big man.
Evansville is an undersized team, a fact I foolishly put too much stock in before the game in Omaha. Echenique reminded me, and the assembled media after the game, that “undersized” doesn’t mean “easier matchup.”
“I feel like a lot of people put pressure on me when it’s an undersized team. But obviously, Evansville, they know what’s on their side, and they work for it. They’re really quick, so they make up for (their lack of size). It’s not as easy as people think. But I keep playing smart, trying to use my body, and today I was able to do that. I was glad it worked out for me.”
After halftime, Evansville tried to make it a game, and cut the lead down to 15 two minutes in at 51-36. But the Jays put a quick end to any comeback thoughts, going on a 14-6 run that built the lead to an insurmountable 65-42. Again, the run was punctuated by a massive dunk and a technical foul for hanging on the rim, this time on Gregory Echenique. He nearly tore the rim right off the hinges, his brute strength almost doing the impossible on a breakaway rim. If you’re going to get a “T” for hanging on the rim, you may as well get your money’s worth, and he certainly did.
With nine minutes left, Antoine Young, Grant Gibbs and Echenique exited the lineup for the day, and a minute later Doug McDermott did the same. Walk-ons Derek Sebastian, Matt Dorwart and Taylor Stormberg closed the game out, and came within a point of eclipsing the 100-point mark when Sebastian missed the second of two free throws in the final minute. It was a rare luxury in Arch Madness to not only be able to rest the starters, but to get the walk-ons into the game.
“As the game wore on and we were able to keep that 20 to 25 point lead inside of nine minutes, we started to rest (our starters) and we just kind of played it by ear,” Coach Greg McDermott said after the game. “If we could maintain that, we were going to keep those guys (on the bench).” They did, and the result was that no player logged more than 27 minutes, and that was Grant Gibbs who played just 15 the day before due to foul trouble.
Conference tournaments often come down to unsung heroes making key contributions, either offensively or defensively. On Saturday, Creighton had a bunch of those contributions. As Coach McDermott noted after the game, “We won a game by almost 30 points and Doug only took four shots. We’ve got other guys that can score. We’ll need them again tomorrow.”
With a 99-71 victory, the Jays advance to the finals to take on not Wichita State, but Illinois State, a fact that’s a bit melancholy for some fans — and players. “Obviously, we all wanted another shot at Wichita,” Gregory Echenique said after the game, “but that’s not going to change our mindset…we came here to win this.”
Antoine Young echoed those sentiments. “I think anyone on our team would want Wichita in the finals. That would have been nice. But it is what it is. It’s an opportunity to go out and prove ourselves, and opportunity to go play for a championship, and another opportunity to play together.”
The Redbirds will be no easy task. Illinois State is playing their best basketball of the year, and Jackie Carmichael has been the MVP of the tournament thus far. They’ll be playing in a do-or-die game for them — win and go to the NCAA Tournament; lose and go to the CBI or CIT. Creighton will need to play well to win, but if their play on Saturday is any indication of how they’ll perform Sunday, they might want to make sure there’s room in the overhead storage bin for the Valley Championship Trophy.