Creighton jumped out to a 14-3 lead in the early minutes of Saturday’s game in Milwaukee behind three 3-pointers from Baylor Scheierman. He added two early rebounds and an assist to Ryan Kalkbrenner for a layup in the first five minutes, too, in what was a great start for the Bluejay guard. And they had a double-digit lead, 24-14, as late as the 5:51 mark of the half with Scheierman adding another three.
But just like against Villanova in their last game, a failure to create real separation when they had the chance proved fatal. Marquette began the game 1-of-12 from three-point range, but the Jays let them hang around thanks to turnovers and second-chance opportunities. And once the Golden Eagles started hitting shots, the Jays found themselves in a fight.
A 9-0 Marquette run was fueled by Kam Jones, who started it with a three off of an offensive rebound, and later scored on this driving layup — which also followed an offensive rebound.
They’d tie the game at 26, though Creighton answered with Trey Alexander hitting two consecutive mid-range jumpers, and took a 30-28 lead into halftime. Not bad against a top ten team on the road. Not great considering they spent nearly 10 minutes with a double-digit cushion.
“No question we had an opportunity to really stretch that lead, and it was turnovers that were our issue,” Greg McDermott said on his postgame radio show. “And as I told the team at halftime, it wasn’t one guy, it was everybody. We had several guys with one, two, three turnovers. That’s what we worked on in practice all week and I would have thought we would have taken better care of it.”
Over the first 10 minutes of the second half, Creighton and Marquette traded the lead seven times. Scheierman again started hot, nailing two 3-pointers in the first four minutes of action. But it was Marquette who finally seized control, and it happened with roughly nine minutes to go on a possession where they had not one, not two but three attempts at a three-pointer. Sean Jones’ second straight three gave MU a 52-48 lead, and they never trailed again. He’d score 10 of 12 points in a decisive 12-3 Marquette run, with that three on a possession with two offensive boards proving to be the back-breaking sequence.
It was only fitting, because Creighton was simply not tough enough, and did not work hard enough, on block-outs or on the glass all game long.
“Sometimes the ball doesn’t bounce your way,” Scheierman said on the postgame radio show. “But we just have to be more physical with our blockouts, and go get the ball too. We can’t rely on other people to go get it. We have to go get the ball.”
With Marquette ahead 58-51, CU had one final push. Scheierman hit another three, Mason Miller followed with a three, and then Kalkbrenner added a layup to cut the deficit to 61-59.
But they’d get no closer as David Joplin scored eight straight points — answering first with a three, and then capping off the win with a dunk.
And so Creighton is 0-2 in Big East play for the first time in nine years, having blown double-digit leads in both losses. A road game at Georgetown on Tuesday is next, followed by Providence on Saturday afternoon in Omaha. So the road gets slightly lighter, but not by much.
Inside the Box:
Marquette and Creighton both made 25 shots, and CU made more threes (12) than Marquette (9). Yes, the free throw disparity was more or less the difference in the score (Marquette made 13-of-16, and CU made 5-of-6) but this game was lost in two areas the Bluejays emphasized in their pregame prep: offensive rebounds and turnovers.
- CU had 18 turnovers, 10 of them liveball turnovers that Marquette turned into 24 points
- CU have up 18 offensive rebounds, which Marquette turned into 18 points.
And that’s your ball game. CU’s first-shot defense was good enough to win. Their offense was, too. But those turnovers and second-chance points spelled doom.
“We came into the game thinking that our ability to take care of the ball was critical for our chances to win, and we didn’t do that,” McDermott said. “You combine that with the fact that — you know, we’ve been one of the better teams in the country with our defensive rebounding on the year, and we were awful this afternoon.”
The turnovers came from everywhere. Trey Alexander and Baylor Schierman canceled out their eight assists with eight turnovers. The other two primary ball handlers, Steven Ashworth and Francisco Farabello, combined for five turnovers. It wasn’t mishandled passes by big men inside — it was poor decision making by players who have to be better. Period.
“We knew they were going to try to be aggressive on the ball, obviously, that’s what they’re known for,” Scheierman said. “We just were pretty undisciplined. That’s something that we talked about all week in practice. But then we got out here, and we didn’t do what we talked about.”
The defensive rebounding was another story. Marquette’s Oso Ighodaro was controlled offensively by Kalkbrenner; he was 2-of-11 for seven points. But he had 16 rebounds, nine of them offensive, most of them tip-outs to the perimeter. CU simply did not do a good enough job finding Marquette players and putting a body on them to make rebounds tougher, and they paid for it.
Kalkbrenner’s struggles weren’t just on the glass. He also disappeared offensively for large stretches of the game, which was partially a result of not being physical enough to create space in the paint and partially the result of his guards not being able to get him the ball. He scored eight points on 3-of-7 shooting and took just three shots in the second half; CU scored only 20 points in the paint for the game.
“They stretched us out a little so the passes were tough to get in there,” McDermott explained, “but Ryan’s got to be successful when we do get it to him. He had some opportunities to make some plays that he usually makes, and he didn’t make him today. We just need more activity from him, doing things on the move. I thought he got stuck down there a little bit tonight instead of being in and out of the post.”
Scheierman was great on both ends, scoring 23 points on 8-of-15 shooting and 7-of-13 from three. He had eight rebounds. And he split his points evenly, with 12 in the first half and 11 in the second. But he didn’t get much help. Alexander added 18 points, but the rest of the team scored only 26 points on 26 shots. Beyond Kalkbrenner’s struggles, they also got very little from Ashworth (three points on 1-of-6 shooting, all threes, with three of them as wide open as you’ll ever see in this type of game; he added five assists and three turnovers).
Scheierman and Alexander never left the floor, playing all 40 minutes. The bench has gotten extremely short, with only Farabello, Fredrick King and Isaac Traudt playing meaningful minutes and none of them making meaningful contributions in this game. But with a quick turnaround against Georgetown on Tuesday, there’s little time to rest.