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Men's Basketball

Recap: Jays 65, Drake 53

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Gregory Echenique rattles the rim on a dunk Friday afternoon. (Adam Streur/WBR)

[Box Score]

Key Stats: Creighton dominates the boards 44-26, outscores Drake in the paint 30-26, from the bench 19-6, and on 2nd chance points 14-4. Doug McDermott goes 8-14 from the field and 3-4 from long range with 7 rebounds.

Favorite Moment: The second half was dominated by the defensive play of Gregory Echenique, and one play in particular epitomized the action. With about six minutes left, he blocked a shot, then altered the putback shot, and finally snared the rebound in traffic, to the delight of the decidedly pro-Creighton crowd.

Favorite Moment II: It’s one thing to read for two months that Creighton was bringing a league record 4,000+ fans with them to St. Louis. It’s quite another to hear that many fans in the arena — I honestly had chills on press row hearing the sheer volume coming from the 1/3 of the lower bowl clad in Bluejay attire. There were several moments where the crowd was absolutely deafening and you could close your eyes and mistake the Scottrade Center for Omaha — when Creighton ran out of the tunnel for pre-game introductions, after an alley-oop to Gregory Echenique, and after a second-half three pointer by Doug McDermott, to name three. It’s a neutral court, officially, but I’m here to tell you this was anything but a neutral court.

500-ish Word Recap: Last year Drake and Creighton met in the quarterfinals of Arch Madness, and the Bulldogs jumped out to a quick 9-0 lead. The first half was much more tightly contested this time around, with five ties in the first several minutes. Doug McDermott kept them in the game early, scoring 10 points in a three-and-a-half-minute stretch that turned a 5-5 tie into a 17-12 lead. In the process, he tied Rodney Buford’s all-time scoring record.

As he has so often over th last six weeks, Will Artino came off the bench and gave them a spark. Actually, he gave them more than a spark; he gave them five points in a 10-1 Creighton run including a dunk and a three-point play. He had five rebounds in the first half, four of them offensive, and was a big reason they dominated second-chance points.

Then the Jays went cold, going over five minutes without a field goal, while Drake went on a 10-2 run to cut it to 24-23. It was Artino Time. On the next possession, McDermott missed a shot, and Artino grabbed the rebound. When his shot missed, he grabbed his own rebound and put up a second shot, which went in to push Creighton’s lead back to 26-23. Drake wouldn’t get the lead under three for the rest of the afternoon.

Doug McDermott broke CU’s all-time scoring record in the first half of Friday’s game. (Adam Streur/WBR)

Moments later — at the 4:43 mark, for the sake of the history books — McDermott was fouled, and when he made the first free throw, he officially broke Buford’s scoring mark. It was a fittingly low-profile way to do it, as most people inside the arena (unless they were checking Twitter) didn’t even realize it had happened. They led 33-26 at they half, and while it was hardly a dominating performance, their pace was wearing into Drake.

Creighton opened the second half with nine turnovers in the first ten minutes, which allowed Drake to attempt twice as many shots (20-9) as the Jays. Luckily, the Bulldogs weren’t on fire, though they made enough of them to rattle off a 7-0 run that cut the lead to 45-42. This time, it was Echenique Time.

The big man was knocked to the floor on a hard foul, and he was incensed at not getting the call, staring at the officials with a silent, icy glare. Rather than complaining, though, he channeled the frustration into dominating play, immediately blocking a shot on the other end and then proceeding to take over the game defensively. He had five blocks in the second half, altered numerous others, and essentially made the paint a no-score zone for Drake, especially over the final ten minutes. Drake was stuck on 46 points for over seven minutes, in large part because they couldn’t get off a decent look within 10 feet of the hoop.

It wasn’t always pretty, but in March, a win is a win is a win, and this one advances Creighton to the semifinals of Arch Madness, which is the only thing that truly matters.

Quotables:

“Drake puts so many shooters on the floor. Watching last night, our challenge was to try to run those shooters off the three-point line the best we could. I thought for the most part we were able to do that.” -Coach Greg McDermott

“I thought rebounding would really be critical. When we beat them at our place, we outrebounded them by 13. When we lost at Drake, we got outrebounded that night. We outrebounded them by 18 this afternoon, which I thought was critical.”  -Coach Greg McDermott

“Gregory really changed the game defensively in the second half. There was nothing happening in the paint because of his energy and ability to block some shots and change shots and go get the basketball off the board.”  -Coach Greg McDermott

“We executed what we tried to do the whole game, and that’s really to try to get them off the three-point line. Maybe we get beat off the dribble once in a while by doing that, but we’ve got Gregory back there to clean that up if that happens. I thought Jahenns Manigat and Avery Dingman did a great job on Ben Simons. He had to work for all nine of his shots and a couple of his makes were really tough looks at the basket. He’s hard to guard because he’s always in motion, and he reads screens so well. We thought it was critical that we don’t let him get started. He didn’t have a great game last night, and I was fearful that he wouldn’t have two poor shooting nights in a row. Fortunately, our guys were up to the challenge defensively.” Coach Greg McDermott

“We had different guys step up throughout the year. Ethan Wragge played six minutes this afternoon. He’s sixth man of the year and would start on most every team throughout the league. Because of some of the matchups and the way Will and Gregory were playing, and Doug was playing, it didn’t make as much sense. Ethan is celebrating like everybody else. He understands and trusts us and he knows that we trust him. That’s what makes this team special. The next guy has got to be ready.” -Coach Greg McDermott

“Will is a shining example of not losing faith and continuing to work hard and believing in what your coaches say, that you have to be ready when your number is called, and your number will be called eventually. Will came to us at 185 pounds. Before the season, he was up to 230. He’s lost a little since then. That’s 40-some pounds that Will’s gained over really a pretty short period of time. He’s continued to work. He’s continued to believe. His teammates have embraced what he brings to the table. I give him a lot of credit because there were two or three conference games that he did not play — Coach’s decision he did not play. It’s hard to stay focused and motivated when you’re in that position where you don’t know what to expect.

He’s just played so well when we put him in there that we had to try to find minutes for him. He’s as productive of a player as we have on our team per minute play. A lot of the work, Will deserves the credit. Certainly our strength coach Dan Bailey and his staff have done a great job with him. Will is a more confident person than who came to us three years ago. He’s grown up in a lot of ways. It’s a lot of fun to see, and it’s pretty exciting to think what he could become here in the next two years.” -Coach Greg McDermott

(On Doug setting the new scoring record) “It hasn’t probably hit me yet. Obviously, it’s an unbelievable accomplishment to do it in three years, and especially for me, being as familiar as I am with the history of Creighton, having arrived at Wayne State in ’94 and seeing really everything that’s happened since then and learning about the Bob Harstads and Bob Portmans of the world and learning just how special their careers were, to think that Doug has scored more points than them in three years is really incredible. A credit to him and certainly a credit to the guys he’s played with the last three years. It’s something that I think it’s special. It’s more special because it’s happening on a team that’s winning a lot of basketball games, and I think that’s what’s most gratifying, I think, to Doug, and I certainly feel the same way.” -Coach Greg McDermott

(On Echenique’s defensive game) “We are a totally different team on the defensive end of the floor. We don’t resemble the team that we are when he isn’t playing like that. He is so active. He made multiple plays on several possessions. I watched the Wichita State game with Gregory, and it was the same. He would help with the ball screen, help on the dribble drive, block the shot, go out and get the rebound, and it was possession after possession. I’m really proud of him because sometimes it’s hard to get that switch flipped, and when it gets flipped, he’s hard to deal with. As he said, Doug found him a couple times early in the second half, and he was able to get a couple baskets. I think that really lit his fire. He was outstanding on the defensive end and on the glass this afternoon” -Coach Greg McDermott

“Will was tremendous. He provided really good minutes. He’s so easy to play with because he can see over the defense, and he’s really good at the high/low pass, and he crashes the boards every time.” -Doug McDermott

“One of the keys to winning a tournament like this is having people off the bench stepping up, and I thought Will did an unbelievable job today. In the first half, the offense wasn’t really going for me, and he came in and completely gave us a lot of energy, which was great.” -Doug McDermott

(On becoming the leading scorer in school history) “It’s really cool. I have to give a lot of credit to my teammates and coaches because I wouldn’t ever be in this position without them. It’s been a blast so far. But I can’t dwell on it too much because we’ve got a big game tomorrow and a big rest of the season. It’s really cool, though, and a great honor.” -Doug McDermott

(On the defensive effort) “They’re tough to guard because they put so many shooters out there. They set ball screens. Ben Simons gets them going offensively. I thought we did a good job on him, and Gregory obviously the second half changed the game because we have confidence that, even if we do get beat off the dribble, he’s going to be there to block the shot. It’s huge having a guy like that.” -Doug McDermott

“I think it’s a huge part of the plan that our coaches put together and the focus that we have last night. We don’t have much time to prepare. Obviously, we didn’t know we were going to play them. I thought our team, like I said, from the coaching staff and the players, did a good job just locking in tomorrow last night and this morning. We followed the plan, and everybody played — bought into it — and that’s what happens when you do that.” -Gregory Echenique

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