Tonight, I had the opportunity to take a young Bluejay fan to the game who would not otherwise be able to go. We had burgers, we had hot dogs, we had fries, we had pop. I asked him what his favorite part of the game was. He told me, “The dunks.” At the end of the night, he went on to tell me how awesome the game was and as the radio started talking about Houston Baptist next week, he said, “Can I go again next week?” Hmm…what a simple way to look at the game.
The Bluejays walked away with a 15 point win against Savannah St, 77-62. As Polyfro said in his primer:
“Savannah State has not scored more than 53 points against a D1 opponent this season. Against the Jays defense, they will on Wednesday. Savannah State has allowed more than 60 points just twice this season. Against the Jays on Wednesday, that number will become three.Creighton 77, Savannah State 59”
Boy, that is about as right on as can be. Is this Creighton team that predictable that you can read like a book how they are going to play each game this season? In the first half, the Bluejays came out with a little fire and held Savannah St. to 29% shooting and the Tigers didn’t get into double-figures until 3:01 left in the first half. But on the other hand, Creighton only had 27 points on the board at the half shooting just over 38%. P’Allen Stinnett had 9 rebounds by halftime, Kenny Lawson was getting the ball down low involved early and 8 of the 10 field goals in the first half had an assist with two of those coming from Lawson. Really not too bad.
The second half looked like the Jays were going to roll. They were up 21 with 11 minutes to go after three quick three-pointers from Ethan Wragge. But then Wragge was pulled soon after a 4th three by Ethan didn’t go down and Savannah St. sort of inched their way back into things to get it down to 13. The defensive intensity was not there in the second half and the Tigers ended up getting a lot of open looks and shot over 51% in the second half. They pretty much played even with Creighton the rest of the game.
But in the end, four players ended in double-figures with Wragge the freshman leading the way for the 2nd time this season with 18 points, the Bluejays continue to find their teammates with 18 of 23 baskets having assists and the fans were able to go home with free pizza. However, the questions still remain how things are going to look against New Mexico at The Pit on Saturday.
But tonight I’m really still thinking about the young fan that went with me to the game. Sometimes we take for granted that Creighton is a successful basketball team. The innocence of just going to the game and having a good time is lost upon some fans. The games against the Savannah St.’s and the Houston Baptist’s of the world are hard to look at to evaluate a team and maybe you just try to enjoy them and not read into it too much. Remember, the young man’s favorite part of the game was the dunks. At least Kenny Lawson was able to put one down tonight. However, I, myself, was hoping for more. Is that wrong?