Tonight, Creighton kicked off their season at the Phone Booth with a 94-69 victory tonight in an exhibition game against Missouri Western St. in front of an exhibition record 15,099 fans. It was great to finally see this team that we have been waiting to see on the court again since that effort against Kentucky in last season’s NIT.
What made the evening interesting was the nice stamp that the new players left while some veterans were solid and some left me scratching my head. Wayne Runnels played as advertised, not really scoring in the first half but working on the boards. The second half, he showed his low post skills scoring 11 of his 13 points. He finished the game leading the team with 6 rebounds and second in time on the court with 21 minutes.
Darryl Ashford is going to be the X factor this season. This guy is just smooth and hit a solid 6-of-7 from the field including 4-of-5 from three point land and had 5 assists. For a guy who never attended a game at the Qwest Center before coming to Omaha this fall, he seemed to handle things quite well. With P’Allen Stinnett and Ashford on the floor together, the tandem appear to compliment each other very well.
Ethan Wragge came in the game and before you knew it, he hit a quick three-pointer. He can be some quick offense. He then got his feet wet and contributed 16 pretty good minutes on the court.
Andrew Bock was one of the last newcomers to get into the game. He had a nice steal and a basket, but only played 11 minutes.
On the other side with the veterans, Stinnett seemed to have a quiet night, but after all was said and done, he finished leading the team with 20 points, had 5 assists and a couple rebounds in 20 minutes coming off the bench. Amazing.
Casey Harriman also looked like a totally different player tonight flying around the floor, getting things going early with a nice inbounds steal and finishing with 11 points and 5 rebounds in only 15 minutes of play. He will continue to explode as the season goes along.
Justin Carter was solid tonight as well. The Senior played a team high 22 minutes and left with 10 points and 4 rebounds.
Now people will point to the 44-28 rebound advantage that Missouri Western had. However, I think it wasn’t too bad in the first half and the Jays only lost 42-38 with points in the paint for the game. Kenny Lawson only played 13 minutes tonight having some foul trouble finishing with 4 fouls, 4 points and 3 rebounds. The second half sort of turned into more of a street ball game by Missouri Western on their offensive end and things did not seem as intense as the first half. Obviously, the rebounding is still something that will be watched headed into Sunday against UNO and as the season starts here, but it does look like there are more people going for the rebound than in the past. If the Jays can score like they did tonight the scoring weapons can overcome the rebound disparity. So I’m not going to panic tonight like some people might be.
Exhibition games are what they are and it is a chance to play against some competition and see where you are at before the actual season starts. As a fan, it was just nice to watch a basketball game again. I see the intensity picking up Sunday against UNO.
Greatest thing of the night: The student section showed up tonight. It was nice to see them all there supporting the team.
Weirdest thing of the night: During halftime, one of the hoops was lowered and I think they were checking something with the shot clock or something. But it was entertaining as a few people had to lift this girl up into the hoop so that she could get where it was needed to fix something.
Interesting Stat: Creighton was 13-31 from three.