Casey Harriman entered the game with about a minute remaining. However, it wasn’t for a victory celebration before the surgery to end his basketball career at Creighton. Instead, it was the lone highlight of the second half for Creighton fans that now wonder how the Bluejays will bounce back with two big road games this weekend.
Creighton and Missouri State got together for an early battle for the conference lead on Tuesday night. For the Bluejays, they could almost do no wrong in the first half, ending it on a 10-0 run to head to the locker room up nine and full of momentum. Antoine Young and Kenny Lawson were leading the way with a combined 16 points and Young had a great drive and basket as time expired. Antoine looked like he could score all night if he wanted to. The Bluejays held the Bears to 36% shooting and out rebounded them 18-13. As I watched Missouri State walk through the tunnel back to the locker room there were a ton of downed heads and it looked like they were ripe for the picking once the second half rolled around to extend the lead.
Missouri State head coach Cuonzo Martin must have had some motivating things to say at halftime. As the second half got started, Creighton initially extended their lead to 11, but then were outscored 32-15 by Missouri State and the Bears were up 8 points themselves at 52-44. It was all done by hedging off of screens and then finding the wide open screen man right under the basket. No Creighton players were there guarding the paint and Missouri State had their way basically canceling the down low presence of Gregory Echenique and Kenny Lawson.
The Bears also picked up their defensive intensity and did everything possible to stop Antoine Young from driving to the basket. They held the Bluejays to 30% shooting in the second half while shooting 68% themselves. When you have wide open layups, it is easy to shoot 68%. Lawson only played 7 minutes in the second half and Echenique struggled down low missing out on some defensive assignments and missing some what appeared to be easy scoring opportunities.
With so many layups and open guys for Missouri State in the second half, I wondered why Echenique and Lawson were not put on the court at the same time so at least one of them could patrol the lane on defense. Doug McDermott even had a little bit of an off night missing 4 of 6 free throws and letting Kyle Weems (who woke up in the second half) just dominate him on defense. McDermott finished with a team high 17 points and 8 rebounds, but with the defensive troubles he had again made me wonder why he wasn’t shifted over to allow Echenique and Lawson be on the floor at the same time. Missouri State was more guard oriented in the second half, but could have been neutralized with some zone or some type of matchup defense where the lane could be guarded. It was the first time all season that I questioned the handling of the personnel on the floor and the Bluejays could not find the right combination for offense and defense in the second half.
So now, the Bluejays have a tough road ahead and have to put this game behind them. Five of the next seven games are on the road including the next two at rival Southern Illinois on Friday and Evansville on Sunday. Then they come home to take on league leader Wichita State a week from Wednesday, which will not be an easy task. A great opportunity was missed tonight to hold the home court and to get an early leg up in MVC play. It will be interesting to see how the Bluejays react to this loss and if that will motivate them against the Saluki’s or if Southern Illinois will take advantage of this let down.
It is a long season and there will be games where Creighton will not be on all cylinders, but they have to learn from these types of losses and that is what we will be waiting to see.
As for Harriman, I wish him nothing but luck in his future endeavors and hope he is still a motivating voice on the team through the rest of the season. He decided to have the shoulder surgery needed which will close out his Creighton career on the basketball court, but enhance his life after college and career aspirations. We as fans can learn from Casey’s toughness and desire to win and succeed. His attitude should also help us as fans move past this game and forward into the long Valley season.