Creighton men’s basketball received some last-second heroics (and a little luck) from Steven Ashworth to take down Villanova 62-60 at Wells Fargo Center on Saturday.
The win was Creighton’s seventh straight and marks the first time the Bluejays have ever beaten the Wildcats three straight times. Creighton improved to 9-2 in Big East play, matching its best start since joining the conference, and 16-6 overall.
“Their program is incredible,” Ryan Kalkbrenner told 1620 the Zone’s John Bishop. “They’re always hard for us to beat, especially here. It’s kind of been the theme of this year’s team is kind of finding a way to win, even when it’s ugly. It shows growth on our part and that we’re moving in the right direction.”
Kalkbrenner led the way for the Jays with 22 points on 9-of-11 from the field and 4-of-5 from the line.
Here are three takeaways from the win.
Closing Time
Saturday certainly wasn’t Steven Ashworth’s best performance of the season. Missed shots, turnovers and even foul trouble plagued Creighton’s veteran point guard for much of the game.
However, with the game on the line, the Jays got the ball to Ashworth, and he delivered — albeit perhaps not in the way that he planned.
Down by one with the ball on the baseline, Creighton drew up a two-man action with Ashworth and Kalkbrenner on the strong side. Ashworth set a screen for Kalkbrenner then popped to the corner. Both defenders went with the big man and Jasen Green found his point guard flaring out to the corner for a wide-open look — that banked in off the top corner of the backboard.
“With the execution of that play, the number one option is me trying to wipe out Kalk’s man, and I felt like I did that, and I noticed that,” Ashworth said. “I then noticed my man staying in the paint, and then Kalk’s man still trailing, trying to find him, and not switching onto myself, so I knew that I’d have some space. But also, as soon as I caught it, trying to make sure that I had a good, clean look at it. Back-pedaling to the corner with the pass coming from the basket isn’t the easiest type of shot. Obviously, I missed it a little left, but that’s why the backboard’s there.”
Coach Greg McDermott suggested a bit of divine intervention was at play during the postgame press conference.
“I told the team a really good friend of mine gave me a coin after my mom passed away that says ‘Where I go, you go,’ and it has her name on it,” McDermott said. “I have it in my pocket every game. I was rubbing that thing big-time on that last play, and I think she probably steered that thing into the basket off the backboard. Thirty-five or six years doing this, can’t say I’d ever won or lost a game on a banked-in 3 from the corner, so you pretty much see it all if you do this long enough.”
Creighton got a stop on the other end to seal the two-point victory, making Ashworth’s bank the game-winner. It almost ended very differently for him, however.
On the previous possession, Ashworth tried a quick swing pass that Wooga Poplar jumped and picked off, taking it down the floor for a go-ahead slam. Ashworth tried to answer with a pull-up 3 in transition but missed the basket entirely. However, Green flew out of bounds to secure the rebound and call a mid-air timeout to get his point guard another shot.
“Nice to be considered a hero, but I was almost the villain of the game,” Ashworth said. “But sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good. Super clutch play by J-Green getting that rebound and calling a timeout so we could draw up a play underneath out of bounds. Then we executed and it was game from there.”
Beyond the actual game-winner, Ashworth was also the biggest reason Creighton was in position to win in the first place. He accounted for 13 of the team’s final 17 points.
Villanova used a 7-0 run to take a 50-45 lead with less than seven minutes to play before Ashworth rose up and knocked down a tough 3 off the dribble. On the next play, he found Kalkbrenner for an alley-oop against Villanova’s aggressive ball screen coverage. Next time down, he fed Kalkbrenner inside for another bucket to put Creighton back in front.
Villanova tied it up, but Ashworth hit another triple with just under three to play to give Creighton a 57-54 lead. Of course, he then closed out the game with his final 3-pointer.
Ashworth finished with 13 points, seven assists and four turnovers, shooting 4-of-9 form the field (3-of-7 from 3) and 2-of-2 from the foul line. He also only played 32 minutes as he picked up a second foul at the 10-minute mark of the first half and sat for all but two minutes the rest of the period.
Villanova eventually went on a run without Creighton’s best ball-handler on the floor, but Ty Davis did a good job in the first half of his stint helping Creighton remain afloat. He split a pair of free throws and converted a turnaround bunny in the paint, scoring three points that proved to be very important in the two-point win.
“Ty Davis gave us great minute,” McDermott said.” We were able to survive Ashworth’s foul trouble. Ty goes in and gets three big points and does a good job defensively. For a freshman that isn’t playing a lot to do it in this environment, it’s a huge credit to the work that he’s done.”
One-Eighty from Game One
The first time the two teams squared off this season was a treat for fans of offensive basketball. The Creighton win in Omaha featured 165 points, 22 3-pointers, a combined 63.8 true shooting percentage and just eight turnovers. Saturday’s rematch was… not quite that.
Creighton shot poorly from the 3-point line (6-of-26) and the free-throw line (8-of-14) while committing 18 turnovers. Villanova shot under 40% from the field and only hit three 3-pointers.
“They definitely switched it up, and I think props to them,” Ashworth said. “We switched some things up as well. Looking back at that game and that film, the offenses were elite, and to be able to make adjustments like both teams did is something that you’re going to see, I think, in the second half of Big East play. Just really proud of the way that we were able to execute. A lot of our actions were thrown off, but we still were able to make reads when we needed it.”
Villanova was Creighton’s first conference rematch this season. Nine more remain as the league gave the Jays a balanced slate this year. The path forward will only get tougher as the competition level rises, but Creighton found a way to get a win on the road when little went according to plan on offense.
“Six-for-26 from 3 and 18 turnovers on the road and you find a way to win means you have to do something right in other areas of the game,” McDermott said. “I thought we defended them much better than we did the first time and they defended us much better than they did the first time. That one was a free-flowing game with a lot of offense a lot of efficiency. This one, good shots were harder to come by and the shot-making wasn’t at a high level for either team.”
Unsung Heroes
Ashworth gave credit for his last shot to Green, and rightfully so. There aren’t a lot of players that would have even pursed that rebound, let alone had the presence of mind to call the timeout.
The NCAA changed the rule allowing players to call a timeout mid-air a couple years ago, and Green remembered hearing the Big East representatives explaining that to the team. He didn’t see a teammate he felt comfortable throwing it back to and so he burned the timeout, stealing Creighton a pivotal extra possession.
“Unbelievable play,” McDermott said. “Heads up to make sure he was in-bounds when he stepped over the end line and then immediately look right at the official and got the timeout. Big-time play and it gave us the opportunity to win the game.”
Green’s offensive rebound and assist on the game-winner were his key offensive contributions on an otherwise rough day on that end. He scored three points but also committed four turnovers. Even so, he played 32 minutes, the second-most of his career behind the 35 he played in the first game against Villanova, and the Jays were plus-6 with him on the floor.
The reason was his defense on the nation’s leading scorer, Eric Dixon. He had scored 20-plus against Creighton in six straight meetings, including 27 in Omaha earlier this season. On Saturday, Creighton held him to 17 points on 5-of-14 from the field and 6-of-7 from the line with Green as the primary defender on the 6-foot-8, 265-pound forward.
“Jasen did an amazing job on him,” Kalkbrenner said. “Jasen’s strong enough and quick enough to match him on the perimeter and in the post. Dixon’s a great player, so he’s going to get a few buckets here and there, but Jasen made his life really hard. I think a season-low on the year, so he did an incredible job.”
Green said the first meeting this season helped prepare him for what he faced on Saturday. The 6-foot-8 redshirt sophomore did a good job of remaining disciplined on Dixon’s plethora of pump fakes, staying in front of him on drives and holding his ground in the post.
“I feel like the biggest difference was just me having that first game under my belt, just kind of knowing how he moves and how he plays,” Green said. “It’s also a credit to our coaching staff; we worked on it a little bit yesterday, just guarding him and how he moves, all his double-moves and stuff like that … I’ve been here the past two years. He’s always played really well against us, and for me to be able to help hold him under 20 points, it’s an incredible feeling.”
Creighton also received a big contribution from the Bluejay that saw the least amount of playing time — Mason Miller. He did not step the court until McDermott called his number with 69 seconds remaining as an offensive sub for Green. Jamiya Neal took it to the basket on the possession and came up a bit short, but Miller flew in and kept the rebound alive so Neal could recover it and convert the put-back, giving Creighton a three-point lead with 49 seconds to play.
“Mason hardly played because of matchups today, but he goes in there, tips that ball, keeps it alive, Jamiya gets it and sticks it back in to get us a big basket,” McDermott said. “A little weird with the rotations today just because of who Villanova had on the floor. It was a little harder to go as deep on the bench as I probably wanted to coming into the game.”
The bench didn’t provide the offensive punch that it has in recent games with Isaac Traudt and Fedor Žugić both going scoreless, but everybody who stepped on the floor made at least one play that ended up mattering in a one-possession win.
