The Creighton men’s basketball seniors combined for 60 points, 26 rebounds and 21 assists to lead the Jays to an 87-74 win over Butler in their final game at CHI Health Center Omaha.
The win secured a 15-5 Big East record, setting a program record for conference wins in a season. The Jays will be the No. 2 seed at next week’s Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden.
“It goes without saying how proud I am of this team, how proud I am of these four [seniors] in particular because of their sacrifice and commitment to this program,” Coach Greg McDermott said. “They’ve all come here at different times, they’ve all played different roles, but they’ve embraced the roles that we’ve asked them to play. Steven [Aswhorth] and Jamiya [Neal] came from somewhere else, so they were accustomed to a different program, a different way of playing, and they became us, and that’s a big reason we were successful this year. Our unity is our biggest strength. I couldn’t be more proud of them.
“Last year we had no injuries, no illness, nothing, and we had a great season. This year, we’ve had injuries, illness; you name it, we’ve had it, and we figured out a way to get through it, and along that way, we won the most conference games that anybody who’s ever worn this uniform has won.”
Here are three takeaways from the senior day win.
Senior Showcase at CHI
Saturday was the final home game for Creighton’s four seniors, and they certainly made it a memorable one.
Ryan Kalkbrenner finished with 27 points on 13-of-17 from the field, 15 rebounds, two blocks and two assists. He gave the CHI Health Center crowd one last above-the-rim show, throwing down five dunks and breaking Patrick Ewing’s record for career dunks in Big East play.
Ashworth wasn’t far behind with 23 points, 11 assists, six rebounds and seven 3-pointers. It was his fourth double-double of the season including three with 20-plus points. Ashworth led the Big East in assists this season at 6.9 per game and became Creighton’s first player with 500 points and 200 assists in a season.
Neal added 10 points, eight assists and five rebounds while walk-on Sami Osmani got to play late in the game as well.
“It’s perfect,” McDermott said. “They both get double-doubles, and one of them doesn’t include turnovers, so that’s good. But Steven becomes the first guy ever to have 500 points and 200 assists in a season, and think about some of the guards that we’ve had roll through here. So to be the first one ever to do that in a Creighton uniform is pretty incredible. Kalk is now the Big East leader in block shots in the history of the league, and there’s been a few decent big guys that have played in this conference during its history.
“So for both of those things to happen today, and for them to have their fingerprints all over it, for Jamiya to hit the big shot when they cut it to six, for Sami to get a curtain call for all the sacrifices he’s made that largely go unnoticed because most of his work is done on the practice floor, I can’t imagine a more perfect ending to their career in this building.”
The game was somewhat in doubt into the final minutes, but the Jays stretched the lead out late and allowed McDermott to give each of his seniors a chance to check out one final time and share a moment with their coaches and teammates as the fans showed their appreciation.
“It’s one of the bittersweet things in coaching,” McDermott said. “You look forward to it, but then there’s also you realize it’s the last time with these guys in this building. They deserve it. I talked about the accomplishments during their career. They deserve to be celebrated. They’ve done everything we’ve asked him to do, and they’ve done it in an unselfish way. They’re all playing different roles on this team, and they’ve all have embraced those roles. They’ve been a lot of fun to coach. It’s been a real treasure to work with these guys.”
Neal may only get one season as a Bluejay, but during the post-game senior day ceremony, he said it’s been the best year of his life. He posted career-highs in scoring, rebounds, assists, blocks, field goal percentage and 3-point percentage, and he’s spoken openly about the impact the coaching staff has had on him.
“We’ve been through a lot, and when you go through things with people, it makes you closer,” Neal said. “I think a lot of times in my life, I had years where stuff has happened and I kind of shied away from it, but this year, my teammates, Coach Mac, they just didn’t let me. That’s why I say it’s the best year, because obviously, it was the best success I’ve had as a team, the best success I’ve had as a player, and it’s just been a good year. Even school, just getting to see my teammates, my classmates, the same people that come support us, I get to see them in class every day and things like that.”
While the other three have logged countless minutes in front of the fans at CHI Health Center, Osmani only played in 22 home games throughout his five years in Omaha. He’s been a key scout team contributor throughout his career before an injury resulted in a redshirt last year. He chose to return for a fifth season and got Saturday provided him a proper senior day experience.
“It was definitely special, a surreal moment,” Osmani said. “I love playing in CHI, especially playing for the crowd. All those people stayed after the game and listened to what we had to say. We really appreciate that.”
Wild Swings
The game itself was a wild one.
Last season, Butler shocked the Bluejays in Omaha, shooting 13-of-22 from 3 and hanging 99 points on the Jays to hand Creighton just its second home loss of the season.
Saturday looked like déjà vu. Butler hit 11 of its first 15 shots — including seven straight at one point — to pour in 29 points in eight minutes. Butler went with stretch-five Boden Kapke after the sophomore had given Creighton some problems off the bench in previous meetings in an effort to play five-out and stress Creighton’s drop coverage. There were a couple mistakes on Creighton’s part, but the Bulldogs also hit plenty of shots with a hand in their face.
McDermott called a timeout after Butler’s seventh 3 to regroup, and the game shifted. The defense tightened up, the Bulldogs cooled off and Creighton limited Butler to 15 points the rest of the half and to 30 in the second half.
“They scored 100 on us here last year, basically the same guys,” McDermott said. “I thought there for a while it was going to take 120 to win the game. We were a little bit late, but they also made some shots. They put you in tough situations with Kapke’s ability to shoot it. We decided to switch some and then they got inside-out 3s and a couple in transition. But once I took that timeout at the 12-minute mark, they were 7-for-9 [from 3] at that point, and then they went 0-for-1 the rest of the half. They scored 31 points the first 15 possessions of the game, which I’m not sure I’ve ever seen in my life. From that point forward, we defended pretty well.”
Butler wasn’t the only one shooting the lights out, or Creighton could have found itself buried before the second media timeout. Ashworth hit five 3s in the first eight minutes, including three in a 75-second span to prevent the Bulldogs from running away with the game. He finished with 21 points on 7-for-10 from deep in the first half as Creighton took a 52-44 lead into the break.
“It felt good, because we couldn’t stop them,” Ashworth said. “So I was glad that we could see a few go through. And honestly, it was a lot of just great opportunities, great looks, really good screens by Ryan, some other flare looks and just different opportunities within the offense that opened up for 3 and was able to knock them down. I think, funny enough, right before going into the locker room, I tried to make a 3 to end it so I could go in. I missed like seven in a row, so I told myself, well, ‘I got them all out now,’ and then, apparently I did.”
Ashworth only scored two points in the second half, but Creighton continued to play through Kalkbrenner and Neal asserted himself more to pick up the slack. The lead grew to 15 midway through the half, but Butler continued to fight, using a 13-4 run to pull within six at the 4:31 mark.
After the final bucket of the run, a Kapke layup, Creighton got the ball to Neal, who dribbled into his second 3 of the game to quell the rally and spark an 11-2 run to put the game away.
“Just pushing the ball, just pushing,” Neal said. “We knew when we pushed the ball, we did things well. Nobody stopped the ball, so I just said, why not just let it fly? I was getting my inner Steve-o on right there, just pulling up real quick, and then we were going.”
The run set up a stress-free final minute allowed McDermott the opportunity to honor his seniors.
Three-Ball Back?
With Ashworth leading the way, Creighton finished 16-for-37 (43.2%) from 3, a new season high for makes.
Jackson McAndrew went 4-for-6 from deep and added a layup for 14 points, following up his 5-for-8 performance at Seton Hall. The freshman has now made 11 of his last 18 3s after shooting 26.4% in his previous 12 games.
Neal and Fedor Žugić both shot 2-for-5 and even Mason Miller hit one during Creighton’s knockout blow, his sixth 3 of the season and first since the Providence game on Jan. 14.
After a month-long slump, Creighton has shot 52.4% and 43.2% in its past two games, one on the road and one at home. If the Jays can carry that momentum into the Big East Tournament and beyond, they’ll have a chance to make some noise this postseason.
