Creighton men’s basketball took down No. 11 Marquette 77-67 on Saturday, securing a program record ninth-straight Big East victory.
Creighton (18-6, 11-2) avenged a loss to the Golden Eagles in Milwaukee to keep pace with first-place St. John’s (12-1) in the Big East title race. The Bluejays surrendered 18 offensive rebounds but limited the second-chance damage as the team’s three senior leaders — Steven Ashworth, Ryan Kalkbrenner and Jamiya Neal — combined for 55 points in the 10-point victory.
“We’re running on empty, and Marquette is not a fun team to play when you’re running on empty,” Coach Greg McDermott said. “Those two trips this week and some illness we got going through the team, and getting to bed at 3 in the morning on Wednesday was tough on these guys. But man, we showed some grit …
“Just really proud of our guys, really good execution. Jamiya gave us a huge lift after dealing with that foul trouble, coming off the bench and making some big plays on both ends of the floor. I thought Jasen [Green] was outstanding defensively the entire afternoon. And then Kalk and Steven did what Kalk and Steven do.”
Here are three takeaways from the victory.
Making Amends
In the first meeting in Milwaukee, Ashworth and Kalkbrenner combined for 29 points on 8-of-29 from the field. Kalkbrenner shot 4-for-11, all inside the arc, and Ashworth went 1-for-13 from 3. They both missed big shots down the stretch that would have given Creighton a chance to get back in the game late.
The two super seniors were not going to let that happen again, especially on their home court. Creighton fed Kalkbrenner early and often as he made his first five shots from the field. When the Golden Eagles began swarming the big man, Ashworth took advantage, knocking down his first four 3-pointers.
At the half, the two combined for 26 points on 10-of-13 from the field plus a pair of free throws from Kalkbrenner.
Marquette did a better job of limiting their scoring opportunities in the second half, but the pair still combined for 15 points on 5-of-7 shooting.
Ashworth finished with a team-high 22 points on 7-of-11 from the field (6-of-9 from 3) and 2-of-2 from the foul line with seven assists. His biggest bucket of the night was his last. With less than a minute to play and Creighton up by five, Marquette botched its pick-and-roll coverage and left Ashworth wide open. He took advantage of the sudden space to bury the dagger 3 before hitting the “good night” celebration on his way back down the court.
Neal said that moment is the one that will stick with him most from the game.
“I think it got the loudest right when he made that and that was kind of like the cherry on top, like yeah, it’s over; get out of here,” Neal said.
Kalkbrenner totaled 19 points on 8-of-9 from the field and 2-of-4 from the line, seven rebounds and four blocks. He also hit his own 3-pointer in a key moment.
Creighton led by one coming out of the final media timeout. McDermott drew up a play for Ashworth, but Marquette snuffed it out, so Neal put his head down and attacked the lane, kicking the ball out to Kalkbrenner on the right wing with the shot clock winding down. He buried it, his only 3-point attempt of the game.
“He works on those a lot,” McDermott said. “He did in the off season as well, to prepare himself for the season in the future, and to hit it at that moment, I think, speaks to his growth. He’s not feeling good at all, and for him to play as many minutes as he did and hit a shot like that in that situation is pretty incredible.”
Marquette coach Shaka Smart compared Ashworth to the Energizer bunny and said he was the best player in the game. Four of his seven assists went to Kalkbrenner, a two-man game the Marquette head coach is happy he won’t have to see anymore after this season.
“Kalkbrenner’s awesome,” Smart said. “I’ll be sending him a graduation present when he finally leaves. But Ashworth makes Kalkbrenner so much better with his passing and with his cutting and his ability to use ball screens, because what happens is he gets you behind, and then now Kalkbrenner’s sprinting to the rim. He already was bigger than the guy we had on him, but now if we end up having to switch because we’re behind on Ashworth, now he’s even bigger …
“So Ashworth, to me, the MVP of the game because not only did he score 22, but his ability to orchestrate their offense.”
McDermott closed out his opening statement after the game with a message to the fans about the two fifth-year seniors.
“Enjoy it; you have four more of them to watch here in this building,” he said. “It’s pretty special.”
Neal in the Nick of Time
Neal picked up his second foul at the 2:44 mark of the first half in the first meeting with Marquette, and McDermott sat him down. The Jays led by eight at the time, but the Golden Eagles closed the half on a 12-0 run then continued that run into the second half, ultimately digging too deep of a hole for Creighton to climb out of.
Foul trouble popped up for Neal again in round two. He picked up his second at the 1:19 mark and sat the rest of the half, then committed his third before the U-16 timeout in the second half. He sat for the next six minutes and change, returning to the game after Marquette took the lead just before the 10-minute mark.
Neal knocked down a catch-and-shoot 3 the first time he touched the ball to put the Jays back in front then hit a short fadeaway along the baseline to push the lead to four … before committing his fourth foul at the 8:34 mark.
Neal sat for another four minutes, but once he returned, he took over. He had the assist on Kalkbrenner’s 3, a step-back 3 of his own, a tough bucket at the rim through contact and two defensive rebounds (on a day when Creighton had struggled to secure them) in those last four minutes.
“It just looked like from the bench they were just making their punch, and it was time for us to make our punch,” Neal said. “I saw the direction the game was going, so why not make an impact really quick and try to do something to change that?”
Neal played just 27 minutes but totaled 14 points on 6-of-11 shooting, six rebounds and four assists. Creighton was plus-25 in his minutes, including plus-17 in his 10 minutes after halftime.
“He looked like the freshest guy on the floor,” McDermott said. “I think both teams were tired. They played some guys some pretty big minutes. It was a physical, fast-paced game, and while we didn’t want him in foul trouble, the fact that he was rested, I think it helped him. As he mentioned, you watch what’s going on when you’re sitting on the bench and what’s open, and they were really stretching out, trying to take some things away, and that allowed him to get downhill and break, kind of, the shell of that defense.”
Whatever the Team Needs
On Friday, Greg McDermott mentioned Green going from playing heavily against Villanova to playing sparingly at Providence the next time out as part of an answer about how the team doesn’t have any personal agendas.
He said Green would be ready to go against the Golden Eagles, and he was right.
The sophomore from Omaha played 33 minutes, totaling eight points, seven rebounds (tied for the team lead), two blocks, one assist and no turnovers. Creighton was plus-11 with him on the floor, a few days after he only played 13 minutes and was minus-3 against Providence.
“I feel like all of us just have to be ready when our name is called,” Green said. “There are some games where I’m not going to play a ton, there are some games where I will. Last game, I think I only played 12 minutes, and the game before that, I played 32 or something like that. So it depends on the game. We’ve got to be ready when our name is called, and you just always have to be locked in. All of us are embracing our role, so we’re ready whenever we need to be ready.”
Green played a big part in helping Creighton hold Marquette to 36.1% shooting, its second-lowest field goal percentage of the season. Kam Jones went off for 27 points on 11-of-19 from the field, but the rest of the Golden Eagles combined to go 15-of-53. Green took turns on a handful of Golden Eagles including David Joplin (22 points on 23 shooting possessions) and Jones.
“With me, I never really am 100% sure what I’m going to be needed for, so I just have to stay ready for whatever it is,” Green said. “I started off the game guarding Joplin, who’s a great player, had a couple 3s, but as the game went on there, I was needed in different spots, so I kind of knew that whatever was needed out of me, I just had to be ready for it. When it came down to guarding Kam, I feel like I was in a pretty good position based off of my previous work.”
Creighton’s plan to cross-match with Kalkbrenner on shooting guard Stevie Mitchell paid off, as Mitchell made two of his first four 3-point attempts but missed his last six, finishing with 10 points on 4-of-14 shooting.
With Neal’s foul trouble, it became all hands on deck defending Jones. That included Mason Miller (eight minutes) and Fedor Žugić (12 minutes) off the bench. Isaac Traudt’s second-half home shooting magic ran out, but he still chipped in five points, two assists and a few stops, including a steal, in his 17 minutes.
“If guys don’t embrace their role and accept their role and understand — that’s really mature for a guy to say, ‘I might play 12, I might play 32, I just have to be ready for whatever,’” McDermott said. “You don’t hear that said a lot in press conferences across the country, and I’m fortunate that we have a bunch of selfless guys.”
