Creighton men’s basketball took down Seton Hall 72-61 in the program’s 15th annual Pink Out game on Saturday.
The game was part of a Pink Out double-header at CHI Health Center Omaha, with the women taking on No. 6 UConn later in the day.
The Bluejays (14-6, 7-2 Big East) shook off a slow start to catch fire in the second half against an undermanned Seton Hall (6-14, 1-8) team. They shot a Big East season-high 58.3% from the field including 42.3% (11-of-26) from 3.
“Awesome crowd; that was fun to see so many people here for the Pink Out,” Coach Greg McDermott said. “Obviously, their team’s had to deal a lot of adversity this year, and they’re dealing with more now with a couple guys out. But you know they’re going to compete, they’re going to fight, and that’s what happened the first half … We were a little bit more like the team that’s been playing recently on both ends of the floor, but especially defensively, in the second half.
“To hold them to 20 in the second half is what we needed to do to from the jump to start with. It’s a good win, and we had a lot of guys step up and make some big plays”
Here are three takeaways from the game.
Best Players on the Court
Creighton had the two best players on the court by a significant margin, and either one seemingly could have named his score. Ryan Kalkbrenner and Steven Ashworth combined for 40 points on a 90.6 true shooting percentage, 12 assists and 11 rebounds.
The Pirates didn’t play anyone within 40 pounds or three inches of Kalkbrenner, and their double-team attempts weren’t particularly effective. He dropped 23 points on 9-of-10 shooting (his only miss coming on a 3-pointer) and 5-of-7 free-throw shooting. The 7-footer had his way inside offensively while adding nine rebounds, three assists, three blocks and two steals in 32 minutes.
Ashworth missed his first two 3-point attempts, then didn’t miss much at all the rest of the day. He finished with 17 points on 6-of-9 shooting including 5-of-8 from deep and nine assists in 33 minutes.
“It was obviously an efficient night, and that’s just more of the same from Ryan Kalkbrenner,” Ashworth said. “I was glad to join that club of becoming a little more efficient tonight. You throw Isaac Traudt in there as well, 4-for-4, that’s 50 points on 23 shots. Really effective and efficient, and I think that when we got into our motion and really started sharing the ball and moving without the ball, I thought that we got a lot of open shots. When this team gets open shots and we get shots at the rim, we’re usually pretty effective. So that was a big key for us, especially in the second half.”
Saturday was Kalkbrenner’s sixth game this season shooting 80% from the field or better and first since the UNLV game on Dec. 7. Ashworth shot himself out of a recent slump, as he had made just nine of his previous 41 attempts heading into Saturday.
“They’re fifth-year seniors,” McDermott said. “They’re experienced, they’ve been through it, they’ve done it. But I’ve also said before, what they do on the floor pales in comparison to what they do for our program in the locker room and on a daily basis and how they’re helping.
“Roles aren’t easily defined if I’m the one that has to define them. If Ryan and Steven, when they’re talking to Jackson [McAndrew] or Ty [Davis] or Jasen [Green] or Mason [Miller], based on their own experiences as a player and how they got through it, that’s really powerful. They’re not listening to some old guy — to a certain extent, a little bit. But when your teammates who have been there and done it and fought through it and used it as learning opportunities, then that messaging is coming from them, it’s really, really powerful.”
On Saturday, the role for Kalkbrenner and Ashworth was to dominate, and that’s what they did.
Flipping the Switch
The start of the game was a bit of a grind for Creighton. Possessions were long against Seton Hall’s pressure and jump shots weren’t falling. McDermott said the team’s focus wasn’t where it needed to be, especially after learning pregame that Seton Hall would be without leading scorer Isaiah Coleman.
The Pirates led for most of the first half, with their edge peaking at 28-20 with just over five minutes to play. Then Ashworth pulled up for a tough 3, and the lid came off the rim.
“It felt like that was a big one, just for our momentum, to see another shot go in,” Ashworth said. “I think that throughout the game, you can kind of feel it when it’s either through the crowd or just through our possessions, if we’re not getting the best looks and best opportunities, it can be stagnant. But once that dropped, I felt like the crowd really got behind us again, and then from there, we were able to kind of put some more stops together, which was really the biggest thing to enable us to be more successful on offense.”
Isaac Traudt loads up to shoot a 3-pointer against Seton Hall. He went 2-for-2 from deep in the game. Photo by Brandon Tiedemann.
Creighton closed the first half on an 18-4 run, then opened the second half with nine straight to take control of the game. They were only getting started, however.
Starting with a Kalkbrenner dunk at the 15:22 mark, Creighton proceeded to shoot 11-for-12 from the field over the next 11 minutes, extending the lead to 26. Add in free-throw shooting (4-for-5) and seven different players scored during the run, only three of which were starters.
Traudt scored eight points during that stretch and finished with 10 on 4-for-4 shooting including a pair of triples. He’s hit double figures in three of his last four and has made 18 of his last 34 3-point attempts (52.9%) dating back to the UNLV game.
“I think it’s more or less teammates finding me,” Traudt said. “I think they’re doing a really good job of just finding me in open spots, and I think a lot of that is me trying to find more open spots. I feel like earlier on in the season, I’d kind of just sit in the corners for most of the possession, which a lot of the sets, that’s what I do. But just trying to move a little bit more, get more open shots, because Jackson does a really good job of that offensively. So I’m just trying to learn from him, because he’s really elite at that.”
Fedor Žugić logged 17 minutes, a new high in a Bluejay uniform, and put up nine points on 3-of-5 shooting (2-of-4 from 3) and 1-of-2 from the free-throw line, two rebounds and two assists.
“It’s been great,” McDermott said of the recent bench contributions. “I talked last week about how the roles are gradually being defined, and I think everybody’s pretty comfortable. Fedor is the one that’s ever-changing as he gets more comfortable in our offense. He’s made tremendous strides defensively from when he first became eligible to where we are today, doing some really good things. He makes some nice passes, and you saw his ability to make shots. We’re getting some really good production, got 26 points off the bench again today. The bench has been huge for us during this win streak.”
Pink Out Part 15
Announced attendance for the early Pink Out tip was 18,430, the 19th-largest crowd in program history, and all of them were on their feet during the under-8 timeout in the first half to honor their loved ones during Creighton’s standup to cancer moment.
“It continues to amaze me how our fan base has just embraced this event,” McDermott said. “We have former players who come back. A lot of former players’ moms make this a can’t-miss event, which is really, really cool. A lot of us have dealt with cancer in our family, including me. Right now, one of my best friends from high schools was diagnosed with stage four cancer in August, so I’m going through that journey with him right now. So it doesn’t end. It doesn’t stop.”
The money raised during the Pink Out goes to the American Cancer Society Hope Lodge, the free housing facility for families with loved ones going through cancer treatment in Omaha.
“For this game to celebrate that person in your life — and it’s not just the people that buy the jerseys, people that come to the games,” McDermott said. “There are a lot of cancer survivors and a lot of people that are dealing with it right now, and then some families that have unfortunately lost loved ones to cancer. The message that it sends about the need for money for research is really important. I was at the Hope Lodge yesterday; it’s a wonderful facility. I get notes and emails all the time from families that have benefited from that facility, either in state or out of state, but understand that the impact that the Pink Out and the auction around it has had on that building.”
Part of the Pink Out effort is the jersey auction, where fans can bid for each player’s jersey and the right to put a loved one’s name on the player’s warm-up shirt. Kalkbrenner’s No. 11 finished with the highest bid this year at $5,600, with Ashworth’s No. 1 a close second at $5,276.92.
Steven Ashworth warming up before Creighton’s Pink Out. Photo by Brandon Tiedemann.
After the game, the players get a chance to meet with the winning bidders, though Ashworth said during the press conference that he already knows who won his jersey.
“The family who auctioned mine is the Hoch family,” Ashworth said. “They’re the sponsor of the point guard scholarship here at Creighton, and so I do have a relationship with them, and they’ve been so great in support of us. Michaela, who’s on the back of my shooting jersey, is someone who has actually won the battle with cancer, I believe back in 2008.
“It’s something special to be able to play in a game like this, where the message before tip-off was hope. Sports is something that can give people hope, and I hope that our platform as athletes and players can bring that hope to people who are battling this fight right now. Whether it’s you personally or you know someone, we’re with you, we pray for you, we encourage you to keep fighting, and if you can, please keep donating to the research and everything, because we know that with God’s help, anything is possible.”
McDermott’s final message was the same as it has been every year: reminding fans of the importance of early detection and urging them to take advantage of screening opportunities.
“We do the preseason breakfast with Fred [Hoiberg] and I and [Chris Crutchfield] at UNO; it’s a touch point for us to remind people to get their screenings done, and this is another opportunity for us,” McDermott said. “If it’s something that you’re putting off, it’s time to do it, because that early detection truly does save lives and adds many years to the lives of cancer patients. So I hope people will take that message.
“But once again, I can’t thank our fans enough. Our athletic staff was all over here yesterday setting out the T-shirts. It’s a group effort. Everybody jumps on board, and it to have the women’s game the same day and have their Pink Out at the same time makes it even extra cool.”
