Creighton men’s basketball closed out 2024 in victorious fashion, holding on at the buzzer to win a 57-56 New Year’s Eve rock fight at home against St. John’s.
The Jays (9-5, 2-1 Big East) trailed by as much as 11 early, led by as much eight late and held on at the buzzer as St. John’s (11-3, 2-1) got two looks for the win in the final 10 seconds.
Coach Greg McDermott called it a crazy game.
“I told the team, I think it was a first or second media timeout of the second half, that some days you just don’t have your stuff, and you don’t have it, and you just have to find a way,” McDermott said. “It was a muddied up game on both ends … Their athleticism and length, outside of Alabama, we haven’t seen it, and I think it shocked us a little early, and we even turned it over early in the second half. And then we settled in; we had about a 10- or 12-minute stretch where we didn’t turn it over, and we were able to create some separation.
“Obviously the end of the game stuff was not a thing of beauty, but we found a way … We’ve had two crazy finishes with them in this building, and fortunately we’ve been able to win both.”
Here are three takeaways from Creighton’s final victory of 2024.
Bluejay Takeover
Creighton’s offense was stuck in the mud throughout the first half. St. John’s built up an 18-7 lead early before the Bluejays rallied to take a lead late. The Red Storm jumped back in front with an and-one put-back for a 28-26 advantage at halftime.
The second half looked much like the first early on as Creighton continued to struggle with turnovers and shot-making. However, that flipped in an instant as the Jays ripped off a 15-4 run to take a 45-38 lead midway through the half.
Ryan Kalkbrenner and 3-point shooters — the essence of this Creighton team — featured heavily during the run.
Jamiya Neal and Isaac Traudt 3-pointers sandwiched a Kalkbrenner steal to start the run. After a Deivon Smith bucket, Neal found his way to the rim for a layup, then Kalkbrenner swatted mid-range shots on back-to-back possessions, the second one leading to a transition alley-oop from Neal to Kalkbrenner.
“I think that got us going, that got Kalk going, that got the crowd going,” Neal said. “That’s when the momentum changed.”
A few possessions later, Steven Ashworth knocked down a pull-up 3 in transition a few plays later to cap the run, then Traudt knocked down another triple a couple minutes later to give Creighton its largest lead at 52-44 with just under six and a half to play.
Creighton scored its final bucket — a Kalkbrenner hook shot — at the 4:31 mark. The Jays missed some good looks and turned the ball over against retched-up pressure from St. John’s down the stretch, but they did just enough to make sure they never relinquished the lead.
Kalkbrenner scored 10 of his 16 in the second half as the Jays shot 50% from the field in the final 20 minutes (after a 34.5% mark in the first half).
“I just got flowing,” Kalkbrenner said. “I was able to get some blocks, and we were able to get out in transition, get some good looks, I think Jamiya and Isaac hit back-to-back 3s, something like that. We got some momentum and were able to capitalize. I was trying to do that the whole game, it was just my best stretch for that.”
The 16 points on 8-of-12 shooting and momentum-changing dunks were nice, but where Kalkbrenner’s greatest impact came was on the defensive end of the floor, as it often does. He tied his season high with five blocks, but that doesn’t come close to telling the full story of what was one of the most dominant defensive showings of Kalkbrenner’s accolade-filled career.
The live stats feed had St. John’s at 9-for-22 on layups, while the shot chart shows the Red Storm at 7-14 inside the restricted area and 8-23 in the paint outside the cylinder. At one point, Simeon Wilcher attacked the basket and threw a layup attempt all the way over the backboard as Kalkbrenner challenged him, one of numerous altered shots from the three-time Big East Defensive Player of the Year that you won’t find in the box score.
“I think they started second-guessing themselves a little bit,” Neal said. “I think instead of just going in there and jumping crazy and trying to go score, they started hop-stepping and pump-faking and settling for 2s and middies, and fortunately for us, they weren’t making a lot of them tonight. I think his impact made a big difference on what they were doing.”
Early in the game, Kalkbrenner became the first player to accumulate 1,000 points, 500 rebounds and 200 blocks in league play.
“That’s all great, but man, he’s impacted our program in so many other ways, just by who he is and what he’s about, what he stands for,” McDermott said. “It’s hard to lose culture when you have Ryan Kalkbrenner on your team, because he’s about all the right stuff. He doesn’t care a bit about himself. He’s got no agenda whatsoever for himself, and you don’t often see that in someone that’s one of the best players to ever wear this uniform.”
Role Player Rotation
Jasen Green logged his second straight start and third of the season, though he only totaled two points and one rebound in 23 minutes. While it wasn’t a big box score game for the sophomore from Omaha, he made arguably the biggest play of the day.
St. John’s forced Creighton’s 19th turnover with 15 seconds left to earn an opportunity to go for the win. RJ Luis took a pull-up over Kalkbrenner with 5 seconds left that missed, but the rebound bounced back to Luis who attacked the basket with Kalkbrenner out of position to make a play. Instead, it was Green who kept his wits about him and rotated over for a vertical challenge, forcing Luis to miss at the buzzer.
“That was awesome,” Kalkbrenner said. “Jasen does a great job of that every day in practice … Mac talked about it in the locker room that we practice that every day, and it can kind of get monotonous and boring, but in games like this, when you have to do it to win the game, we’re able to do it and it makes it all worth it.”
McDermott said he hadn’t seen a replay prior to his post-game press conference but praised Green’s poise.
“When you’re in a panic situation like that, your habits are going to take over,” McDermott said. “You don’t have time to think. The reaction was great. Jasen had a great vertical wall at the rim to at least not let him go straight in.”
Green wasn’t the only Nebraska native who made a big impact.
Freshman Jackson McAndrew was coming off three straight double-figure scoring games that included 11 made 3-pointers at 50% clip, but the shot wasn’t falling for him on Tuesday. He finished with five points on 2-of-9 shooting including 1-of-6 from 3 in 15 minutes.
McDermott turned to Traudt at the four spot for 21 minutes, and the Grand Island native responded with nine points on 3-of-4 from deep and four rebounds. He chased down a key offensive rebound late that gave Creighton an extra possession with just under a minute to go, leading to a pair of Ashworth free throws. He also held up defensively against an athletic St. John’s group.
“I liked the matchup with RJ a little bit better than Jackson, from a physicality standpoint,” McDermott said. “I was worried about that coming in. Jackson’s played so well for us and has been a big reason that we’ve been able to have some success. But I just felt this afternoon that Isaac’s physicality was going to help. And Isaac’s been in the gym working, trying to work through some struggles with his 3-point shooting and it paid off. That repetition certainly paid off today.”
Ashworth’s Heavy Burden
It’s no secret that Creighton relies heavily on Ashworth to handle the ball and initiate offense, especially with Pop Isaacs done for the year. St. John’s is a particularly tough matchup with the length and physicality the Red Storm has in the backcourt, and it made for a rough day for the fifth-year senior.
Ashworth committed a career-high 10 turnovers and shot 2-for-8 inside the arc. Far too many possessions saw him dribble the air out of the ball without creating an advantage, often leading to a turnover. McDermott tried one strategy to free him up a bit in the game without getting the results he was hoping for.
“We tried to set some ball screens to switch the matchups,” McDermott said. “I thought it stagnated our offense a little too much for the couple times that it worked. I thought it got us into late shot clocks a few times.”
Marquette, Creighton’s next opponent, is another team equipped to harass ball-handlers and make it difficult to initiate offense. The Jays will need to come up with a better solution before Friday’s trip to Milwaukee.
“We’re asking him to do so much, and I’ve got to probably put it in Jamiya’s hands a little bit more,” McDermott said. “Against that pressure, Jamiya has seven assists and two turnovers. I’m leaning on Steven too much, and he’s not going to shy away from that. But we’ve got to help him a little bit.”
Despite his struggles, Ashworth still totaled a game-high 18 points, shot 4-for-10 from deep, grabbed five rebounds, dished out four assists and nabbed three steals in 39 minutes, with his only time on the bench the result of an injury scare to his knee.
In addition to Neal taking on more ball-handling duties, another potential solution for Creighton is an increased role for Fedor Žugić, who played in his second game since becoming eligible. The Montenegrin guard logged 6:50 on the court and made three plays that put six points on the board in that time.
First, he attacked a closeout and snaked his way through traffic to the rim. He left the layup a bit short, but Kalkbrenner followed him for the put-back. Later, he again got to the basket and sucked in the defense before dropping the ball off to Fredrick King, who drew a foul and split the free throws. Finally, he made the right pass to Isaac Traudt, who pump-faked against a fly-by closeout then reset for Creighton’s first 3 of the game. While Žugić isn’t a point guard, his ability to attack closeouts and stress the defense with both the shot and the drive will be a welcome addition for Creighton once his minute count starts to increase.
“I thought he looked like a deer in the headlights the first time he played, and I thought today he just played basketball,” McDermott said. “He still has a long way to get acclimated into what we’re doing, the timing and the spacing, and what needs to happen defensively when you’re guarding a shooter versus a non-shooter. There’s a lot he has to still learn, and he’s going to get better at that as time goes on.”
