No. 24 Creighton men’s basketball is still searching for its first win over St. John’s at Madison Square Garden after falling to the No. 9 Red Storm 79-73 on Sunday afternoon.
With the loss, Creighton (18-8, 11-4) is two games back of St. John’s (22-4, 13-2) in the Big East standings with five to play.
The Bluejays held St. John’s to 38.3% from the field but shot 26.7% from 3 on their end and couldn’t find a way to score consistently against a physical Red Storm defense down the stretch.
“Their defense is outstanding, and I think when we go back and watch this film, we had lot open 3s in the second half that we didn’t make,” Coach Greg McDermott said. “They wear into you over time, their physicality, their toughness, the pressure. As the game wears on, it wears into you a little.”
Here are three takeaways from the loss.
Decisive Stretch
The game looked to be every bit what you’d hope to see from a clash of two teams at the top of a conference with major title implications on the line. There were eight lead changes and four ties. The teams’ lead time was within two minutes of each other. Creighton’s largest lead was 10, the Red Storm’s eight.
Creighton delivered the first punch with a 14-1 run early to build that 10-point advantage, but St. John’s answered quickly to erase the deficit, and the teams spent the last 11 minutes of the half within one possession of each other.
That continued for the first few minutes of the second half as well until Creighton pulled ahead by four, then by five on a Steven Ashworth 3 at the 14:51 mark. However, it would be a long time — nearly seven minutes, in fact — before Creighton scored again.
The Red Storm scored 10 straight to turn the five-point deficit into a five-point lead, and the Jays never led again.
Creighton missed 11 straight shots — six 3s from four different players plus five contested shots around the basket — and Steven Ashworth, the best free-throw shooter in the country, missed the front end of the bonus (the second time he did so in the game, his first time this season with multiple misses).
Creighton couldn’t knock down the clean looks it got and couldn’t finish inside against the Red Storm’s physicality. Ryan Kalkbrenner was in and out during that stretch for multiple reasons, but he did not get a shot off during the drought, finishing with 12 points on 5-of-10 shooting.
Ashworth finally ended the drought at the 7:55 mark with a pull-up in the lane, then he found Jamiya Neal leaking out in transition for a jam to make it a one-point game. That’s as close as Creighton got, however. The Bluejays missed seven of their next nine shots from the field as the game slipped away.
“They were just really aggressive,” Neal said. “They can switch one through five, they have a lot of guys who can guard, and their speed and athleticism wears into you over time. I think mostly, we got some of the shots that we wanted, we just didn’t make them.”
Bad Math
St. John’s is first in the conference in forcing turnovers and in offensive rebounding rate. The Johnnies have a hard time scoring efficiently on their first shot in the halfcourt. Earning extra possessions is how they win, and that was the case on Sunday.
St. John’s forced 15 Creighton turnovers and converted them into 20 points on the other end. The Red Storm grabbed 20 offensive rebounds and turned them into 20 second-chance points. That’s 40 points on 35 extra shooting opportunities. Creighton scored 14 second-chance points itself on 13 offensive rebounds (similar to how the first game went, the Jays did enough there to be within striking distance) but only scored two points on five takeaways.
Creighton allowed St. John’s be too effective in its areas of strength, and the Jays didn’t match that on their end, despite generally defending the Red Storm well.
“For us, we come on the road and hold somebody to 38% from the field, 33% from the 3-point line, we’re going to have a great chance to win,” Coach Greg McDermott said. “We’ve won the free-throw analytical battle all season long, and we’re number one in the country in that regard, and today, we fouled way too much. For us to shoot 15 free throws and them to shoot 29, we’re not doing what we’re supposed to do. We were way too handsy, late to react and put them at the foul line way too much. And then when we had opportunities at the foul line, we didn’t capitalize.”
Creighton shot 11-of-15 at the charity stripe, and three of the misses were on the front end of the bonus. Despite shooting poorly on their end (58.6%), St. John’s still made more free throws than Creighton attempted, something McDermott hopes to see his team accomplish heading into every game.
Over the years, the “Lety it Fly” mantra has allowed Creighton to overcome some deficiencies in other areas, but that wasn’t the case on Sunday. The Bluejays shot 8-of-30 from deep, outscoring the worst 3-point shooting team in the conference by just six from the arc.
Ashworth finished with 23 points and 11 assists, but he shot 4-of-12 from deep and missed seven straight in the second half before throwing one in with just over a minute to play. The veteran point guard had some pretty clean looks at pivotal times and just couldn’t get them to go down. Isaac Traudt and Jackson McAndrew were 2-of-7 between them, and Neal went 1-for-8.
Creighton outscored St. John’s in the paint and forced the Johnnies into a lot of tough shots (9-of-22 on layups, 22-of-55 on all 2-point shots), but the Jays can’t lose the possession battle as badly as they did on a day when they drew a tough whistle and couldn’t find the range from deep.
“If you go on the road, you’ve got to do the little things,” McDermott said on 1620 the Zone after the game. “We gave up some offensive rebounds at inopportune times, and then we missed free throws, I think three front ends of one-and-one. If you’re going to beat a team as good as St. John’s — there’s a reason they haven’t lost here all year — you’ve got to do those little things a little bit better than we did today. But it wasn’t for lack of fight or lack of effort. We showed a lot of grit.”
Silver Linings
Creighton had a chance to take over sole possession of first place in the Big East entering this week and went 0-for-2. That’s probably tough for fans to swallow after experiencing the nine-game winning streak and seeing their team re-enter the top 25.
However, things could be much worse. At the tail end of the second-half scoring drought, Kalkbrenner went down after a foul on the offensive glass and appeared to be in considerable pain, grabbing at his right foot. He eventually went back to the locker room with assistance and didn’t appear to be putting much if any weight on his right leg.
However, six minutes of game time later, he was back at the table ready to check in and finish the game.
“He tweaked it pretty good, but obviously he came back and they taped it up,” McDermott said. “I think he’s going to be sore for a few days.”
As soon as Kalkbrenner went down, speculation across the Internet, both inside the Creighton fan base and across the college basketball world, turned dark, fearing the worst. That he seemingly managed to avoid a season-ending injury is the biggest positive to take away from an otherwise disappointing Sunday.
“When he went down and wasn’t getting back up, I thought it was going to be worse,” McDermott said. “That’s the silver lining in this, and we get a few days off here on an off week, and then we get back to work.”
Another positive to focus on is Jasen Green, who has played some of the best basketball of his career since logging just 13 minutes at Providence on Feb. 5.
In the win against Marquette, he totaled eight points, seven rebounds, two blocks and an assist in 33 minutes. Creighton won his minutes by 11 in the 10-point win. In the four-point loss to UConn, Green contributed nine points, three rebounds, one block and one steal in 22 minutes. Creighton was plus-3 with him on the floor.
On Sunday, he provided a big spark early with his energetic play and finished with 10 points, four rebounds, two assists and a block in 31 minutes. Creighton won his minutes by four.
Green has provided a key defensive presence all season, but now he’s starting to produce in the box score as well — against the toughest teams in the Big East.
“He’s grown in a lot of ways,” McDermott said. “He got some key offensive rebounds, and he gets the assignment on Kadary Richmond to start the game and I thought he did an admirable job there. But he understands where he’s supposed to be on the floor, and understands when to post and when to space. Jasen has been a huge reason that we’ve been able to have the success that we’ve had.”
Creighton will now have six days to rest, recover and prepare before returning to the court at CHI Health Center Omaha to host Georgetown next Sunday.
