No. 17 Creighton men’s basketball took care of business against Georgetown on Tuesday night while Baylor Scheierman made a bit of history in the 94-72 victory at CHI Health Center Omaha.
The Bluejays (18-7, 9-5 Big East) used runs of 13-0 and 13-4 to take control in the first half then cruised to victory in the second to hand the Hoyas their ninth straight loss.
“Sometimes in this game, the hardest thing to do is what you’re supposed to do, and we were supposed to beat Georgetown,” Coach Greg McDermott said. “If you would have played against Georgetown in early January and then saw the team that’s playing for them now, they are vastly improved …
“Trey [Alexander] just shot the daylights out of the basketball and another game with a great assist-to-turnover ratio, and Baylor did some that’s never been done before, and that’s pretty cool stuff … They mean a lot to our program. Their fingerprints are all over our success the last couple years and what we do from here on out in large part is going to be determined by what these guys continue to do. They’ve been absolutely awesome.”
Here are three takeaways from the win.
Homegrown History
Pre-game, Creighton honored Baylor Scheierman for surpassing 2,000 career points in the loss at Providence (which made him the first men’s player in Division I history to surpass 2,000 career points, 1,000 career rebounds, 500 career assists and 300 career 3-pointers). During the game, he made more history.
With a feed to Ryan Kalkbrenner less than nine minutes into the second half, Scheierman became the first player in program history to record a triple-double with points (15), rebounds (11) and assists (11). The only other Bluejay to record a triple-double is Benoit Benjamin, who did it three times in 1984 and 1985, all with points, rebounds and blocks.
Trey Alexander said he looked up at the scoreboard and saw Scheierman was one assist short, so he called a play knowing it would end in Scheierman feeding Kalkbrenner at the basket.
“It’s a blessing, obviously,” Scheierman said. “I have to thank my coaches and teammates; nothing would be possible without them and they trust me to go out there and play a certain type of way. My teammates were great tonight and that’s really the big reason why I was able to do what I was able to do.”
Baylor Scheierman draws two defenders and looks for an open teammate against Georgetown. Photo by Eric Francis
On a day when his 3-point shot wasn’t clicking (2-for-9 including 0-for-6 in the first half), Scheierman still found a way to dominate the game as Creighton was plus-30 in his 32 minutes.
“Coach always preaches next play and obviously my shots weren’t going down tonight and my teammates found me for open looks, they just weren’t going in,” Scheierman said. “I pride myself on being able to impact the game in other ways and Trey had it going tonight, so I was really trying to find him. I’d say half of my assists went to him. I’ve got to tip my cap to him. It was a great team win overall. Obviously I put up some good numbers, but that’s more than a team thing than individual to be honest.”
Scheierman also became the first Bluejay since Benjamin to record five straight double-doubles on the day Kalkbrenner passed Benjamin on Creighton’s career scoring chart. The big man finished with 17 points on 7-of-8 from the field (1-of-1 from 3) and 2-of-3 from the free-throw line, five rebounds, four blocks and two assists.
Alexander came up one assist shy of a triple-double against Iowa and Scheierman had flirted with it a time or two as well, but the Aurora native finally checked all the boxes on Tuesday.
“It’s incredible, and I think we’ve had some guys close,” McDermott said. “Trey was close once maybe this year and Baylor on another occasion, so those two do so much. We haven’t even talked about how they impact the game defensively, but they just know how to play and you can tell that they genuinely like playing basketball with each other. At the end of last season a couple of guys left and new guys are coming in and our core of Trey and Baylor and Kalk, they’re leading this charge and they did it in the offseason and they’re still doing it today.”
Keep Letting it Fly
Creighton got off to a bit of a slow start, scoring six points in the first six minutes or so. The Bluejays misfired on their first four 3-point attempts, all good looks.
Steven Ashworth fires up a 3-pointer over two Hoyas. He went 4-for-10 from deep in the game. Photo by Eric Francis
Creighton kept shooting, however, and Steven Ashworth splashed the team’s fifth attempt to put the Jays in front, then Mason Miller swished one on the next possession. Creighton proceeded to shoot 10-of-17 from 3 in the final 14 minutes of the half to take a 19-point lead at the break, and the Jays finished 17-of-36 (47.2%) for the game.
“It was good, 25 assists on 34 made field goals, that’s Creighton basketball,” McDermott said. “That’s the way we want to play.”
Six different Bluejays hit a 3 with Trey Alexander leading the way. Fresh off a 0-for-4 outing at Xavier and shooting 29.2% on the season, the junior hit his first five 3-pointers and finished 6-for-8 in the game. He posted a game-high 26 points, shooting 9-for-14 overall and dishing out five assists.
“It was a great feeling,” Alexander said. “Mac was kind of telling me that he liked the way that I was keeping my follow through and things like that when I was shooting around earlier before the game, so just trying to incorporate those things in the game and obviously Baylor found me for most of my 3s, so kudos to him as well.”
Ashworth shot 4-for-10 for 12 points with four assists and no turnovers. Miller went 2-for-5 and even Kalkbrenner tossed one in as all five starters connected from deep.
Bench Production
The Big East has been a grind for Creighton, with nearly every game coming down to the last few minutes. With such a slim margin for error, McDermott has opted to ride his key veterans with minimal, if any, rest.
Tuesday’s game provided the coaching staff a chance to get the reserves some extended playing time, and they made the most of it.
Redshirt freshman Jasen Green checked in at the under-12 timeout with Creighton up by one. Francisco Farabello joined him soon after, and Isaac Traudt checked in a few minutes later. With three subs on the floor, Creighton recorded three straight stops, part of a 13-0 run and a five-minute scoring drought for Georgetown that resulted in a 28-14 Creighton lead.
“Bello does a lot of good things, he’s really an unsung hero for this team,” McDermott said. “Jasen has taken advantage of the minutes that he’s gotten and he continues to make progress in practice … He had to really fight back from that [preseason injury] and that has been a hard journey for him. But to his credit, he’s put his head down, he’s worked hard, he’s stayed positive with himself and now that he’s getting an opportunity, he’s taking advantage of it.”
Redshirt freshman Jasen Green (0) attacks the basket against a Hoya defender, earning a trip to the foul line. Photo by Eric Francis
By the time Green sat down, he had played for seven straight minutes, during which Creighton was plus-9. He hustled on defense, grabbed a rebound and added a layup during that stint.
Green continued to make plays in the second half, and finished with seven points, two rebounds and an assist in a career-high 15 minutes in his third straight game since joining the rotation.
“I think it’s big,” Alexander said of Green’s contributions. “I think he plays very hard. He gives a different look at the four spot; he’s more of a hard-nosed defender. He’s able to get in there and rebound the ball offensively and defensively pretty well. So I’m glad that he was able to get a couple of buckets tonight and a couple offensive rebounds because I think he works pretty hard on both ends of the court and I think that he brings a different dynamic to this team when he comes into the game.”
Before practice on Monday, Green shared what he had learned from his playing time against Providence and Xavier.
“I’ve learned that every second I have on the court, I’ve just got to make it count because I don’t know if it’s going to be a couple minutes, it could be longer than that,” Green said. “I don’t know how long it’ll be so every second I’m on the court, I’ve got to make a difference whether it be rebounding, blocking, shots, boxing out; whatever it could possibly be, I’ve just got to do what I can.”
He certainly made a difference on Tuesday, and received extended playing time as a result.
Creighton’s bench as a whole outscored Georgetown’s 18-16 as Farabello knocked down a pair of 3s, then Josiah Dotzler and Fred King tossed in another five in garbage time.
