Creighton men’s basketball returned to CHI Health Center Omaha on Tuesday and put on a show for the fans, lighting it up from the perimeter en route to a 96-76 victory over Nicholls.
Eight Bluejays finished between eight and 14 points with Owen Freeman, Jasen Green and Josh Dix leading the way.
Here are three takeaways from the win as Creighton improves to 5-3 ahead of Sunday’s visit to Nebraska (8-0).
Regression Hits Hard
Greg McDermott built his roster with the idea that 3-point shooting would be one of the team’s greatest strengths. That hasn’t been the case this season as the Bluejays entered Tuesday’s game 273rd in the country in 3-point percentage at 30.1% despite sporting a top-70 3-point rate.
Creighton looked more like the team McDermott thought he’d have on Tuesday, despite two of the team’s better shooters in Jackson McAndrew and Hudson Greer stuck on the bench in street clothes.
Creighton matched its season-high for made 3s (11) less than five minutes into the second half and kept bombing away from there to finish 17-for-34. The Jays shot 10-for-17 from deep in the first half alone.
“This team’s been working really, really hard since the summer,” Nik Graves said. “We knew at the end of the day, we can’t keep missing. Everyone works tremendously hard and the goal has always been to make shots. No one misses shots on purpose. So just keep working hard at it; we can’t just stop here. We’ve got to keep working.”
Graves went 3-for-4 from deep himself, surpassing 1,000 career points in the process and finishing with 11 points and seven assists. Six of those assists led to 3-pointers.
“I think our point guards, especially Nik, did a really good job pushing the ball in transition, which opened up a lot of shots,” Fedor Žugić said. “I think we were really good at choosing shots. I think we had a lot of good shots, and as Nik said, we are shooting team, and the percentages are going to work themselves out eventually. That’s what happened tonight.”
Seven different players hit a three, with six of them hitting multiple. Creighton dished out 24 assists on its 36 made field goals, shooting 61% from the field.
“That’s Creighton offense,” Žugić said. “That’s what we strive to do every single game: share the ball, be unselfish, take good shots, pass up a good shot for a better shot. We’ve just got to keep pushing the ball and finding open guys.”
Tuesday was the continued regression to the mean for a Creighton team shooting well below its capabilities. The Jays went 33-for-122 in its first four games, just 27%. In the three-game Players Era Men’s Championship, that percentage climbed to 35.1% as the team went 26-for-74, shooting better than 35% in its first two before cooling off in its lone win, ironically. Tuesday’s game boosted Creighton’s percentage nearly three full points, to 33.%.
Next Men Up
Creighton’s poor injury luck continues as Greer, the freshman wing who was a bright spot in the two Vegas losses, joined Josh Townley-Thomas and Jackson McAndrew on the injured list. He had a walking boot on his left foot Tuesday.
“He’s got a problem with his foot, and the scans are showing that he probably needs a little time to let things settle down,” McDermott said. “How much time, that’s yet to be determined, but obviously unfortunate. He was going to play a big role, as we knew when we decided to pull that red shirt off.”
The rotation has been in constant flux for Creighton this season, with Greer’s injury adding another variable. However, both Žugić and sophomore Austin Swartz stepped up and filled the void against Nicholls.
Both had gotten off to slow starts this season, with Žugić shooting 31.6% and Swartz at 18.8%. Together, the perimeter duo had shot 4-for-25 from 3.
Žugić was one of Creighton’s first subs, logging a season-high 17 minutes while scoring eight points on 3-of-5 shooting, including 2-of-4 from deep. Swartz led Creighton’s bench attack with 11 points in 13 minutes, shooting 3-of-8 from deep while also dropping in a high-arcing floater to beat the shot clock. He also had two assists and a highlight-reel block, flying in from the weak side to erase a layup attempt.
Isaac Traudt added nine points on 3-of-4 from deep, two assists and a block in 23 minutes off the bench.
“When Hudson goes down, that’s going to create opportunities for somebody else, and Fedor and Austin were the beneficiaries of that,” McDermott said. “Isaac played more minutes and he’s been playing. So those are the three guys that are going to see a little bit more time.”
Tuesday was a big confidence-booster for Creighton’s back-up wings, though McDermott said improvement is needed on the defensive end of the floor if the duo hopes to continue playing a significant role.
“I think Fedor and Austin both have a lot of talent offensively,” McDermott said. “We just need them to continue to grow defensively — understanding our system, what we do, why we do it, how to execute a game plan. Those are things that, frankly, it’s the reason Josh Dix hardly comes off the floor because he’s dependable defensively in a lot of different ways … Josh has been a rock for us on the defensive end.”
Exclamation Point
Despite the flurry of 3s and the lopsided score, the highlight of Tuesday’s win didn’t come until the final 30 seconds. With the clock winding down, Ty Davis fired up a 3 that bounced off the back of the rim — right into the hands of Liam McChesney, the seventh-year junior forward who flew in and slammed the miss back through the basket for Creighton’s final points.
“That dunk was Liam’s first point since March 2, 2023,” McDermott said. “We get into ourselves about things that aren’t going well in our life and upset that we’re not playing as much as we think we should play or getting as many shots or disappointed that coach is up my rear end for not playing defense. Those things aren’t hard. The journey that Liam’s been on is hard, and I couldn’t be more proud of him.
“It has been very difficult, and to see him out there and that ball come off the rim just right and let him go up and ram it home was pretty special. The game pales in comparison to how that had to feel for him given the journey that he’s been on.”
McChesney transferred from Illinois State to High Point in 2023, but he never played a game for the Panthers. A medical checkup caught a heart issue, one that led to open heart surgery and two full seasons on the sideline. He followed former High Point head coach Alan Huss to Creighton and scored his first points as a Bluejay with the emphatic slam.
“Oh, man, it’s awesome,” Žugić said. “As Coach said, he went through some really hard things. As his first neighbor here, we’re door to door, I just hang out with him a lot and see what he’s going through. It’s hard for him, and he fought his way back here, so a lot of respect for him because 95% people will give up, but he’s still here, and he shows up every day, so that’s awesome. We have a lot of respect for him.”
