After a big step forward at Villanova, Creighton men’s basketball took another step back on Saturday as St. John’s handed the Bluejays a 90-73 loss at CHI Health Center Omaha.
The Bluejays fell to 10-7 overall and 4-2 in Big East play, dropping from second place in the league standings to fifth.
“We look like a team that’s played three games in six days,” Coach Greg McDermott said. “I just didn’t think we had a lot of energy. I think we survived early on some made jump shots, but I didn’t think our pace was great. And then defensively, we just didn’t have a lot of teeth.”
St. John’s shot 50.8% from the field including 52.2% from 3 with six players finishing in double figures. Creighton only had two crack the 10-point mark with Isaac Traudt and Blake Harper.
Here are three takeaways from the loss.
Wheels Fell Off the Bluejay Bus
Creighton knew it had a battle on its hands heading into Saturday’s game. St. John’s hasn’t quite lived up to preseason expectations, but the roster is still plenty talented with some difficult matchups for the Jays.
Early on, Creighton was in the fight. The Jays shook off a slow start to catch fire, hitting six 3s to take a 23-18 lead 10 minutes in. It didn’t last.
The Bluejays missed seven of their next eight shots and turned it over four times during that stretch as St. John’s hit Creighton with an extended 25-4 run to turn that five-point deficit into a 16-point lead.
“We weren’t able to get stops,” Nik Graves said. “They were scoring. I don’t exactly remember what happened after that five-point lead, but I’m sure it involves some kind of turnovers or some missed shots in there. I know we didn’t end the half the way we wanted to. Just a couple possessions didn’t go our way, and they were able to get out in transition a little bit. They hit some 3s that were that were killers, so that kind of five-point lead evaporated.”
Creighton finally broke out of its slump, hitting three straight shots late in the half (a Fedor Žugić 3, a Graves pull-up and a Jasen Green layup), but the Red Storm answered after each bucket to keep the lead where it was, then Creighton didn’t score in the last 80 seconds as St. John’s tacked on a free throw and a layup to push the lead to 18 at the half, 52-34.
That 23-18 start saw Creighton shoot 6-for-10 from 3 and 2-for-3 from the mid-range, scoring all their points on jumpers. St. John’s outscored Creighton 34-11 the rest of the half, getting whatever it wanted offensively while the jumpers stopped falling on the other end. The Bluejays shot 2-for-7 on 3s, 1-for-4 on mid-range jumpers and 1-for-4 on layups over the final 10 minutes of the half.
“We need to take a look at the film,” McDermott said. “The first 10, 12, minutes of the game were fine. Obviously the 7-0 start wasn’t great, but I thought we responded to that OK. The end of the first half, that last seven or eight minutes was the game. The second half, I think, was back and forth for the most part. But games can flip on you in a hurry. We have to evaluate did they just make plays, or did we make mistakes? And I think some of those mistakes are correctable.”
The lead swelled as high as 27 in the second half before Creighton cut back into it (despite Rick Pitino playing his starting frontcourt deep into the game), but the game was already over at that point. As McDermott said, the last 10 minutes of the first half decided it — and Creighton has to find a way to avoid those prolonged droughts where things begin to snowball. This is the second time in the past three games it’s happened, and with the losses the Jays have already accumulated, they can’t afford for that to become a trend.
Picked the Wrong Poison
St. John’s is a tough matchup for Creighton. The Red Storm has a big, physical frontline that attacks the offensive glass relentlessly and athletic guards that will really get up and pressure ball-handlers in the full and half court. Limiting turnovers and offensive rebounds were two of the top priorities on the scouting report.
All things considered, Creighton did enough to survive in those areas. The Bluejays turned it over nine times, leading to 12 Red Storm points. Creighton surrendered 12 offensive rebounds on 36 misses, a 33.3% offensive rebounding rate. St. John’s entered Saturday grabbing 38% of its misses (23rd in the country), and the Red Storm only converted them into 10 second-chance points.
The Jays probably did enough in those areas to give themselves a chance, had they won in other areas.
McDermott called Zuby Ejiofor one of his favorite players in the Big East prior to the game, and the Creighton game plan showed plenty of respect for the preseason Big East Player of the Year. The Bluejays ran double-teams at him whenever he caught the ball anywhere near the basket. It worked to a certain extent — he finished with 12 points (four below his season average), including three in the final three minutes playing against Creighton’s backups.
However, Ejiofor also finished with six assists (one off his career high) and only one turnover, making the right play out of the double team time after time.
“The game plan early when [Dillon] Mitchell was in the game was a little bit different, and then we adjusted, or attempted to adjust,” McDermott said. “We ran with some double teams at Bryce [Hopkins] and at Zuby on the block and got burned on the backside on 3-point shots. You have to kind of pick your poison, and my feeling was we couldn’t have Jasen Green in foul trouble, so we had to run some help, especially in the first half. And to their credit, they made us pay for it.”
Creighton also contained second-leading St. John’s scorer Bryce Hopkins, who finished with 12 points, including five in the last five minutes and change against Creighton’s reserves. However, the Red Storm beat the Bluejays at their own game, shooting 12-for-23 from deep. Sophomore Lefteris Liotopoulos led the way with a career-high five triples, while Dylan Darling, Oziyah Sellers and Ian Jackson each hit two, taking advantage of Creighton’s focus on the interior to get into a rhythm.
“When St. John’s shoots the basketball like that, they are a tough team to beat,” McDermott said. “They’re so physical inside around the rim, that that takes up a lot of your scouting report. I thought that Lefty and Darling coming off the bench, they were the difference in the game. They make seven out of 12 3-point shots and when you’re trying to plug the lane a little bit to provide a little help on Hopkins and Zuby, that’s a killer when that happens.”
Home, Sweet Home
Isaac Traudt has been a big part of Creighton’s turnaround since entering the starting lineup. He averaged 13.8 points and shot 38.5% from 3 in his first five games after the lineup change, sinking 15 triples during that stretch.
Unfortunately for the Bluejays, the Grand Island native couldn’t keep it rolling during the Jays’ two-game road trip, misfiring on all nine of his attempts, including seven in the loss at Seton Hall.
“Obviously, I haven’t shot the ball great as of late,” Traudt said before practice on Thursday. “I don’t really panic when that happens, because the law of large numbers, it usually reverts back to the mean at some point. It’s hard to get discouraged when everyone believes in me, especially the coaches and the staff.”
Traudt wasted no time on Saturday breaking out of his slump, hitting his first two 3s before the first media timeout. He was aggressive hunting for his shot against the Red Storm and finished 4-for-7 from deep in the game, adding a pair of free throws for a team-high 14 points in 19 minutes.
“I was just happy to see him make a few,” McDermott said. “He had a tough road trip, obviously, and he’s stuck with it, and his teammates have amazing belief in him because of the work that he puts in and the preparation that goes into every game for him. So it was good to see him make some shots, and I’m confident that that’ll continue moving forward.”
Perhaps a big part of Traudt’s performance was the fact that he was back in the friendly confines of the CHI Health Center. Players usually shoot better at home, but Traudt’s career splits in that regard are extreme.
In home games, he’s shot 45.3% from 3 (73-for-161). On the road, he’s at 21% (13-for-62). He splits the difference in neutral-site games, shooting 38.5% (10-for-26).
With Jackson McAndrew out for the season, Traudt has become an integral piece for Creighton with his frontcourt floor-spacing. To take the next step as a player, he’ll need to find a way to knock down shots on the road, not just at home.
