It might have been a tale of two halves for the Creighton men’s basketball team against Nebraska, but it all resulted in a happy ending.
The Bluejays held off Nebraska to win 74-62 last Saturday at the Qwest Center in front of 17,049 fans for their eighth win in the last 11 match-ups between the state’s only two Division I teams.
After a sluggish start from both squads, the Jays opened up a 27-point lead by halftime, and though Nebraska might have scared the crowd by clawing their way back into the game, it never got closer than nine points as Creighton moved to 3-0 on the season.
“We knew nerves were going to be high with the rivalry game and the packed house,” senior guard Nick Bahe said. “We wanted to channel that energy in the right way, and I think we did. We did it on the defensive end, which led to some easy baskets and that got us into a flow.”
Creighton led only 6-4 six minutes into the game before back-to-back three pointers by Dane Watts and Booker Woodfox started a 41-16 run to end the half.
The Jays shot 64 percent from behind the 3-point line, including six straight 3-pointers and 57 percent overall in the first half. They led 47-20 after scoring the second most points in a half in Qwest Center history.
Even with the hot shooting, however, the Jays used their defense to build the early lead. Nebraska seemed to have trouble with Creighton’s full-court pressure.
“We’ve got a lot of guys who can shoot the ball,” head coach Dana Altman said. “Our seniors came out and really shot the ball early. I thought we did a great job of making plays for each other, and defensively I liked our energy. I thought we were really aggressive.
“We backed it off just a little that second half and Nebraska took advantage of it.”
After the Jays forced Nebraska into 17 first half turnovers and held them to 33 percent shooting, the Cornhuskers came out firing. They shot 48 percent in the second half and took advantage of 11 Creighton turnovers.
Nebraska guard Cookie Miller had 11 second half points while teammate Steve Harley had 14 to fuel the comeback.
The lead was down to 66-55 before sophomore Cavel Witter used his quickness and scored four points in 15 seconds. He made a basket, stole the ball on the next play and took it all the way to the hoop for the lay-up. Witter tied Watts for the team lead with 14 points.
“Cavel’s quickness is really good,” Altman said. “He’s exciting. He really shoots the ball well and his basketball savvy is pretty good. I think he’s got a lot of upside.”
“There is a lot of energy I try to bring to help this team,” Witter said. “We are all talented players so anything I can do to help the team is a positive. I just wanted to make plays with my teammates.”
Creighton’s biggest accomplishment in the game might have been holding Aleks Maric, Nebraska’s preseason all-Big 12 center, to only nine points.
Watts, Chad Millard and Kenny Lawson were given the assignment of stopping Maric, who had three baskets to go along with three free-throws.
“We really tried to have our guards put more pressure on their guards so they couldn’t make easy passes,” Watts said. “He’s a big boy down there and they like to just toss it up to him so he can just turn and score. We doubled down on him a few times and our guards did a good job of pressing the ball.”
The play that may have signaled the end of the game came with 1:32 left. After a basket by Nebraska’s Steve Harley, Creighton inbounded the ball to freshman guard P’Allen Stinnett. He brought the ball across the half-court line and exploded to the hoop. He finished with a crowd-pleasing dunk over Huskers seven-footer Shang Ping.
Creighton played Savannah State at home on Thursday, but results were unavailable by press time. They will hit the road for the first time this season as they travel to Philadelphia, Pa. to play Drexel on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. and Cincinnati, Ohio to face Xavier on Wednesday at 7 p.m.