On Thursday the Creighton men’s basketball team closed out its non-conference schedule with an impressive win against the Northwestern University Wildcats.

After the team’s last win head coach Greg McDermott called on the fans to show up in force and to be “participants rather than spectators.” Jays fans responded as 17,676 packed the CenturyLink Center, the second largest crowd in arena history.

“It was awesome. When you take a job, you envision what happened tonight,” McDermott said. “The crowd impacted the game.”

The game went back and forth in the early going. The Bluejays looked inside early and often as sophomore forward Doug McDermott scored nine points and junior center Gregory Echenique put in eight of his own in the first eight minutes of the game.

“We had a couple set plays to get the ball inside, into Gregory,” Doug McDermott said.

Doug McDermott picked up his second personal foul on a moving screen and had to take a seat with 12:18 remaining in the first half. With Doug McDermott on the bench Northwestern took control behind the hot shooting of guard Drew Crawford, who scored 13 of his 19 first half points after McDermott’s second foul. Creighton tried putting a few different defenders on Crawford, but it didn’t matter as the Wildcat hit nine of his 11 first half field goal attempts.

Greg McDermott didn’t give serious consideration to putting his son back into the game during Northwestern’s run.

“If we could be close, and as long as we could hang around, I was going to leave him [on the bench],” Greg McDermott said.

Close is exactly where the Jays stayed. Northwestern’s lead grew as high as eight points, but Creighton fought back and managed to take a one-point lead at halftime.

Northwestern came out strong to start the second half and held a lead for the majority of the first five minutes. Then Creighton began working the ball inside to a fresh Doug McDermott who made up for lost time. He and sophomore guard Jahenns Manigat combined to score the next 22 points for the Jays.

Northwestern managed to tie the game at 58 with 7:29 remaining, but Creighton responded with a 3-pointer by Jahenns Manigat followed by a four-point play by sophomore forward Ethan Wragge.  Northwestern head coach Bill Carmody said those two plays turned the tide of the game in Creighton’s favor, which proved true as the Jays never trailed after that point. Creighton went on to win by the final score of 87-79.

The Bluejays again showed the unselfishness that has come to define the team, finishing the game with 26 team assists on 30 made field goals.

“The numbers speak for themselves,” Greg McDermott said. “I really believe we’re turning down good shots to get great shots.”

Northwestern’s coach was also impressed with Creighton’s ball movement.

“They’re a very good passing team,” Carmody said.

The key component in the team’s high assist numbers has been junior guard Grant Gibbs, who bested his previous career high of 10 and set an arena record with 12 assists in the game. But Gibbs gave all the credit to his teammates.

“I don’t feel like I’m doing anything special,” Gibbs said. “[My teammates] are just hitting some shots.”

Despite only playing eight minutes in the first half, Doug McDermott lead the way for the Jays with 27 points to go with his five rebounds and a season-high five assists. With his 27 points, McDermott moved into a tie with Weber State University’s Damian Lillard for first in the nation in points per game. Both players boast an average of 25.3 points per game.

Senior point guard Antoine Young, who was honored before the game for becoming the 35th player in Creighton history to surpass 1.000 career points, recorded 13 points and seven assists.

Manigat chipped in 11 points and four rebounds, while Echenique recorded 11 points and eight rebounds. Wragge rounded out Creighton’s double-figure scorers with 10 points and four rebounds off the bench.

The Jays finished the non-conference schedule with a 10-1 record and are beating their opponents by an average 17 points per game.

“[We are] really satisfied with our non-conference play,” Doug McDermott said.  “It’s going to give us a lot of confidence heading into [Missouri Valley Conference] play.”

The Jays kick off their conference slate with a home game against the Missouri Valley’s defending champions, the Missouri State University Bears. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. on Wednesday.