Creighton kicked off the college basketball season with the third annual Bluejay Madness event. Fans packed D.J. Sokol Arena to get their first glimpse of the 2012-13 Creighton men’s and women’s basketball teams and were treated to a show as the athletes put competed in a 3-point shoot-out, a dunk contest and scrimmages by both teams.

The night began with player interviews for both teams. Omaha native and senior guard Josh Jones got an especially loud ovation when his name was called, but the house went crazy when All-American junior forward Doug McDermott ran out sporting the goggles of teammate senior center Gregory Echenique. The introductions would set the tone for the entire night, as the packed house kept the noise going throughout.

The first event was a team 3-point shooting contest. Eight teams consisting of one player each form the men’s and women’s teams took part, with four teams advancing to the semifinals and two teams battling it out for the title in the final round.

Defending champions senior guard Grant Gibbs and junior guard Jordan Garrison failed to make it out of the first round, but freshman guard Isaiah Zierden was impressive in his first action in front of the Bluejay fans, making 10 3-pointers in the first round.

Zierden and his partner sophomore guard Sammy Jensen and McDermott and senior guard Ally Jensen posted the top scores in each of the first two rounds to advance to the finals.

The Jensen sisters went head-to-head to start and Ally came out on top with nine makes to Sammy’s eight, but Zierden out-shot McDermott 10-8 to make the final tally 18-17 in favor of the underclassmen.

Zierden is no stranger to 3-point contests as he placed second in the national high school 3-point shootout last year, where a buzzer-beating shot by his opponent ended his run. But Zierden (who made 29 3s over the course of three rounds) wasn’t the only reason for the win, as Sammy has a deadly stroke in her own right.

“I had a great partner,” Zierden said. “I couldn’t have done it without her.”

Following the 3-point contest, the women’s team took the court for a short scrimmage. Junior guard Jordan Garrison led her white squad to a 16-12 victory with five points. The 5-5 guard also chipped in three rebounds. Both figures tied her unofficially for the lead in each category.

Freshman point guard Marissa Janning made her debut in front of the Creighon fans and played well in limited minutes, hitting a 3-pointer and finding a teammate near the basket for an assist.

“She’s a great newcomer for us,” Sammy Jensen said about Janning. “She’s the Minnesota Player of the Year. She’s really good with the ball, really good off the ball, defense, so she does everything.”

Next up, the high-flyers took the court for the dunk contest. All four contestants put up highlight reel dunks on their first attempts in the first round.

Freshman walk-on forward Mogboluwaga “Mo” Oginni started things off with a bang by launching himself over a seated team manager and finishing with a powerful jam.

Sophomore center Will Artino went next. Junior guard Jahenns Manigat stepped in to play set-up man for his teammate and laid it up off the side of the backboard for the trailing Artino, who finished the pass with a 360 dunk.

“I hadn’t got it until last night after practice,” Artino said about the dunk, “and then Mo got his first one and I was like, ‘J, I’m going to go for it.’ Then he said ‘Just do it, you can make it.’ I was like ‘I’m going for it,’ and it worked out.”

Artino was a tough act to follow, but freshman guard Nevin Johnson went with an athletic reverse clutch two-hand finish for his first round dunk.

Defending champion sophomore forward Austin Chatman went last and came out looking to repeat. The diminutive point guard tossed himself a bounce alley-oop, went up to get the ball and finished on the far side of the rim.

Oginni and Johnson missed their planned dunks and had to settle for something more simple in the second round, but Artino and Chatman continued to put on a show. Artino pulled off a complex dunk where he tossed it off the backboard to Manigat, who headed it back to Artino for the slam. Chatman replicated a dunk he used last year, again using the bounce alley-oop and finishing with a right-handed windmill flush.

The vote was put to the crowd, but it was too close to call between Artino and Chatman. Manigat called for one more dunk for each of the two finalists to determine the winner.

Artino consulted with Manigat before his final dunk and again had the Canadian guard set him up.

“I had four different ones planned,” Artino said, “but I had no idea what to do and [Manigat] was like, ‘Just follow me. I’m going to go and throw it up and you’re just going to dunk it. I got you.'”

That’s precisely what he did as Manigat tossed it off the glass and Artino finished with a reverse slam.

Chatman attempted a between the legs dunk that likely would have won him the contest, but he couldn’t find the handle and time ran out without him getting it down, making Artino the champion by default.

A 16-minute scrimmage by the men closed out the evening. Senior center Gregory Echenique dominated inside and led his White team to the 31-23 victory over the blue. Echenique had between 12 and 15 points in the game (not quite sure, the scoring was a bit tricky), including three dunks.

“You can throw it anywhere and he’ll go get it,” Zierden said about feeding Echenique in the post. “That’s what you’ve got to love about Greg. He’s just a big body in there.”

Zierden came in and immediately hit a 3-pointer, then dished to a big man in the pick-and-roll for a nice assist. Obviously the shooting is his greatest asset, but Zierden can also run the pick-and-roll, something he said he is comfortable with and something that will help him in the back-up point guard competition.

On the other team, McDermott struggled, missing six of his seven shot attempts. However, two freshmen picked up the slack and kept the blue team from getting completely blown out.

Johnson, coming off a redshirt season, scored a team-high eight points, including a couple put-backs and a pull-up jumper off the dribble.

True freshman point guard Andre Yates also played well finishing with seven points and a couple of assists. The highlight of the entire scrimmage came late in the game when Yates attacked the basket and seemingly hung in the air forever before releasing the ball right before hitting the ground and kissing it off the glass for two.

Although there were a few highlights, the scrimmage itself wasn’t played at a particularly high level.

“Everybody’s still rusty,” Artino said. “The offense is nowhere near set. It was pretty ugly.”

Both teams have about two weeks to work off the rust before taking the court again. The women’s team plays its exhibition against Southwest Missouri State University at Sokol Arena on OCt. 31, then opens the season by hosting Oklahoma University on Nov. 10. The men’s squad welcomes the University of Mary to Omaha for an exhibition on Nov. 2 before taking on the University of North Texas in the season opener on Nov. 9 at the CenturyLink Center.