It wasn’t the typical high-scoring affair that fans have come to expect from the Creighton Bluejays, but the Jays secured a big win nonetheless against the California Golden Bears behind their best defensive effort of the season.
“I’m very proud of my team because we kind of won a game that was more of a defensive struggled than an up-and-down affair,” head coach Greg McDermott said.
The 68-54 win pushes Creighton to 9-2 on the season with one game left of the nonconference schedule, while California fell to 8-4. It’s a good win against a quality Pac-12 team that will help the Jays come March.
“It’s a huge win. I think Cal is going to win a lot of games in the Pac-12. They’re an NCAA Tournament type team. Just a huge opportunity for us and we knew that coming into it. We didn’t shoot the ball particularly well, but I thought we really locked down and defended.”
Both teams were ice cold to start the game, as junior forward Doug McDermott went 0-2 inside the arc and the rest of the team combined to go 2-7 from beyond it in the first seven minutes. During that same stretch, the Golden Bears got only one basket themselves to fall behind 6-2.
However, junior guard Devin Brooks checked in and jumpstarted the Jays’ offense with an electric spin-move for a lay-up, a maneuver Brooks has shown a liking for early in his Creighton career.
Junior center Will Artino checked in to give him some help off the bench, and immediately scored on a nice feed by Brooks. The two combined for eight points, seven rebounds and three assists in the game.
The All-American McDermott didn’t score his first points until just before the 10-minute mark, but even so the Jays managed to build a nine-point lead early in the game by holding the Golden Bears to just six points over the first ten-and-a-half minutes.
California used a 12-5 run over the next five minutes to cut the lead to just two points, but the Jays responded as McDermott finally got himself going. Creighton scored 10 of the last 11 points of the half, eight of those by McDermott on a variety of shots.
McDermott struggled early, going just 1-7 to begin the game, yet he still posted game-highs in points and rebounds with 20 and 11.
Creighton went to the locker room up 30-19 at the break. It took 24 shots for the Golden Bears to get to 19 points, they took just two free throws and turned the ball over seven times.
“[Doug McDermott] had a little bit more patience [offensively] and we made some hustle plays,” Greg McDermott said. “We got some second opportunities on the offensive glass, we had two offensive rebounds on the last play of the half. Great hustle play by Ethan [Wragge] and then Doug stayed with the play. The guys competed, they moved better, the ball moved better, but it all started at the other end with stops. To hold a team like Cal to 19 points in a half is a pretty solid defensive effort.”
Creighton carried over the momentum it picked up late in the first half and stretched its lead to 20 near the halfway mark. With a big lead, the Jays let up a little bit and allowed California to pull within 14 on a few occasions but came no closer as Creighton closed out the 68-54 win.
Junior point guard Austin Chatman finished with 10 points, five rebounds and three assists, while senior guard Grant Gibbs pitched in 10 points, six rebounds and three assists.
The keys to the win were shutting down Cal big man Richard Solomon, who was averaging a double-double coming into the game, and winning the rebounding battle (California dominated the glass in the teams’ meeting a year ago).
The Jays game plan was to double Solomon on the block every time he touched it, and they executed it well. Solomon finished with just six points on 2-3 shooting, with six rebounds and three turnovers.
“Defensively, our ability to take Solomon out of the game with the double-teams and not get hurt by that, I think was huge,” Greg McDermott said. “When you execute that to start the game I think it creates some tentativeness on his part. We thought keeping him from scoring and keeping him off the boards was huge … To win the battle on the boards after a year ago – I think they had 19 offensive rebounds to our six and outrebounded us by 14 at their place – to turn the tables and outrebound them by eight here was an emphasis all week, so it was good to see our guys execute that.”
Guard Justin Cobbs – who had 18 points and seven assists in last year’s meeting – finished with 13 points and four assists. Guard Tyrone Wallace had 12 and forward David Kravish scored 11. However, the trio of Golden Bears needed 32 shots to get their 36 points, and California as a team scored 54 points on 55 shots.
This was Creighton’s last game before taking a break for Christmas. The Jays will return to the court on Sunday against Chicago State to close out nonconference play.
“It feels good … It’s important to get that win right before the break,” Grant Gibbs said. “It just makes Christmas a little bit better.”