Outscored, outplayed and outdone, the Creighton men’s basketball team didn’t have an answer for the Marquette Golden Eagles from the onset, falling 86-62 at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wis. on Jan. 27.
When the first half was over, head coach Greg McDermott could describe it as nothing more than “embarrassing,” but before Marquette’s Nigel James Jr. began mercilessly driving into the paint, before Creighton missed all but two of their 17 shots from beyond the arc, and before the score reached an insurmountable deficit, the Bluejays looked like they might have a chance.
No stranger to the slow start, Creighton was scoreless for two minutes before getting on the board with a jumper from junior forward Jasen Green. But in games past, a slow shooting start was almost the norm and the Bluejays have generally been able to find sophomore guard Austin Swartz, senior guard Josh Dix, senior guard Nik Graves or Green to jumpstart the offense.
Unfortunately for the Bluejays, the exact opposite unfolded on Marquette’s home turf. Despite getting open looks, shooting woes started to emerge within the first five minutes of the game.
In that five minute stretch, Creighton missed four three pointers and five shots total. Had those shots met their mark, it would have found itself with a 17-8 lead. Instead, the Bluejays trailed by three,10-7, with 15 minutes left in the half.
“We had a lot of good looks and we didn’t make them. Especially early in that first five minutes, I thought we had a chance to be up 10 or 11 to nothing, potentially, with the shots that we got,” McDermott said. “But we missed them and then they got rolling and it was really difficult for us to stop [them].”
While open looks painted some of the picture of Creighton’s shooting problems in the first half (30.3% on 10-33 from the field in the first half), Marquette’s zone defense and active pressure flustered the Bluejay offense in a detrimental way.
“We didn’t do a good enough job getting a piece of the paint on the second side of the floor. Too much of our offense operated on the first side and some of the shots were open, some of the shots were relatively contested, and you don’t want to take those contested shots when you’re struggling to score,” McDermott said. “You want to try to find something easy, and we didn’t have much at the rim the first half. We had two free throws the entire half, which is indicative of our ability to try and get in the paint and make something happen.”
But instead of compensating for poor shooting by controlling Marquette’s offense with equally stifling defense, Creighton crumbled following missed shots.
“The frustration of missing some open looks bled into the defensive end] too much, frankly. [For] tough-minded teams, that doesn’t bother you. You have to dig deeper defensively when you’re not making shots,” McDermott said.
Creighton couldn’t find the gear McDermott talked about, allowing the Golden Eagles to find the lane and drive to the basket. At times, a double-team at the three-point line was not just unsuccessful, but burned the Bluejays in a big way. The Golden Eagles were so unbothered by Creighton’s defense that they outscored the visitors 34-8 in the paint in the first half.
All the Bluejays could do was watch as, time after time down the floor, Marquette exposed Creighton’s defense and found an open look. At times, it seemed that the Bluejays were truly just watching as Marquette dominated.
“The first half was embarrassing. One team had energy, one team had focus, and our team didn’t,” McDermott said.
The Golden Eagles would go on both a 9-0 run and later an 18-0 run, building variations of 30 point leads and shooting a combined 68.75% from the field and 55.56% from three.
The Bluejays trailed 52-23 to end the first half, shooting 30.30% from the field and just 11.76% from three (2-of-17). Creighton saw eight players open their scoring account in that time, but the most effective shooter — guard Fedor Zugic — paced the Bluejays with just five points.
McDermott said that the Bluejays’ performance improved slightly in the second half, that is considering the fact that they were trailing by 29. Creighton outscored Marquette 39-34, but never got closer than 15 points.
That 15-point deficit, down from 30 to begin the half, came with 3:36 remaining in the game and a score of 73-58 showing on the scoreboard. It was Swartz who put the Bluejays in that position with a triple.
Swartz ended the game with a team-high 17 points, but his three to put Creighton within 15 at the end of the game was just one of his three total made triples. The sharpshooting guard shot just 6-of-14 from the field in 26 minutes on the floor.
Sophomore guard Blake Harper was the only other Creighton player who ended the night in double-figures, slightly igniting a stagnant offense with 15 points and just one miss in 22 minutes. Of the eight shots he took, Harper sank six straight.
But at the end of the day, an improved 51.6% shooting in the second half couldn’t help the Bluejays overcome such a large first half gap.
Marquette slowed down offensively in the second 20 minutes but still shot 44.4% from the field. They also went from 55% shooting from three in the first half to just 25%, but at that point, it didn’t matter.
The game was in Marquette’s hands before the second half even began. Not to mention, improved shooting is cancelled out when a team commits 14 turnovers, and three of those are stolen by the same player: Nigel James Jr..
“[James Jr. is] incredibly strong … he’s shifty and he plays with great bounce when he gets in the paint. He sets his feet on a dime going full speed and then he gets into the fakes and everything he’s got to go with that,” McDermott said. “And he’s got great anticipation skills defensively. When you float a pass or make a little mistake, he’s ready to jump on it.”
James Jr. was a force to be reckoned with all night, the three steals just a welcome addition to his 21 points, five rebounds and seven assists. Creighton had zero answers for the guard and the guard took advantage.
But the woes didn’t end there for the Bluejays. Adding to their 14 turnovers, which resulted in 17 points for Marquette, Creighton was outscored in the paint 52-24.
Adding insult to injury, Creighton’s generally consistent shooters couldn’t find their rhythm. Swartz went 6-of-14 from the field and senior guard Josh Dix managed just 2-of-12 from the field and 0-of-9 from three.
By the end of 40 minutes, the Bluejays were outplayed from start to finish and suffered a 24 point loss, their worst loss since the 27-point defeat at Gonzaga on Nov. 11.
“Obviously, we were disappointed in our effort, disappointed in our execution. Like I said, it was embarrassing. That’s not the standard we’ve held in our program for a long time,” McDermott said.
If Marquette, now seated in second-to-last place in the conference, was a tall task for the Bluejays, the UConn Huskies, who are visiting Omaha on Jan. 31 for the annual Pink Out game, will be a mountain to climb.
Running with a 16-game win streak coming into the matchup, the Huskies present a very real danger to Creighton’s 9-3 record against the No.1 team in the conference. More than ever, the 12-9 Bluejays have no room for error.
It will remain to be seen if the Bluejays can come out ready for battle. Tipoff set for 7 p.m.