Any flame that burned bright from Creighton men’s basketball’s 91-84 victory over No. 5 UConn was doused quickly by a Red Storm three days later, as No. 17 St. John’s dominated the Bluejays 81-52 to end a week-long road trip.
Shooting struggles and an overpowered defense returned in full force for Creighton at Madison Square Garden on Feb. 21, as an airtight St. John’s defense smothered the Bluejay offense and, on the other end, the Red Storm shot 46% from the field to defeat the visitors.
St. John’s command over the basketball court began early, commencing with a less-than-two-minute 8-0 run in the opening minutes.
“Their defensive versatility makes them very challenging for us with the particular roster we have at this time. Having said that, the start of the game, obviously, the last thing you want to do on the road is go down eight [to] nothing like that,” McDermott said
Meanwhile, the Bluejays did not score until 17:36 showed on the clock. Picking up the first points on the Creighton side was senior guard Josh Dix, whose jumper slowed the bleeding for a moment.
The Bluejays’ problems from the field weren’t contained to the minutes before Dix’s jump shot. In fact, Creighton went scoreless again for just under two minutes before the senior guard scored a layup in the paint again to give Creighton just its second bucket in the game.
From there, a deficit ranging between eight and 10 defined most of the remaining minutes before halftime, with the exception of the eight-and-a-half and seven-and-a-half minute marks, when Creighton managed to get to six.
These bursts were gone before they could be sustained, however, and the Red Storm delivered a killer blow at the end of the first 20 minutes, piling up an 8-0 run to end the half.
At the break, the Bluejays trailed 42-27, leaving themselves with 20 minutes to play catch-up after never finding their footing in the first half. Junior guard Fedor Zugic led the Bluejay roster with nine points. Collectively, Creighton shot just 37.04% from the field and 30% from the 3-point line.
Meanwhile, St. John’s shot 51.72% from the field to make up for 16.67% from the 3-point line for a first-half offensive performance dominant in the paint and spearheaded by Zuby Ejiofor. The Red Storm center led his team at the break with 13 points and two blocked shots.
When play began again in the second half, the Bluejays began on a high note, scoring the first five points thanks to a layup from Dix and a triple from senior guard Nik Graves to lessen the gap to 10, 42-32.
St. John’s countered with a 2-pointer of their own before Creighton narrowed the deficit to 10 once again a minute later, at 44-34, but from that point on, the Bluejay offense went completely silent.
“Had we cut it to four or five, maybe they get a little tight, and it’s a different outcome, but once they took it from 10 to 18 or 19, we had no answer,” McDermott said.
The Bluejays were completely lifeless for eight minutes in the second half, with the exception of free throws. It wasn’t until 7:43 remained on the clock that Dix’s layup broke the sustained drought, but by that time, Creighton found itself down 69-40 with zero answers and not nearly enough time for damage control, losing 81-52.
Fronting the Red Storm offense was Ron Darling, whose 17 points, four rebounds and five assists in 28 minutes on the floor helped give St. Jon’s the advantage.
“I think Darling’s changed their team in a lot of ways the last six weeks,” McDermott said. “In preparing for these games and watching film, in a lot of close games, he’s making huge plays on both ends of the floor.”
Ejiofor also punished the Bluejays. Though Creighton did limit the center to just six field goal attempts, Ejiofor ended the game with 15 points and a 7-of-8 stat line from the charity stripe.
Even without the ball, though, McDermott felt that Ejiofor’s presence gave players like Oziyah Sellers (10 points), Bryce Hopkins (10 rebounds) and Dillon Mitchell (10 rebounds) more space on the floor, given the amount of effort it takes to keep the big man contained.
“We limited at least the amount of shots he [Ejiofor] took today, but he’s so hard to keep off the offensive glass, and he demands so much attention that he creates things for other people because of that,” McDermott said.
St. John’s ended the game with a 44-30 advantage on the glass and 40-20 edge in points in the paint. While four Red Storm players reached double figures, Creighton’s leading scorer at halftime — Fedor Zugic with nine points — never added to his total, and no Bluejay surpassed him over the final 20 minutes.
Dix had eight points on 4-of-11 from the field and 0-of-4 from the 3-point line, while Harper scored seven points. Junior forward Jasen Green was completely suffocated, managing just two points, though the Omaha native did pick up seven rebounds.
As a team, Creighton shot 41.18% in the second half from the field and 16.67% from the 3-point line, making just six 3s the entire game.
In a game of runs and droughts, the Red Storm made the Bluejays bleed in all of them, turning two 8-0 runs sandwiching the first half and a nearly nine-minute scoring drought into a 29-point victory over Creighton.
In a week that began with a statement win and ended in a humbling loss, the Bluejays now return to Omaha searching for critical victories. If Creighton hopes to keep the bye game when the Big East Tournament rolls around, defeating DePaul this evening is critical. They take on the Blue Demons tonight at CHI at 8 p.m.