The Creighton men’s basketball split the results on its first road trip of Big East play, watching a seemingly in-hand victory slip away to Seton Hall on Jan. 4  and then gifting Villanova with its first home loss of the season just three days later.

In and of themselves, the way that the games each played out was nowhere near indicative of the final result. 

Creighton led by as many as 16 in the second half, outrebounded the Pirates 41-34 and led the game for all but three minutes while visiting Newark, NJ., giving the impression of a well-fought and much-needed victory. But when all was said and done, they lost 56-54.

 A completely different story was told in Villanova, Pa. Creighton trailed the entire first half, shooting 35.5% from the field and 26.7% from three. Their losing margin remained through three and a half minutes in the second half, before a triple from senior guard Josh Dix tied the game for the first time. The Bluejays were denied the lead all the way up until 10 minutes remained in the game. But from there, Creighton stayed the course and completed the comeback victory, beating the Wildcats 76-72.

So, what was the difference between two tightly contested and vastly different contests? 

#1: Decisions in crunch time

When the game comes down to a few plays there is no time for error. People may think that the big step-back jumper wins the game, or the steal and flashy dunk to finish seals the victory, but what wins games in these moments is arguably the most ‘basic’ or simple. It’s in these moments where the first thing you ever learned about basketball is the thing that could make or break your team.

This is exactly the situation that Creighton found itself in against Seton Hall in the final minute of the game, standing on the inbound line, waiting for the play to unfold. 

With the Pirates pressing hard, in desperate need of a turnover, Creighton’s inbounder had a Seton Hall player in his face, tying the ball up. The first time, with 13.4 seconds remaining, Creighton retained possession, but the second time, as junior forward Isaac Traudt caught the inbound, the Bluejay veteran didn’t get the ball to a teammate fast enough and Seton Hall retained possession to set up for one final offensive possession. 

“[Those were ] two big jump balls back-to-back that can’t happen. We got pinned on the sideline a little bit and didn’t get it out of there,” Creighton Head Coach Greg McDermott said. 

From there, maybe the greatest error of all was allowing Seton Hall to get an offensive board. As the clock ran down, Seton Hall’s Adam Clark took a contested jumper that didn’t fall, but it was Creighton’s inability to block out and prevent Najai Hines from getting the putback — and giving him a foul shot to go with it — with 1.3 seconds that put the nail in the coffin for the Bluejays. It was poor decision-making in crunch time that proved the detriment for Creighton, then-undefeated in Big East play.

Meanwhile, Creighton’s response in crunch time at Villanova was both vastly different and extremely successful. This crunch time sequence may not have come right at the end of the game like against Seton Hall, but was just as crucial.

Up until 10 minutes left in the game, Creighton had not led once. The Bluejays trailed by as many as 10, 25-15, with under eight minutes in the first half, and faced a 34-30 deficit at the break. The Wildcats even opened the half with a triple that increased their lead to seven, but Creighton’s crunch time cohesion proved critical in the minutes to follow.

Going from down seven to open the second 20 minutes, the Bluejays worked to tie the game for the first time at 41-41 with 16:33 remaining and — despite falling to two and three point deficits intermittently throughout the next six minutes — eventually took the lead, 55-53, with 10 minutes remaining. 

From there, the Bluejays didn’t let the moment get the best of them, battling to sustain their lead and eventually coming out of a 40 minute dogfight with a 76-72 victory. This crunch time success may not have manifested itself in the final minute, but a pattern of unselfishness, cohesion and togetherness when it counted helped the Bluejays get their fourth win in Big East play.

#2- The fourth shooter is necessary to create the margin in a tight competition

Sixteen games into the season, it’s clear who Creighton’s consistent shooters are, though this might have come as a shock two months ago when the season began. 

Unsurprisingly leading the charge is Dix, whose steady 12.3 points per game have complimented his lockdown defense well to become a pinnacle of what this Creighton program is trying to create. 

At number two is Austin Swartz, whose addition into the starting lineup later into the season was a masterful decision from McDermott and a great chance for the Miami transfer to show what he’s got. What he’s got is a consistent 10.7 average points per game and a critical role in the Bluejay starting five. 

Rounding out the top three scorers is Creighton veteran Jasen Green, whose impact on the floor with 10.3 points per game has been nothing short of invaluable to a relatively new Bluejay roster. 

All that is to say that when those three step on the floor, people know what to expect from them, which can be a blessing and a curse. This means that while the trio consistently adds to the scoreboard, Creighton’s opponents also know what happens when these guys get going. This makes having a fourth shooter necessary, especially in a tight competition like fans saw at Seton Hall and Villanova.

The way with which a fourth shooter did, or did not, emerge was a critical indication of the result over Creighton’s road trip. 

As expected, Swartz (16 points), Green (13 points) and Dix (12 points) contributed on both ends of the floor in each contest. But with natural lulls in shooting and in tight games, a detrimental surge in the second half can break the visiting team and make the home team, as fans saw in Newark. One issue? The absence of a fourth shooter. 

With 7:13 showing on the clock in the second half Seton Hall finished up a 13-0 run, putting them within two, 45-43. In tandem with the run, Creighton had no answer, going more than eight minutes without a bucket before Green eventually made a layup at 5:58. This is where the fourth shooter would have been critical. 

But no fourth shooter emerged. Nik Graves came the closest with eight points, but the only other players with points were Traudt (2 points) and Blake Harper (3 points). This reliance on three shooters for an entire game can’t always get the job done, and — paired with poor decision-making down the stretch — the Bluejays were burned for their lack of a fourth leader. 

In contrast, Harper demonstrated exactly what a fourth shooter can do in the Bluejays game at Villanova. Yes, Swartz (20 points), Dix (17 points) and Green (10 points) did what they always do, but their efforts were bolstered by a stellar performance from Creighton’s transfer from Howard. 

The sophomore dropped seven points in the first half, but in the second half — taking advantage of his matchup — Harper dribbled his way through the Wildcats’ defense, notably executing the jumper that gave Creighton its first lead of the game with 10 minutes and extending Creighton’s lead on the back of Swartz’s triple to 64-57, the Bluejays’ largest margin of the night. 

In this game, Harper’s efforts alleviated some of the pressure from Dix, Swartz and Green, putting together a masterful 17 point performance in 27 minutes on the floor.

Overall, Harper showed exactly what that ‘fourth guy’ can do for a team: create more offensive dynamics, draw the advantageous matchup and spread the floor to get shots of their own and for their teammates. 

However, it’s important to note that although Traudt struggled from the floor on the Bluejays’ road trip to the east coast (0-7 from the field at Seton Hall and 0-2 at Villanova), he has been Creighton’s ‘fourth guy’ at times. When Traudt is feeling it, his unwavering commitment to just his three point shot has been dangerous to other teams. Yet, when Traudt can’t find his shot, that’s when shotmaking can easily fall just on Dix, Swartz and Green, making players like Harper critical to this Creighton team.

#3: Credit where credit is due

At the beginning of the season, there was deafening noise that loudly wondered whether Creighton — a team that had recruited shooters — could be a force on defense. However, though the road to rebounding, blocking out, closing out and communication might have been slow (and certainly slower than any fan who watched former Creighton center Ryan Kalkbrenner would have wanted), the Bluejays are finding their way on the glass and on-ball, and these two two road contests proved that.

In both games, the Bluejays outrebounded their opponent. At Seton Hall, Creighton held a 41-34 edge and at Villanova, the Bluejays dominated 39-30. It seems that nobody is happier about this than McDermott, who has been stressing the importance of defense since the exhibition games in Nov.

“[That’s] two road games in a row where we’ve won the rebounding battle and kept our turnovers in check. You win on the road when you don’t beat yourself and I think we beat ourselves with some dumb plays in Newark the other day, but we cleaned that up [at Villanova],” he said following the victory in Philadelphia.

That isn’t to say that the turnovers don’t still need some work, as Creighton averages 11.4 per game and gave up 11 to Seton Hall and eight to Villanova. However, McDermott is right to say that they were kept in check. This is especially true taken in the context of the rest of the season. Creighton has had as many as 18 turnovers (at Gonzaga) and as little as seven (Kansas State). 

What the Bluejays need to do is continue to make sure that giveaways are minimized and the impact the least harmful they can be. Creighton has shown it can do it, but sustaining that level of discipline will be seen with time.

Ultimately, the Big East road trip split served as a reminder that in conference play the margin between a painful road loss and a statement road win comes down to poise, timely decision-making and having just one more player ready to step into the moment when everything tightens. 

Now, the Bluejays will be tested once again, this time at home, facing St. John’s today at 1 p.m.