Creighton Basketball: Bluejays flash their defense in win over Providence

One of the highest-scoring teams in the country, Creighton basketball showed that they can play shutdown defense as well in their win over Providence.

Creighton basketball entered their second conference game of the year averaging a ridiculous 91.7 points per game on offense. This number ranked No. 4 in the country and their offense was clearly the calling card of this team. The biggest question mark for the team was how their defense would hold up in the Big East and giving up 90 points to Seton Hall in their Big East opening loss was not a good start.

Although the offense has received the majority of the press for Creighton, the team showed that they can also lock down on defense in their win over Providence on Dec. 31. Led by Khyri Thomas, the Big East Defensive Player of the Year last season, the Bluejays have plenty of size and quickness to hold their opponents to low-scoring outings.

Against Providence, head coach Greg McDermott’s team held their opponent to just 64 points on  38.7% shooting from the field and a dreadful 3-for-23 (13.0%) from 3-point land. The offense was as solid as normal for the Bluejays at 83 points and 46.6% shooting on the day but the story of this win was the defensive effort of Creighton.

Even though Creighton did not force a ton of turnovers in this game (13), they used their defense to control this game from start to finish. Aside from the 57 seconds early in the first half in which the game was tied, Creighton controlled the lead in this wire-to-wire victory. In addition, the Bluejays were able to build off of their success on the defensive end to flow on the offensive end. With so many missed shots by the Friars, the Bluejays were able to run in transition to the tune of 12 fastbreak points (Providence only scored four on fastbreak opportunities).

In what was a team scoring outing by Creighton, five players scored in double figures. The leader on the night was Marcus Foster (18 points), but there was plenty of help as Toby Hegner (15 points), Martin Krampelj (13 points), Davion Mintz (12 points), and Khyri Thomas (11 points) all showed up. This was an all-around great performance by the Bluejays as they completely dominated against the Friars.

For Providence, this was a disappointing effort after their great win over St. John’s to open Big East play. Injuries have been a huge concern for the team this season and they once again hurt the Friars in this game. They have several players who are playing while still obviously dealing with injuries that are affecting their play on the court. Nonetheless, losing by this many points does not look good on paper for the Friars.

Head coach Ed Cooley was led by an impressive outing from Nate Watson in this game. Despite playing only 17 minutes, the 6’10” freshman compiled 20 points on 7-for-10 shooting from the field. After Watson, the usual suspects of Rodney Bullock (15 points) and Alpha Diallo (10 points) were the next guys up for Providence.

Of course, the biggest issue moving forward for Providence is their health, most specifically in regards to Kyron Cartwright. Cartwright is one of the top players in the Big East and he was clearly off today due to his ankle injury. He played in 22 minutes and finished with just two points on 1-for-5 shooting.

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Nonetheless, this was a solid win for Creighton. The Bluejays showed the ability to win a game with tremendous defense and continues to look the part of one of the top four teams in the Big East. Providence, on the other hand, has a lot of work to do to reach the NCAA Tournament and they will need to get healthy in order for that to happen.