Creighton University
Bluejay Madness
ESPNU On Hand as Bluejay Madness Opens Basketball Season
10/14/2011 11:34:00 PM | Women's Basketball
OMAHA, Neb. -- In front of a national televison audience on ESPNU, the Creighton men's and women's basketball teams started their 2011-12 seasons with a night of fun before a standing-room only crowd at D.J. Sokol Arena.
With a fog machine billowing out smoke and spotlights trained to the top of the arena, players from both teams were introduced and high-fived the crowd on their way down the stairs and onto the court.
After a brief warm-up, a coed three-point contest was held. Eight teams competed, with the top four scorers advancing to the semifinals. Four shots were needed in the tiebreaker for the fourth spot before Jasmin Corbin's basket helped carry teammate Avery Dingman to the semifinals, besting the squad of DaNae Moore and Josh Jones after both teams made 13. Top performers in the first round were Ally Jensen/Doug McDermott (17), Jordan Garrison/Grant Gibbs (16) and Sammy Jensen/Ross Ferrarini (15), while McKenzie Fujan (12), Sarah Nelson/Jahenns Manigat (10) and Taylor Johnson/Ethan Wragge (10) did not advance.
In the semi's, Sammy Jensen and Ferrarini (20) had the top score, just ahead of Garrison and Gibbs (19), while the Corbin/Dingman (16) and Ally Jensen/McDermott pairings (17) did not advance. The finals saw Garrison and Gibbs emerge victorious with a 16-10 win over Ferrarini and Sammy Jensen.
The women's team then conducted a 12-minute scrimmage, won by the White Team 9-8. Leading the White team in scoring was Sarah Nelson, who had a game-best five points.
The slam dunk contest followed, featuring five competitors and celebrity judges "Dancing Grandma", former Bluejay great Nate Funk and Bluejay legend, MVC Hall of Famer and current Chicago Bulls swingman Kyle Korver.
Freshmen Avery Dingman (13) and Nevin Johnson (16) started the night with a few misses and did not advance past the first round of the dunk contest. Will Artino took a pass from Alex Olsen to dunk two balls at once (video) and earn a score of 28, before Austin Chatman brought down the house by dunking over 7-footer Geoff Groselle to earn a perfect score of 30 to close out the first round (watch video of it HERE or HERE, or click HERE for a photo courtesy of White & Blue Review).
The finals saw Artino earn a 21 with a nifty reverse windmill before Chatman won the competition with a 29, after bouncing it off the floor and windmilling it through the hoop.
Following a brief dance-off between Alyssa Kamphaus and Nevin Johnson, the men scrimmaged for 16 minutes.
In the fast-paced high-scoring scrimmage, the White team jumped out to an 11-2 lead behind a pair of buckets from Johnson, before the Blue team answered with a 9-0 run to tie the score after consecutive baskets from big-man Gregory Echenique.
With the score tied at 20-20, the Blue squad ended the scrimmage on an 11-6 run to top the White team 31-26. Young led the winners with eight points, followed by seven points from Jones. McDermott led all scorers with 10 points to lead the White squad. Johnson finished with seven points for the White side.
Both teams will have home exhibition games against Rockhurst early next month. The women will play on Nov. 2, while the men play on Nov. 6.
