Creighton University
11-14 (2-10)
St. John's
15-8 (4-6)
Red Storm Top Men's Hoops At The Garden
2/7/2015 1:44:00 PM | Men's Basketball
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- St. John's raced to a 15-2 start and never trailed with an 84-66 win over Creighton on Saturday afternoon at the World's Most Famous Arena, Madison Square Garden.
The Red Storm improved to 15-8 (4-6 BIG EAST) with the win, while Creighton dropped to 11-14 (2-10 BIG EAST) with the setback.
Rysheed Jordan, limited to seven minutes in the first meeting with Creighton due to injury, had a career-high with 25 points, including a career-high six three-pointers.
The Red Storm started quickly in the Noon local start. Jumpers by D'Angleo Harrison and Phil Greene IV sandwiched around a trey from Jordan led to a 7-0 lead and prompted a quick Bluejay timeout. Free throws by Geoffrey Groselle four minutes into the game finally dented the visitors side of the scoreboard, but the Jays would go nearly six minutes before its first field goal after missing its first nine shots.
Fueled by 11 points on 4-of-4 shooting by Jordan, the Red Storm raced to a 21-7 lead and another Creighton timeout. With St. John's shooting the lights out from mid-range and long-range, the lead stretched to 20 at 43-23 with 3:23 left in the first half.
The Bluejays trailed 52-30 at the intermission, paced by 19 points on 7-of-9 shooting by Jordan. St. John's made 22-of-33 field goals in the opening 20 minutes, including 7-of-12 from downtown,
Creighton took advantage of its size edge inside in the second half, as Groselle and Will Artino had half of CU's first 18 points in the second stanza. A trey by Toby Hegner in transition trimmed SJU's lead to 64-48 with just under 10 minutes to play, but CU never got much closer.
Groselle led the team with 13 points in 15 minutes of work, while Will Artino was 6-for-6 and finished with 12 points. Kreklow had 10 points, 10 rebounds and a career-high six assists for his first double-double as a Bluejays, while Milliken scored 10 points. Creighton shot 35.7 percent on the day, but were just 5-of-22 from long range. Creighton did win the glass battle 43-33, outscored SJU 38-16 in the paint, 21-9 in second chance points and had a 45-10 advantage in bench points, but it wasn't enough.
St. John's was paced by a career-high 25 points from Jordan, while Harrison (21), Greene (13) and Sir'Dominic Pointer (10) also scored double-digits. Harrison added 10 rebounds for the double-double. The Red Storm got just six seconds out of big man Chris Obekpa, who was benched in the first half and sprained his ankle while grabbing a rebound in his brief time on the floor. The Red Storm shot 31-of-55 (56.4 percent) from the field on the day, including 11-of-19 three-pointers.
Creighton returns to the court on Saturday when it hosts Marquette in a Noon start on FOX Sports 1.
NOTES: St. John's had a season-high for points in the first half with 52 ... Creighton had won 20 straight when four or more players scored in double-figures prior to today ... Sir'Dominic Pointer had a career-high with eight blocks, while Amar Aligegovic had a career-high with seven points ... Harlem native Devin Brooks had nine points in his first career start at Madison Square Garden.
Postgame Quotes
Creighton Head Coach Greg McDermott
On today's game:
St. John's was really good to start the game, as good as I've seen them. For us, the way we're built, we have to try and keep them out of the paint and try to force them into jump shots and, obviously, they made every jump shot they looked at the first half. It didn't matter whether we were trying to go true man to man, 2-3 zone a couple of possessions, they hit jump shots against that as well. Credit really goes to them. I didn't think we probably fought quite as hard as we needed to fight early in the game and I thought we had good looks in the first 10 possessions, I think we only hit two of them and they got off and running. Once they got confidence, they were really hard to stop. [Rysheed] Jordan was outstanding. He was without question the best player on the floor today.
On Rysheed Jordan having his best three-point shooting performance of the season:
I appreciate that he waited for this game to do it [laughter]. He's played better as of late and has had games where he's shot it better, but we didn't have an answer for him today.
On the Red Storm's chances of making a run in March:
I don't think there's any question. With [Phil] Greene, [D'Angelo] Harrison and Jordan you have three high-level guards. You got two rim protectors in [Sir'Dominic] Pointer and [Chris] Obekpa. It's an extremely talented team, it's just, I'm sure Coach Lavin is looking for consistency just like we're looking for consistency. They're without a question I think, like last year, a team that can get on a run and a team that nobody would want to see in the NCAA Tournament.
Creighton senior forward Rick Kreklow
On the play of St. John's:
They came out and shot the ball really well to start the game. They hit some tough shots and we weren't doing our job to kind of make them miss. That allowed them to get going, allowed them to get their confidence up and then kind of kept hitting shots throughout the game and made it tough to kind of chip away and get back in that one.
On the play of St. John's sophomore guard Rysheed Jordan:
It was pretty big. I think he scored 20-plus points today. He shot really well from outside and caused us to stretch the defense a little bit, which gave them length to get to the basket. If you're playing St. John's you have to keep them out of the paint, but when they're hitting like that, it's kind of tough to stop both and that's what we didn't do today.
St. John's Head Coach Steve Lavin:
On the Game:
“We shared the basketball today. We hit the open man, knocked down open shots, hence the 18 assists to eight turnovers. It was a spirited effort and a win that we needed to have, because it's on our home court and we're starting the second half of league play.”
On the fast start to the game:
“I just think our kids really played well. I know when you win the assumption is there was a sense of urgency and win you lose then there isn't…Tonight we made shots and our small lineup creates matchup problems for opponents, our quickness is a factor as well. Rysheed (Jordan) shot the ball lights out, our guard play was fantastic and of course we were playing five guards most of the game. I just thought our team played well across the board and in every facet of play we excelled this afternoon.”
On the team's depth:
“All year we've wanted to develop our bench. Early we went 11-1, so it's tough, but then we ran into the injury bug…We started league play and going against good teams so the injuries clearly threw us off our rhythm. Now we're turning back to a better place in terms of our health and hopefully in the nick of time because now we're in the back-nine, so to speak, of the BIG EAST. Hopefully we can remain injury free. Chris (Obekpa) sprained his right ankle and is probable for DePaul. Hopefully he's back at full strength.”
On Rysheed Jordan's performance:
“The numbers maybe higher in this game compared to other games, but last year around late January and early February is when he went on his tear and our team went along with it…We were 7-2 in the second half of the BIG EAST last year and Rysheed had four-of-five BIG EAST Rookie of the Week awards during that 7-2 (stretch)…He's returning to the form of where he was last year, but even better because he's got more experience now than he had a year ago. I think his overall comfort level with the adjustment to college and the workload that it involves and navigating the emotional minefield as best he can with the challenges on the home front that he's faced.”
Can the team be better with Chris Obekpa on the bench?
“It's just a different look. I think as we've seen in other games that we need Chris because he anchors our defense and gives us a presence in the lane that is important to our objectives and the success that we hope to have as a team. There is no doubt, going back to my time at UCLA, that I always enjoyed small lineups and playing multiple guards…This team when we go with that smaller group really creates matchup problems and we can also press with our smaller lineups, but we need Chris to anchor our defense and if you're going to win in the BIG EAST against the top-tier teams, the play in the paint is critical.”
St. John's senior guard D'Angelo Harrison
On Rysheed Jordan's Performance:
Last game they tried a junk defense and they tried to do it again today, but we were over aggressive before the game started and he was on today. It is hard to guard him when he is hitting shots and dunking the ball. Everyone ended up playing well and we fed off his energy.
On the team's performance today:
We had a great talk before the game and we knew what we were going to do. We had to win this game, we flushed it down and now we get ready for the next one.
On the team's key to consistency:
We have a lot of energy. Coach says to be the first one to dive on the floor and take charge. We did that today and it showed. We were off to a great start; finished the half great and we knew they were going to make a run but we had a big enough lead to sustain the run of our own and finish the game. We have to just worry about the DePaul game.
St. John's senior forward Sir'Dominic Pointer
On his size advantage and replacing Chris Obekpa:
Me and C.O. (Chris Obekpa) we block shots. When you come in you get a cross back and that's how we feel and play. I don't feel like I can take C.O.'s (Obekpa) spot but I can try; he is a unique talent and it is hard to replace him . We switched everything, we played a good game, and hopefully we get him back. Today, we played a good game and a lot of guys were stepping up.
On final play at the bottom of the first half:
My teammates do a good job at hiding themselves and waiting for me and C.O. (Obekpa) to block shots and that's what happened. It was an exciting play with a little momentum and we came back out with the same energy for the second half.
