Thursday, March 14
New York, N.Y.
1:30 PM
Creighton University
18-14
61
vs
63
Xavier
18-14
1
2
F
Creighton
29
32
61
Xavier
36
27
63
Ty-Shon Alexander led Creighton with 21 points on Thursday vs. Xavier.
Late Rally Falls Short as Men's Basketball Falls 63-61 in Quarterfinals to Xavier
3/14/2019 3:35:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Ty-Shon Alexander leads Creighton with 21 points
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- The Creighton men's basketball team was eliminated from the BIG EAST Tournament with a 63-61 quarterfinal loss to Xavier on Thursday afternoon at Madison Square Garden.
Creighton had its league-high five-game win streak snapped, falling to 18-14, while Xavier improved to 18-14 with its sixth win in the last seven games.
The game was tied in the final minute when Xavier scored the eventual game-winning score on a tip-in by Zach Hankins with 27.8 left. Quentin Goodin started the possession by missing a long two-pointer, but Naji Marshall hauled in the offensive rebound. His shot from the block was off the mark, but Hankins tipped it in with his left hand to give Xavier a 63-61 lead. Creighton elected not to use a timeout and worked the ball to Ty-Shon Alexander, who's game-winning three-point try was blocked in the final seconds.
Sophomores Alexander and Mitch Ballock helped stake Creighton to an early 22-13 lead, combining for 20 of CU's first 22 points in the opening 10 minutes. Xavier responded with 11 of the next 13 points, including eight points from Hankins, to knot the score at 24-all, and the Musketeers took their first lead at 28-26 on a lay-up by Marshall. The Musketeers closed the first half on an 8-0 run over the final four minutes extending their lead to 36-29 on a driving lay-up by Goodin in the final seconds of the first half.
Xavier outscored CU 22-8 in the paint, and Marshall and Hankins each scored 10 points in the opening 20 minutes. Creighton was led by 13 points at the break by Alexander, but he was held scoreless in the final 10:28 of the period.
After falling behind 45-33 with 16:11 to play, Creighton embarked on a 10-0 run that included baskets by Krampelj, Joseph and Mintz and bring CU within 45-43 with 11:25 remaining. The Musketeers went more than eight minutes without a field goal, but Creighton missed four potential game-tying three-point shots during that stretch and still trailed 46-43 with 7:42 remaining. Marcus Zegarowski scored five points to tie the game at 50-all with 6:23 to go.
Creighton took its first lead since 29-28 on a three-point play by Alexander with 5:42 to go to make it 53-52, only to see Hankins go in for a dunk on the next possession to start a 8-0 run that put Xavier ahead 60-53 with 2:20 remaining. An Alexander trey with 1:57 to go snapped the CU scoring drought and opened an 8-1 flurry that saw a Ballock trey and Alexander pull-up jumper knot the score at 61-all with 44.9 left, setting up the final sequence.
Hankins, who totaled 16 points in two regular-season meetings against Creighton, led the Musketeers with 22 points. Marshall had 11 points and Castlin added 10. Xavier won the rebound battle 36-29 and outscored CU 38-22 in the paint.
Creighton was paced by 21 points from Alexander and 14 by Krampelj. Also in double-figures with 10 points was Ballock, who added seven rebounds. Creighton shot 40 percent for the game, including 33.3 percent from three-point range and just 3-of-8 (37.5 percent) at the charity stripe.
Xavier advances to Friday's 5:30 p.m. Central quarterfinal against top-seeded and No. 25 Villanova. Creighton will learn its postseason fate on Sunday evening.
NOTES: Creighton has now made a three-pointer in 848 consecutive games, and at least one trey before halftime in 219 games in a row and five or more three-pointers in 68 games in a row ... Ty-Shon Alexander had 10 of Creighton's first 15 points while reaching double-figures for the first time in five career games against Xavier ... Martin Krampelj scored in double-figures for the 13th straight game, and was one rebound shy of his third straight double-double ... Creighton fell to 5-6 all-time in BIG EAST Tournament action ... Creighton fell to 2-4 in the BIG EAST Tournament quarterfinals, 2-1 all-time against Xavier in the BIG EAST Tournament, and 0-2 in the BIG EAST Tournament against the fourth seed ... Creighton had won 12 straight conference tournament games decided by four points or less before losing each of its last two such games ... Creighton and Xavier have played a game decided by eight points or less in 12 of their 15 meetings, most in the league since its 2013 reconfiguration ... Creighton has made 348 three-pointers, second-most in program history behind the 2013-14 club that made 356 ... Ty-Shon Alexander now owns 503 points this season, becoming the fifth sophomore in Creighton history to score 500 or more and joining Doug McDermott, Rodney Buford, Paul Silas and Bob Harstad in that group ... Alexander's four three-pointers give him 93 this season, sixth-most in program history.
TRAVIS STEELE: First of all, I want to give a lot of credit to Creighton. Man, that was a heck of a game. Creighton really tests you in a lot of different ways. Number one, they are really, really well coached. Offensively, they're a juggernaut. With the pace they play at, the amount of shooters they have on the floor, they're hard to guard. One of the harder teams in the entire country.
I thought, going into the game, we had to really be able to control the tempo of the game. Had to be advantage Xavier, which I thought, early on in the game, is advantage Creighton. Our guys with a little bit of gas, we were playing up and down fast. They push it fast off misses and makes. We're playing several of these guys a lot of minutes, so we've got to be able to control the tempo, which I thought, as the game wore on, we did. I thought, secondly, we had to be able to control the paint area. Obviously, Zach Hankins had a tremendous night for us. Our guards did a great job of getting him the ball, whether it was off drives, off pick-and-roll actions. Really proud of our group. Obviously, we're excited to play against a really good Villanova team tomorrow in the Big East semifinals.
Q. Travis, could you speak to that final sequence there. Obviously, a little bit chaotic. Kyle makes a great play, something of a broken frenzy there. To your team's poise and how they were able to execute defensively. Creighton was clearly trying to get a good shot or a foul. Neither of those happened.
TRAVIS STEELE: I thought, not even in the last play, Creighton was doing a great job defending us. We went through a drought in the second half. I thought our defense was still consistent for the most part. We were there on the catch. Like I said, they spread you out all over the place, all over the court with the shooters. They run great actions and make it really, really difficult. I give our guys a lot of credit for staying locked in, making multiple efforts. It's like I told our guys, the execution of our system may not be perfect, but the effort has to be. You have to be able to make multiple efforts against Creighton because they always put you in that situation where they're going one more. Just one more pass, they say, to the open guy, and I thought our guys did a great job playing hard trying to contest as many shots as they could.
Q. I have a two-part question. Coach, you guys were able to control Ty-Shon in the second half. In the early part of the game, he scored 13 points but in the latter parts you were able to prevent him from scoring. How were you able to do that? Zach, how was it on the interior? Coach spoke about your presence on the inside. How was it going up against Krampell throughout the game?
TRAVIS STEELE: I'll answer the first question, then, Zach, I'll let you answer that second one.
I thought, number one, Ty-Shon Alexander is a very talented player. The improvements he's made, honestly, going from freshman to sophomore years are incredible. He's a great player. Naji's been one of the better defenders in our league, in my opinion, during the Big East season. To me, he's been the best defender in our league. He's long. He's athletic. He makes life really, really tough on guys. And I thought he did a great job as the half kind of wore on, in the first half because, you're right, he got off to a blistering start, and give him credit, but I thought we tried to make him earn most of his shots. He hit a big one there towards the end of the game on the pullup to tie the game. You can't pitch a shutout with him with such a talented guard, but I thought Naji was a big reason for that.
ZACH HANKINS: Krampell is a great player. He's a great post player, but he's kind of a different animal because he's kind of expanded his game the second half of the season to be able to shoot more threes and also drive off the ball. It was definitely a little more challenging for me, being able to play on perimeter a little bit outside of my zone. I was able to -- I've been a shot blocker for a long time. That's one of my claims. It just kind of worked out for me there. I was happy to do that.
Q. Kyle, on their last possession, they seemed pretty flummoxed and not sure what they wanted to do. Can you walk us through your block that sealed the game.
KYLE CASTLIN: I know they were coming down. They was trying to run the set. The initial part, we defended pretty well. It was just a scramble. I knew -- I saw the clock count down on the other end. I saw him try to make one toward Ty-Shon. He was wide open. I knew I just had to put it all on the line to try to seal the game.
Q. Kyle, was that your first block ever?
KYLE CASTLIN: No.
Q. First block of the season?
KYLE CASTLIN: No.
Q. Two questions for me. First for Travis, earlier in the game, obviously, when you play Creighton, pace is so important against them. Seemingly, they were getting their way early, went up 22-13. Then you guys tried to slow the game down. How were you able to do that? Then for Naji, how are you feeling health-wise?
TRAVIS STEELE: I'll answer the first part. Like you said, Creighton, the game was a track meet at the beginning of the game. We just had to wind our guys back in. I think, obviously, playing at Madison Square Garden, first time this year -- when we played at St. John's, it was at Carnesecca, I think our guys were excited to play. It's like I told our guys, we can't play P-I-G with Creighton. Can't play H-O-R-S-E with Creighton. We got to slow it down. We got to make it muddy. We got to make it ugly. That will give us a chance. And I thought our guys -- Naji, Kyle, Q, Paul, our guards, for the most part, did a great job, just kind of playing at our pace, slowing down, walking the ball up, and taking our time.
NAJI MARSHAL: I feel good, no pain. Just trying to ease my way back into the game after missing three or four days.
Q. Travis, I think it was, like, maybe the first 13 minutes of the second half, Zach didn't even take a shot. Did there come a point where it was like we got to get him back involved any way that we can?
TRAVIS STEELE: Creighton, they're going to post trap every single time the ball goes inside. When the ball goes in from the wings, and they do a great job of it. They're really aggressive. They create a lot of turnovers off of that. Zach had to get the ball different ways. I thought our ball started to find him a lot more in ball screen situations, whether it was throwing it back quickly, and making quick decisions, hitting him on a roll, a drop pass or whatever it was. I know Naji tried to throw him a lob on the one turnover. Would have been a heck of a highlight play if he'd made it. Wish he wouldn't have thrown that one, but I think our guys were looking for them a lot more. I thought we did a good job attacking the paint with our guards. Zach, to me, was one of the best finishers in the country around the rim with his size and length and athleticism.
Q. Zach, when you played Creighton twice this season, they held you to six and ten points respectively. Today you dominated with 22. Was it just a matter of a revamped effort? What was on the floor allowing you to take over?
ZACH HANKINS: I just really take what is given to me. I don't create a lot for myself. That's why I give so much credit to these guys. They find me. They were able to get inside the paint and then draw my defender up and give it to me. I can finish that. So I give a lot of credit to my teammates being able to find me there, get Creighton in rotation, and just take what the game gives me.
Q. Coach, you talked about some of the matchup issues that Creighton creates. Now that you play Villanova tomorrow, do you have any thoughts on playing them?
TRAVIS STEELE: Obviously, it's been a while since we played them, but they're really, obviously, a great team, and another well-coached team. Phil Booth and Eric Paschall are tremendous players, both first team All Conference guys. They're going to play small. A lot of times they'll play Paschall even at the five, Jermaine Samuels at the five. I haven't seen them play recently because you're always kind of consumed with the game that you have that's upon you, but we're going to be who we are. I thought we did a really good job at center on center guarding them, giving them different looks. I thought Zach impacted the game, Naji played terrific, all these guys did.
We've just got to play as hard as we possibly can, leave it all out there, no regrets mentality, and be the attacking team.
Q. Travis, you guys finished, I think, with nine turnovers. What was the message to your guards, particularly navigating those ball screens because, as you alluded to, you guys found Zach.
TRAVIS STEELE: Number one, Creighton's become a much, much, much better defensive team throughout the Big East season. And a big part of it is what you're talking about, the ball screen defense. Krampell is an incredible defender. He moves his feet like a guard. He reaches constantly in ball screens. They create a lot of turnovers out of ball screens. We worked really hard on that over the last few days of our ball screen offensive game plan going against them. I give all the credit to our guards. Our guards did a great job of playing with poise, being strong with the ball, getting the ball to where we wanted to get it. Obviously, Zach was the beneficiary of that with several dunks and finishes around the rim.
Q. For any of you guys, you had some tough times this season, the six-game skid, and a lot of people doubted you, and here you are winning your first game of this tournament. Do you think today was a statement win for you guys the way you played and showed people you're not who you were before?
KYLE CASTLIN: I think the losing streak this season for us was just a great learning experience. We just take each and every game as it comes. I don't want to necessarily say that we surprised ourselves or anyone else. We know how good we can be and how good we are in practice each and every day. We're just looking forward to the Villanova game tomorrow and just want to keep on this run that we've been playing well with.
Creighton Press Conference
GREG McDERMOTT: Congrats, Xavier. Obviously, they made some big plays down the stretch, big offensive rebound on that last possession. Proud of the way our guys battled. We didn't have our A-game, certainly, today. Xavier's size and physicality certainly had something to do with that. But we kept fighting. We kept digging. We got ourselves back in the game and gave ourselves a chance to win it. Unfortunately, we didn't execute the last play very well. I saw something. I thought Davion had one more pass to tie for an open three. So elected not to take the time-out, obviously, in retrospect. I'd do it different next time. Still proud of my team, really have enjoyed coaching this group. Hopefully, there's some basketball left for us.
Q. The last play, Ty-Shon, just what did you see, and what were you trying to do with the final shot?
TY-SHON ALEXANDER: I was trying to create a play for one of my teammates to hopefully either get a wide open three or eventually just try to get a play down the stretch to get
"Teeny" a wide open look up in the paint, as well, but somehow they just didn't execute.
Q. Greg, you sort of mentioned you hoped that there's some basketball left. I guess what would your case be for Creighton to be included in the NCAA Tournament?
GREG McDERMOTT: We're -- I think we're 3-7 when we have -- when either Marcus was out or Damien Jefferson was out. Obviously, Damien Jefferson is still not totally back to normal and hasn't played a lot. 15-7 against a really good schedule on the year. It just depends. It depends if playing a good schedule is going to be rewarded. We played one of the better schedules, top ten schedule in the country, and if that's important, then we'll have a shot. If the committee decides that it's not that important, then we won't.
I don't think anybody really knows what this new NET means, how much they're going to use it. I think everybody had an idea in the past. If your RPI is terrible, you're probably not getting in. If your RPI's good, it doesn't necessarily mean you're in, but at least you're in the conversation. I just don't know that anybody understands exactly what's going to happen. So we'll wait and see. Hope we get in. If we don't, we'll give it everything we have in the NIT.
Q. Greg, early in the first half, you guys were playing a really good pace. You guys were making shots early. Did they do something to slow you down specifically, or was it more on you guys just not hitting looks after that?
GREG McDERMOTT: I think we had three turnovers in the last seven possessions of the first half, seven or eight possessions, and they scored on the last three. So, obviously, you're taking it out of the net, it's hard to have pace. But I thought we had some guys that maybe had the jitters a little bit. Obviously, it's -- besides our freshmen that we're playing and sophomores in a new role, really, this is Martin's first experience in the Garden. He didn't play much as a freshman. He was hurt last year. So it's the first time that, even though he's a fourth-year junior, first time he's experienced it, and I think until you've been there and done it, I think the enormity of it can maybe get to you. I think at times it did us today.
I just didn't think we were ourselves with our pace, with our ball movement at times, and then we have really been flying around defensively and forcing our opponents into errors, and today we weren't able to do that. Again, that's a credit to Xavier and their ball security.
Q. Coach, as the team went through some droughts throughout the game, what were some points of emphasis that you harped on to keep your team engaged in? As you saw, you guys were able to make a run at the end.
GREG McDERMOTT: We've been really good defensively really, and today, I think it was a 65-possession game, and they had 63 points. Over the last 10, 11 games, we've held teams, on average, below one point per possession. So we felt like our defense could be good enough to get us back in the game if we just stick to things. And we did, for the most part. Obviously, Hankins had a great night, or a great afternoon, and some of the guys that you would probably worry about a little bit more in Marshall and Scruggs and Goodin, you know, their numbers weren't great. The rest of the team, I think, was 15-45, and Hankins goes 11 of 15. We didn't have an answer for him. His offensive rebounds, it seemed like every one was a back breaker.
We were fine in the huddles. We had full confidence we could get back in the game and win the game defensively and then with our ball movement on the other end of the floor.
Q. Greg, just a couple of questions about the end. Did you consider going big at all knowing that offensive rebound was a possibility, I guess, on that last possession?
GREG McDERMOTT: Well, they had four guards in, so no. You know, like somebody would have had to guard a guard out on the perimeter. So we got him -- actually, Goodin took a long two, which is exactly the shot we wanted him to take. We just didn't clean up that back side on the boards. I didn't see what happened. I'd have to go look at it on film to see if he just made a great play or if we missed a blockout.
Q. And then your last possession, I would imagine, ideally, you wouldn't want to wait until the end, but was that the message to wait for the last shot?
GREG McDERMOTT: No. We had a play call that just didn't get executed. When it broke down, like I said, when Davion got it back, I felt like two guys ran at him and left Ty-Shon, and I thought he had the opportunity for one more pass to Ty-Shon. When Ty-Shon caught it, whether he didn't catch it clean, he decided not to shoot it on the catch, and by then, it was a little late to take a time-out.
Q. Coach, I'm looking at the board as we're looking at percentages. Free throws. You had eight free throws for the entire game, hit three of them, 3 of 8. That's five points right there. Is there -- you were happy with the shot that you got because he can hit it as far as the three-pointer is concerned, but driving to the hoop, was there a reason that the fear of going down low against Xavier?
GREG McDERMOTT: Obviously, they've got some length down there with Jones and Hankins. When we got in there, we missed some layups the first half. We had some really good opportunities close to the basket that we didn't finish. While we struggled shooting free throws in November and December, we've been a really good free-throw shooting team in conference play. Today we missed him. The good news is I think they only had 12. We haven't been a team that's fouled a lot, and as long as we're not putting them on the free-throw line a lot, we're good with that. We just missed our free throws and the opportunities we had today.
Q. Martin, just what, for you, was a difference in the second half? Obviously, you got going and made some buckets. What was the difference for you?
MARTIN KRAMPELJ: Just got more comfortable with the space around me, just like Coach Mac said, that's probably the first time for me playing in here. Just taking advantage of what they gave me and tried to take it to the hoop.
Creighton had its league-high five-game win streak snapped, falling to 18-14, while Xavier improved to 18-14 with its sixth win in the last seven games.
The game was tied in the final minute when Xavier scored the eventual game-winning score on a tip-in by Zach Hankins with 27.8 left. Quentin Goodin started the possession by missing a long two-pointer, but Naji Marshall hauled in the offensive rebound. His shot from the block was off the mark, but Hankins tipped it in with his left hand to give Xavier a 63-61 lead. Creighton elected not to use a timeout and worked the ball to Ty-Shon Alexander, who's game-winning three-point try was blocked in the final seconds.
Sophomores Alexander and Mitch Ballock helped stake Creighton to an early 22-13 lead, combining for 20 of CU's first 22 points in the opening 10 minutes. Xavier responded with 11 of the next 13 points, including eight points from Hankins, to knot the score at 24-all, and the Musketeers took their first lead at 28-26 on a lay-up by Marshall. The Musketeers closed the first half on an 8-0 run over the final four minutes extending their lead to 36-29 on a driving lay-up by Goodin in the final seconds of the first half.
Xavier outscored CU 22-8 in the paint, and Marshall and Hankins each scored 10 points in the opening 20 minutes. Creighton was led by 13 points at the break by Alexander, but he was held scoreless in the final 10:28 of the period.
After falling behind 45-33 with 16:11 to play, Creighton embarked on a 10-0 run that included baskets by Krampelj, Joseph and Mintz and bring CU within 45-43 with 11:25 remaining. The Musketeers went more than eight minutes without a field goal, but Creighton missed four potential game-tying three-point shots during that stretch and still trailed 46-43 with 7:42 remaining. Marcus Zegarowski scored five points to tie the game at 50-all with 6:23 to go.
Creighton took its first lead since 29-28 on a three-point play by Alexander with 5:42 to go to make it 53-52, only to see Hankins go in for a dunk on the next possession to start a 8-0 run that put Xavier ahead 60-53 with 2:20 remaining. An Alexander trey with 1:57 to go snapped the CU scoring drought and opened an 8-1 flurry that saw a Ballock trey and Alexander pull-up jumper knot the score at 61-all with 44.9 left, setting up the final sequence.
Hankins, who totaled 16 points in two regular-season meetings against Creighton, led the Musketeers with 22 points. Marshall had 11 points and Castlin added 10. Xavier won the rebound battle 36-29 and outscored CU 38-22 in the paint.
Creighton was paced by 21 points from Alexander and 14 by Krampelj. Also in double-figures with 10 points was Ballock, who added seven rebounds. Creighton shot 40 percent for the game, including 33.3 percent from three-point range and just 3-of-8 (37.5 percent) at the charity stripe.
Xavier advances to Friday's 5:30 p.m. Central quarterfinal against top-seeded and No. 25 Villanova. Creighton will learn its postseason fate on Sunday evening.
NOTES: Creighton has now made a three-pointer in 848 consecutive games, and at least one trey before halftime in 219 games in a row and five or more three-pointers in 68 games in a row ... Ty-Shon Alexander had 10 of Creighton's first 15 points while reaching double-figures for the first time in five career games against Xavier ... Martin Krampelj scored in double-figures for the 13th straight game, and was one rebound shy of his third straight double-double ... Creighton fell to 5-6 all-time in BIG EAST Tournament action ... Creighton fell to 2-4 in the BIG EAST Tournament quarterfinals, 2-1 all-time against Xavier in the BIG EAST Tournament, and 0-2 in the BIG EAST Tournament against the fourth seed ... Creighton had won 12 straight conference tournament games decided by four points or less before losing each of its last two such games ... Creighton and Xavier have played a game decided by eight points or less in 12 of their 15 meetings, most in the league since its 2013 reconfiguration ... Creighton has made 348 three-pointers, second-most in program history behind the 2013-14 club that made 356 ... Ty-Shon Alexander now owns 503 points this season, becoming the fifth sophomore in Creighton history to score 500 or more and joining Doug McDermott, Rodney Buford, Paul Silas and Bob Harstad in that group ... Alexander's four three-pointers give him 93 this season, sixth-most in program history.
Big East Conference Men's Basketball Tournament
Thursday, March 14, 2019
Travis Steele
Zach Hankins
Naji Marshall
Kyle Castlin
Xavier Musketeers
Xavier - 63, Creighton - 61TRAVIS STEELE: First of all, I want to give a lot of credit to Creighton. Man, that was a heck of a game. Creighton really tests you in a lot of different ways. Number one, they are really, really well coached. Offensively, they're a juggernaut. With the pace they play at, the amount of shooters they have on the floor, they're hard to guard. One of the harder teams in the entire country.
I thought, going into the game, we had to really be able to control the tempo of the game. Had to be advantage Xavier, which I thought, early on in the game, is advantage Creighton. Our guys with a little bit of gas, we were playing up and down fast. They push it fast off misses and makes. We're playing several of these guys a lot of minutes, so we've got to be able to control the tempo, which I thought, as the game wore on, we did. I thought, secondly, we had to be able to control the paint area. Obviously, Zach Hankins had a tremendous night for us. Our guards did a great job of getting him the ball, whether it was off drives, off pick-and-roll actions. Really proud of our group. Obviously, we're excited to play against a really good Villanova team tomorrow in the Big East semifinals.
Q. Travis, could you speak to that final sequence there. Obviously, a little bit chaotic. Kyle makes a great play, something of a broken frenzy there. To your team's poise and how they were able to execute defensively. Creighton was clearly trying to get a good shot or a foul. Neither of those happened.
TRAVIS STEELE: I thought, not even in the last play, Creighton was doing a great job defending us. We went through a drought in the second half. I thought our defense was still consistent for the most part. We were there on the catch. Like I said, they spread you out all over the place, all over the court with the shooters. They run great actions and make it really, really difficult. I give our guys a lot of credit for staying locked in, making multiple efforts. It's like I told our guys, the execution of our system may not be perfect, but the effort has to be. You have to be able to make multiple efforts against Creighton because they always put you in that situation where they're going one more. Just one more pass, they say, to the open guy, and I thought our guys did a great job playing hard trying to contest as many shots as they could.
Q. I have a two-part question. Coach, you guys were able to control Ty-Shon in the second half. In the early part of the game, he scored 13 points but in the latter parts you were able to prevent him from scoring. How were you able to do that? Zach, how was it on the interior? Coach spoke about your presence on the inside. How was it going up against Krampell throughout the game?
TRAVIS STEELE: I'll answer the first question, then, Zach, I'll let you answer that second one.
I thought, number one, Ty-Shon Alexander is a very talented player. The improvements he's made, honestly, going from freshman to sophomore years are incredible. He's a great player. Naji's been one of the better defenders in our league, in my opinion, during the Big East season. To me, he's been the best defender in our league. He's long. He's athletic. He makes life really, really tough on guys. And I thought he did a great job as the half kind of wore on, in the first half because, you're right, he got off to a blistering start, and give him credit, but I thought we tried to make him earn most of his shots. He hit a big one there towards the end of the game on the pullup to tie the game. You can't pitch a shutout with him with such a talented guard, but I thought Naji was a big reason for that.
ZACH HANKINS: Krampell is a great player. He's a great post player, but he's kind of a different animal because he's kind of expanded his game the second half of the season to be able to shoot more threes and also drive off the ball. It was definitely a little more challenging for me, being able to play on perimeter a little bit outside of my zone. I was able to -- I've been a shot blocker for a long time. That's one of my claims. It just kind of worked out for me there. I was happy to do that.
Q. Kyle, on their last possession, they seemed pretty flummoxed and not sure what they wanted to do. Can you walk us through your block that sealed the game.
KYLE CASTLIN: I know they were coming down. They was trying to run the set. The initial part, we defended pretty well. It was just a scramble. I knew -- I saw the clock count down on the other end. I saw him try to make one toward Ty-Shon. He was wide open. I knew I just had to put it all on the line to try to seal the game.
Q. Kyle, was that your first block ever?
KYLE CASTLIN: No.
Q. First block of the season?
KYLE CASTLIN: No.
Q. Two questions for me. First for Travis, earlier in the game, obviously, when you play Creighton, pace is so important against them. Seemingly, they were getting their way early, went up 22-13. Then you guys tried to slow the game down. How were you able to do that? Then for Naji, how are you feeling health-wise?
TRAVIS STEELE: I'll answer the first part. Like you said, Creighton, the game was a track meet at the beginning of the game. We just had to wind our guys back in. I think, obviously, playing at Madison Square Garden, first time this year -- when we played at St. John's, it was at Carnesecca, I think our guys were excited to play. It's like I told our guys, we can't play P-I-G with Creighton. Can't play H-O-R-S-E with Creighton. We got to slow it down. We got to make it muddy. We got to make it ugly. That will give us a chance. And I thought our guys -- Naji, Kyle, Q, Paul, our guards, for the most part, did a great job, just kind of playing at our pace, slowing down, walking the ball up, and taking our time.
NAJI MARSHAL: I feel good, no pain. Just trying to ease my way back into the game after missing three or four days.
Q. Travis, I think it was, like, maybe the first 13 minutes of the second half, Zach didn't even take a shot. Did there come a point where it was like we got to get him back involved any way that we can?
TRAVIS STEELE: Creighton, they're going to post trap every single time the ball goes inside. When the ball goes in from the wings, and they do a great job of it. They're really aggressive. They create a lot of turnovers off of that. Zach had to get the ball different ways. I thought our ball started to find him a lot more in ball screen situations, whether it was throwing it back quickly, and making quick decisions, hitting him on a roll, a drop pass or whatever it was. I know Naji tried to throw him a lob on the one turnover. Would have been a heck of a highlight play if he'd made it. Wish he wouldn't have thrown that one, but I think our guys were looking for them a lot more. I thought we did a good job attacking the paint with our guards. Zach, to me, was one of the best finishers in the country around the rim with his size and length and athleticism.
Q. Zach, when you played Creighton twice this season, they held you to six and ten points respectively. Today you dominated with 22. Was it just a matter of a revamped effort? What was on the floor allowing you to take over?
ZACH HANKINS: I just really take what is given to me. I don't create a lot for myself. That's why I give so much credit to these guys. They find me. They were able to get inside the paint and then draw my defender up and give it to me. I can finish that. So I give a lot of credit to my teammates being able to find me there, get Creighton in rotation, and just take what the game gives me.
Q. Coach, you talked about some of the matchup issues that Creighton creates. Now that you play Villanova tomorrow, do you have any thoughts on playing them?
TRAVIS STEELE: Obviously, it's been a while since we played them, but they're really, obviously, a great team, and another well-coached team. Phil Booth and Eric Paschall are tremendous players, both first team All Conference guys. They're going to play small. A lot of times they'll play Paschall even at the five, Jermaine Samuels at the five. I haven't seen them play recently because you're always kind of consumed with the game that you have that's upon you, but we're going to be who we are. I thought we did a really good job at center on center guarding them, giving them different looks. I thought Zach impacted the game, Naji played terrific, all these guys did.
We've just got to play as hard as we possibly can, leave it all out there, no regrets mentality, and be the attacking team.
Q. Travis, you guys finished, I think, with nine turnovers. What was the message to your guards, particularly navigating those ball screens because, as you alluded to, you guys found Zach.
TRAVIS STEELE: Number one, Creighton's become a much, much, much better defensive team throughout the Big East season. And a big part of it is what you're talking about, the ball screen defense. Krampell is an incredible defender. He moves his feet like a guard. He reaches constantly in ball screens. They create a lot of turnovers out of ball screens. We worked really hard on that over the last few days of our ball screen offensive game plan going against them. I give all the credit to our guards. Our guards did a great job of playing with poise, being strong with the ball, getting the ball to where we wanted to get it. Obviously, Zach was the beneficiary of that with several dunks and finishes around the rim.
Q. For any of you guys, you had some tough times this season, the six-game skid, and a lot of people doubted you, and here you are winning your first game of this tournament. Do you think today was a statement win for you guys the way you played and showed people you're not who you were before?
KYLE CASTLIN: I think the losing streak this season for us was just a great learning experience. We just take each and every game as it comes. I don't want to necessarily say that we surprised ourselves or anyone else. We know how good we can be and how good we are in practice each and every day. We're just looking forward to the Villanova game tomorrow and just want to keep on this run that we've been playing well with.
Creighton Press Conference
GREG McDERMOTT: Congrats, Xavier. Obviously, they made some big plays down the stretch, big offensive rebound on that last possession. Proud of the way our guys battled. We didn't have our A-game, certainly, today. Xavier's size and physicality certainly had something to do with that. But we kept fighting. We kept digging. We got ourselves back in the game and gave ourselves a chance to win it. Unfortunately, we didn't execute the last play very well. I saw something. I thought Davion had one more pass to tie for an open three. So elected not to take the time-out, obviously, in retrospect. I'd do it different next time. Still proud of my team, really have enjoyed coaching this group. Hopefully, there's some basketball left for us.
Q. The last play, Ty-Shon, just what did you see, and what were you trying to do with the final shot?
TY-SHON ALEXANDER: I was trying to create a play for one of my teammates to hopefully either get a wide open three or eventually just try to get a play down the stretch to get
"Teeny" a wide open look up in the paint, as well, but somehow they just didn't execute.
Q. Greg, you sort of mentioned you hoped that there's some basketball left. I guess what would your case be for Creighton to be included in the NCAA Tournament?
GREG McDERMOTT: We're -- I think we're 3-7 when we have -- when either Marcus was out or Damien Jefferson was out. Obviously, Damien Jefferson is still not totally back to normal and hasn't played a lot. 15-7 against a really good schedule on the year. It just depends. It depends if playing a good schedule is going to be rewarded. We played one of the better schedules, top ten schedule in the country, and if that's important, then we'll have a shot. If the committee decides that it's not that important, then we won't.
I don't think anybody really knows what this new NET means, how much they're going to use it. I think everybody had an idea in the past. If your RPI is terrible, you're probably not getting in. If your RPI's good, it doesn't necessarily mean you're in, but at least you're in the conversation. I just don't know that anybody understands exactly what's going to happen. So we'll wait and see. Hope we get in. If we don't, we'll give it everything we have in the NIT.
Q. Greg, early in the first half, you guys were playing a really good pace. You guys were making shots early. Did they do something to slow you down specifically, or was it more on you guys just not hitting looks after that?
GREG McDERMOTT: I think we had three turnovers in the last seven possessions of the first half, seven or eight possessions, and they scored on the last three. So, obviously, you're taking it out of the net, it's hard to have pace. But I thought we had some guys that maybe had the jitters a little bit. Obviously, it's -- besides our freshmen that we're playing and sophomores in a new role, really, this is Martin's first experience in the Garden. He didn't play much as a freshman. He was hurt last year. So it's the first time that, even though he's a fourth-year junior, first time he's experienced it, and I think until you've been there and done it, I think the enormity of it can maybe get to you. I think at times it did us today.
I just didn't think we were ourselves with our pace, with our ball movement at times, and then we have really been flying around defensively and forcing our opponents into errors, and today we weren't able to do that. Again, that's a credit to Xavier and their ball security.
Q. Coach, as the team went through some droughts throughout the game, what were some points of emphasis that you harped on to keep your team engaged in? As you saw, you guys were able to make a run at the end.
GREG McDERMOTT: We've been really good defensively really, and today, I think it was a 65-possession game, and they had 63 points. Over the last 10, 11 games, we've held teams, on average, below one point per possession. So we felt like our defense could be good enough to get us back in the game if we just stick to things. And we did, for the most part. Obviously, Hankins had a great night, or a great afternoon, and some of the guys that you would probably worry about a little bit more in Marshall and Scruggs and Goodin, you know, their numbers weren't great. The rest of the team, I think, was 15-45, and Hankins goes 11 of 15. We didn't have an answer for him. His offensive rebounds, it seemed like every one was a back breaker.
We were fine in the huddles. We had full confidence we could get back in the game and win the game defensively and then with our ball movement on the other end of the floor.
Q. Greg, just a couple of questions about the end. Did you consider going big at all knowing that offensive rebound was a possibility, I guess, on that last possession?
GREG McDERMOTT: Well, they had four guards in, so no. You know, like somebody would have had to guard a guard out on the perimeter. So we got him -- actually, Goodin took a long two, which is exactly the shot we wanted him to take. We just didn't clean up that back side on the boards. I didn't see what happened. I'd have to go look at it on film to see if he just made a great play or if we missed a blockout.
Q. And then your last possession, I would imagine, ideally, you wouldn't want to wait until the end, but was that the message to wait for the last shot?
GREG McDERMOTT: No. We had a play call that just didn't get executed. When it broke down, like I said, when Davion got it back, I felt like two guys ran at him and left Ty-Shon, and I thought he had the opportunity for one more pass to Ty-Shon. When Ty-Shon caught it, whether he didn't catch it clean, he decided not to shoot it on the catch, and by then, it was a little late to take a time-out.
Q. Coach, I'm looking at the board as we're looking at percentages. Free throws. You had eight free throws for the entire game, hit three of them, 3 of 8. That's five points right there. Is there -- you were happy with the shot that you got because he can hit it as far as the three-pointer is concerned, but driving to the hoop, was there a reason that the fear of going down low against Xavier?
GREG McDERMOTT: Obviously, they've got some length down there with Jones and Hankins. When we got in there, we missed some layups the first half. We had some really good opportunities close to the basket that we didn't finish. While we struggled shooting free throws in November and December, we've been a really good free-throw shooting team in conference play. Today we missed him. The good news is I think they only had 12. We haven't been a team that's fouled a lot, and as long as we're not putting them on the free-throw line a lot, we're good with that. We just missed our free throws and the opportunities we had today.
Q. Martin, just what, for you, was a difference in the second half? Obviously, you got going and made some buckets. What was the difference for you?
MARTIN KRAMPELJ: Just got more comfortable with the space around me, just like Coach Mac said, that's probably the first time for me playing in here. Just taking advantage of what they gave me and tried to take it to the hoop.
Team Stats
CU
XU
FG%
.400
.433
3FG%
.333
.222
FT%
.375
.583
RB
29
36
TO
9
9
STL
6
4
Game Leaders
Pts
21
FGM
8
3FGM
4
FTM
1
Pts
14
FGM
7
3FGM
0
FTM
0
Pts
10
FGM
3
3FGM
3
FTM
1
Pts
8
FGM
3
3FGM
2
FTM
0
Players Mentioned
G
/ Men's Basketball
G
/ Men's Basketball
G/F
/ Men's Basketball
F
/ Men's BasketballG
/ Men's BasketballCreighton Men's Basketball Availability - 9/24/25
Wednesday, September 24
Meet the Jays - MBB Blake Harper
Friday, August 15
Meet the Jays - MBB Austin Swartz
Friday, August 15
Meet the Jays - MBB Jasen Green
Friday, August 15
