Creighton men's basketball starts the season with a win at home

By Matt Kirkle, Contributor

(OMAHA, Neb.)—After COVID cancelled the No. 11 Bluejays trip to Sioux Falls to play in the Crossover Classic, they finally tipped off their season Sunday afternoon against North Dakota State. Despite not having Denzel Mahoney, struggling from 3-point range, and seeing a shaky performance from Big East preseason Player of the Year, Marcus Zegarowski, Creighton used a balanced scoring attack to push themselves past the Bison.

North Dakota State has lost a large portion of their offensive identity from last season’s Summit League championship team, losing leading scorers in Vinnie Shahid, Tyson Ward, and Jared Samuelson. Their transition has been evident as the Bison had shot just 29% as a team in their first two games of the season—but they found a way to jump start their offense against the Bluejays in the early going. North Dakota State made four of their first five shots and jumped out to a 10-4 lead with 16:37 left in the opening half.

Then Creighton, who hasn’t played a competitive game in 262 days, started shaking off some of that early season rust and awoke from their long slumber. Their production was kick started by redshirt sophomore Antwann Jones, a Memphis transfer who started in the place of Mahoney. Jones scored nine straight points to spark a 21-5 run that saw seven Bluejays score during the stretch, putting Creighton up 25-15 with 8:36 left in the first half. Mitch Ballock, preseason 2nd Team All-Big East selection, was heavily involved in the first half. He hit two 3-pointers and finished the half with 10 points, only trailing Jones who had 11.

 Zegarowski struggled to hit shots throughout the game but especially from three. He finished just 2-of-11 from three-point range, but still found ways to bring electricity to the Bluejay offense. He led the team with six assists on the game and hit a buzzer-beating jumper to end the half, providing momentum heading into the halftime intermission. Creighton led at the break, 36-24.

Christian Bishop, who had three points at the half, came to life in the second half and led the Creighton attack the rest of the way. He scored the first seven Bluejay points coming out of the locker room, and more importantly he was scoring efficiently. He would finish a perfect 6-of-6 from the floor in the second half, and his burst of points in the beginning of the half helped set the tone for the rest of the game. Despite the fact that three’s weren’t falling, shooting just 23% on the game, Creighton steadily increased their lead throughout the half. It wasn’t the high-powered Creighton offense seen in late-February of last season, but the Bluejays settled in and found their groove. A Ryan Kalkbrenner jumper gave Creighton their largest lead of the game with a 65-42 advantage with 5:57 left.

North Dakota State would put together a last-ditch scoring effort together in the final 4:00 of the game, but Creighton would hold off the Bison and win 69-58. Four Creighton players scored in double-figures, led by Bishop with 16 points. Zegarowski finished with 12, followed by Ballock and Jones with 11. Rocky Kreuser led the Bison with 16. Creighton will host Omaha on Tuesday at 4:00, marking the first meeting between the crosstown schools in the last 25 years.