No. 7 Bluejays lead St. John’s by 17 at half without Zegarowski

Photo courtesy Creighton Athletics

By Ana Bellinghausen, Editor-in-chief

With Marcus Zegarowski announced inactive minutes before tipoff due to a reported hamstring injury from yesterday’s practice, Shereef Mitchell got the starting nod for today’s matchup against St. John’s. The Omaha native sunk a three-pointer for the Jays off the starting possession, setting the tone for top ranked Creighton. 

After five minutes of play, Big East foe St. John’s only trailed by a point, making the score 14-13 with 15 minutes left of the first half. The Red Storm’s Julian Champagnie tacked on 9 of those 13 points.

With 10:17 to play, St. John’s head coach Mike Anderson called a timeout after the Jays went on an 8-0 run to open up the game to a 28-19 lead. 

Back to back three’s by the Duke transfer Alex O’Connell carried the Creighton advantage to 37-25 with 7:56 left in the first half. That marked O’Connell’s third three-pointer of the day, putting him at 100% behind the arc.

With 4:44 left before half, Creighton rolled to a 14-point lead after a two Ryan Kalkbrenner dunks. This sequence gave Kalkbrenner nine points to his name, matching O'Connell's team high nine total points.

At 2:22 in the first, Denzel Mahoney sank a three to also tie Kalkbrenner and O’Connell with nine points on the score sheet. 

On the opposing side, Champagnie continued to lead the Red Storm in scoring with 16 points and two rebounds going into the break.

Despite Champagnie’s efforts, the Jays led 56-39 at midway with scoring leader Mahoney contributing 11 points and two assists.