The last thing Creighton coach Greg McDermott wanted was to get crushed by No. 19 Gonzaga, a perennial power.
Unfortunately for the No. 23 Bluejays (1-1), that is exactly what happened in a 90-63 loss Tuesday.
McDermott, however, predicts his team will bounce back just fine Friday when it hosts Maryland Eastern Shore (1-3) in Omaha, Neb.
“The second half was just a nightmare,” McDermott said. “We played soft on offense and it carried over to what we were doing on the defensive end of the floor. Then it was just a learning opportunity.”
The Bluejays trailed by only six points at halftime, but Gonzaga outscored them 46-25 in the second half, including a 21-0 run.
Creighton shot just 36.7% (18 of 49) from the floor and 28% (7 of 25) from the 3-point line.
The Bluejays turned the ball over 18 times and were outrebounded 41-33.
McDermott said he wants to see a lot more of the first-half Bluejays than the second-half Bluejays.
“The first half was a great half of basketball,” he said. “I really like what we did defensively. We rotated very well.”
Blake Harper and Nik Graves led the Big East school with 12 points each.
Graves, a 6-foot-2 guard, leads the team in scoring with 13.5 points per game. He is a transfer from Charlotte, where he started all 33 games last season as a junior and hit double figures in 31 of them.
He led the team with 17.5 points per game and was 15th in the nation in free throws with 233 attempted. He made 180 of them (77.3%).
Forward Owen Freeman is averaging 10.5 points per game for Creighton.
The 6-10 Freeman is a transfer from Iowa, where he started the first 19 games of the season but missed the remainder due to finger surgery. With the Hawkeyes, he averaged 16.7 points and 6.7 rebounds a game and shot 63.8%.
The Hawks of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference also are coming off a loss, a 69-50 defeat Tuesday at Nebraska.
The Hawks had just one field goal in the first 6:38 of the second half and trailed by 31 with just under 12 minutes to go.
Nebraska won the turnover battle 16-7 and outscored the Hawks on the inside 36-16.
The Hawks shot just 31% from the floor, hitting 18 of 58 shots.
“We struggled to make the right decisions on offense, and I thought we did not do a good enough job of sharing the ball,” second-year coach Cleo Hill Jr. said after the game. “We have to regroup. I think we have some correctable areas to work on over the next few days and try to get ready for a tough matchup Friday against a nationally ranked Creighton basketball team.”
Trey Hall led the Hawks with a career-best 11 points.
The Hawks are led by 6-foot-9 senior forward Joseph Locandro, who had 10 points and four rebounds against the Cornhuskers. Locandro is averaging 10.5 points and 4.3 rebounds per game.
