North Dakota vs. Creighton – Game Recap – November 10, 2022 – ESPN

OMAHA, Neb. — — After a flat efficiency in its opener, No. 9 Creighton appeared just like the group it was anticipated to be.

Ryan Kalkbrenner scored a career-high 24 factors and the Bluejays completed off North Dakota early in a 96-61 rout on Thursday night time. It was an enormous enchancment from Monday, once they did not draw back from St. Thomas till the ultimate 10 minutes of a 72-60 win.

“We had been just a bit extra locked in at follow main as much as the sport this time,” Kalkbrenner mentioned. “We weren’t essentially overlooking anyone, however I feel there was just a bit little bit of wake-up name on Monday. It was like, ‘Let’s simply be locked in for this one to have a great sport,’ as a result of I don’t assume any of us had been actually too pleased with how we performed on Monday.”

Creighton (2-0) missed 5 of its first six pictures and dedicated three early turnovers, permitting North Dakota to take a quick lead.

Then the Bluejays took off on a 29-3 run.

They contested nearly each North Dakota shot, bought out in transition with their superior athletes and rode the momentum to a 53-22 halftime lead.

“Once you’re taking part in protection at a excessive stage like we did within the first half, the factor that we like to do is get out and run,” level guard Ryan Nembhard mentioned. “Once you get the momentum on our facet, I really feel like we’re probably the greatest groups within the nation as a result of all people within the fitness center will get will get us going after which we feed off of that.”

The 31-point margin on the break was Creighton’s largest in opposition to a Division I opponent because it led South Carolina Upstate by 34, 58-24, on Dec. 20, 2017, in line with Sportradar.

“I assumed they appeared like a top-10 group in the present day,” North Dakota coach Paul Sather mentioned. “We simply actually let a poor early stretch put us in a foul spot and we simply didn’t reply, they usually ran it up on us.”

Tsotne Tsartsidze made 4 of 5 3s and led the Hawks with 16 factors.

The Bluejays bounced again from their 8-for-34 3-point capturing in opposition to St. Thomas with a 12-for-27 effort. They had been 7 of 14 from distance within the decisive first half.

“I knew we had been a greater capturing group than what we confirmed the opposite night time, and I feel you noticed some snapshots of that tonight,” Creighton coach Greg McDermott mentioned.

Because the Bluejays discovered success on the perimeter, the 7-foot-1 Kalkbrenner was in a position to do his factor within the publish. Kalkbrenner had the flu on Monday and was a step gradual in opposition to St. Thomas. North Dakota had no reply for him. He had three straight dunks whereas making seven of his first eight pictures and completed 10 for 11 in 24 minutes.

Requested if he expects to be a quantity scorer all through the season, Kalkbrenner mentioned, “We’ve bought 5 guys simply within the beginning group, they’ll have 20 on any given night time. So this in all probability received’t be the final one. However you may see quite a lot of it from quite a lot of totally different guys this 12 months.”

BIG PICTURE

North Dakota: The Hawks bought a paycheck for scheduling the sport, and Sather was in a position to meet up with McDermott, who employed him as a graduate assistant when he was at Division II Wayne State within the Nineteen Nineties.

Creighton: This sport was a whole turnaround for the Bluejays, who had been lax defensively, out of sync offensively and appeared uninterested at instances in opposition to St. Thomas. As soon as they bought right into a rhythm, they had been practically unstoppable.

STAT PACK

The Bluejays outrebounded the Hawks 49-20, together with 21-2 on the offensive finish, and outscored the Hawks 24-0 on second-chance factors. … North Dakota is the ninth Division I group to lose by at the very least 35 factors to the Bluejays since 2017. … Creighton’s Trey Alexander made 4 3s and had 14 factors. … Nembhard scored all 9 of his factors within the second half and completed with six assists.

UP NEXT

North Dakota performs 5 of its subsequent six video games at dwelling, beginning with Pacific on Tuesday.

Creighton performs the third of 4 straight dwelling video games in opposition to Holy Cross on Monday.

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AP school basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://twitter.com/AP–Top25