PITTSBURGH — In a matchup of two of the best bigs in the NCAA Tournament’s Midwest Region, both Creighton’s Ryan Kalkbrenner and Akron’s Enrique Freeman did not disappoint.
Freeman tied David Robinson’s NCAA single-season double-doubles record with his 31st, but it was Kalkbrenner and the third-seeded Bluejays who would eventually get the better of the No. 14 Zips. Creighton used a 20-7 run to open the second half and pull away for a 77-60 win in their first round game Thursday afternoon.
“I thought we took really good shots, and when we take really good shots, we’re a pretty good basketball team,” Creighton coach Greg McDermott said. “And we gotta clean up some things with some of the turnovers, but defensively I thought we adjusted as the game went on and did a much better job in the second half.”
Kalkbrenner led all scorers with 23 points, while Trey Alexander added 19. Baylor Scheierman, the Big East’s leader in double-doubles this season, recorded his 16th with 15 points and 13 rebounds.
Freeman, the nation’s leader in double-doubles with 30, hit the point threshold midway through the first half and finished with 15 in the frame, nine of which came from beyond the arc.
“The most [threes] he’s ever shot in a game this year was three, and he shot 47 on the year, so we really didn’t think coming in that he would be willing to shoot eight three-point shots,” McDermott said. “So we had to adjust, obviously, as the game went on.”
The 6-foot-8 forward, who walked on at Akron via an open tryout and played his way into becoming an honorable mention All-American, reached the record with 11:26 to go in the second, finishing with 21 points and 14 rebounds.
Creighton (24-9) shot 58.8% from 3-point range (10-of-17), while holding Akron (24-11) to just 6-of-28 from the same.
After each side sprinted out to 31 points and a tie game, both went scoreless for 3-plus minutes near the end of the first half before a Freeman hook rolled around and in to break the drought.
Creighton, playing on its highest seed line in a decade, answered with back-to-back threes, part of an 8-0 run in the final 2 minutes that gave it a six-point lead, 39-34, at halftime. After initially hitting at a 55.6% rate from the floor, Akron finished the half 1-of-9 shooting.
“We really struggled with turnovers in the first half, and in the last four minutes we were able to take care of the ball and get shots and stops,” Scheierman said, “and when we were able to do that, that’s when we really gained some separation.”
The Zips, champions of the MAC and making their second NCAA appearance in three seasons, reversed their fortunes with a 4-of-4 start to the second half, but Creighton’s relentless shooting allowed them to pull away. Helping was an Akron cold spell, with Freeman starting 0-of-5 in the second half and a mid-half 1-of-10 shooting stretch eventually dooming the Zips.
“I think it’s a little bit getting used to how he plays,” Kalkbrenner said of guarding Freeman. “You can watch someone on film a lot and get as used to it as you can, but at the end of the day he’s a really good player, and I just made some mental adjustments as to how I wanted to guard him in the post and did a little better job.”
The Jays scored 75 or more points for the 12th time in their last 15 games, and will face the winner of the second game of the day in Pittsburgh between No. 6 South Carolina and No. 11 Oregon.
• George Gerbo can be reached at ggerbo@washingtontimes.com.
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