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With 2½ minutes left in regulation Tuesday night, Creighton trailed Evansville 79-75.

Colt Ryan came off a down screen, caught the ball 18 feet from the basket and buried a fadeaway jumper, his 38th and 39th points of the night.

Ryan usually doesn't reveal emotion on the floor. This time, he couldn't help himself. He raised his index finger to his lips, sending a message to the Creighton crowd.

Shhhh.

Creighton got the win in overtime, but Ryan finished with an arena record and career high-43 points on 17-of-24 shooting. He almost had 46, but his 3-point attempt in the final five seconds of overtime hit the front iron.

"That's one of the best individual offensive performances I've ever seen," Creighton coach Greg McDermott said.

Said Ryan: "I'd give all 43 of them back for a win."

For the Bluejays, it was the latest frustrating episode in a disappointing season defensively. Few teams in the country can score like Creighton. But few good teams get lit up as often as Creighton.

Entering Tuesday, six players had scored 29 points or more against the Jays this season. Northwestern's Drew Crawford topped the list at 34. On Tuesday night, Ryan eclipsed 34 with seven minutes left in regulation.

He had 16 of Evansville's 40 in the first half, including a 3 at the buzzer. Turned out, that was just the warm-up act. In the second half, he hit 9 of 10 shots. You could've thrown a blanket over five of them.

Time and again, Ryan curled off a down screen and buried jumpers from mid-range, the area of the floor very few scorers exploit in the era of the 3-point shot.

Greg McDermott went triangle-and-two the first possession of the second half. The Jays gave up an open jumper. McDermott tried zone. Another open jumper. He decided to stick with man-to-man.

At Evansville on Feb. 7, McDermott said, the Jays got beat on some slips. When Ryan caught the ball off a curl, the help defender — usually Gregory Echenique — got too far away from the basket, allowing Ryan to slip the ball to his big man.

"We adjusted to that and maybe kept Gregory too close to the basket," McDermott said. "In hindsight, it was probably a mistake.

"But our feeling was, let's attempt to keep them off the free-throw line. Let's limit their layups. If they're going to beat us, let's make them beat us with perimeter jump shots with a hand in their face. To their credit, they made a lot of them."

Lately, a lot of Creighton foes have made a lot of shots.

Evansville shot 59 percent from the field. Long Beach State shot 59 percent. Southern Illinois shot 50 percent. Wichita State shot 58 percent.

Antoine Young knows Creighton's recent history defensively. He also knows the Jays have a tendency to give up career nights to individual scorers.

The key, he said, is limiting easy baskets early in the game. Ryan got a few good looks, Young said, and the basket started looking bigger to his eye.

McDermott didn't criticize his team's defense.

"I'm not sure the shots Colt Ryan made tonight were any different than the shots he missed in Evansville (when he went 3 for 12)," McDermott said. "I thought we had a hand there."

One of Creighton's best defensive possessions of the night, McDermott said, came with just over a minute left in overtime.

Echenique got caught on a switch against Ryan. Evansville coaches recognized the mismatch and waved off Ryan's teammates. Ryan waited and waited to make a move. Echenique glanced at Greg McDermott on the Creighton bench, wondering what to do.

McDermott's response: "You better bend your knees, son."

Echenique did. And the Evansville marksman missed the 3.

Colt Ryan didn't get his wish. Creighton fans didn't hush. But on the last home night of the season, they did let out a sigh of relief.

Contact the writer:

402-649-1461, dirk.chatelain@owh.com

twitter.com/dirkchatelain

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