Creighton and Colorado State will meet in a Paradise Jam semifinal between undefeated teams on Sunday in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands.
Creighton (4-0) had little trouble in a 78-57 win over Brown in its quarterfinal victory Friday.
Colorado State (4-0) had to work harder and needed a magnificent performance from David Roddy to pull out a 66-60 win over Bradley earlier in the day.
Ryan Kalkbrenner scored a game-high 19 points as all five Creighton starters finished in double figures in a win that saw the Bluejays jump out to a 24-10 lead after seven minutes and never look back.
Ryan Hawkins scored 15 points, while Arthur Kaluma and Alex O’Connell added 13 apiece and Ryan Nembhard chipped in 10. The Bluejays shot 55.9 percent from the field and 35.7 percent (5 of 14) from 3-point range, led by Hawkins, who was 3 of 4 from beyond the arc.
But Creighton coach Greg McDermott was even more pleased with his team’s effort defensively. The Bluejays held the Bears to 36.6 percent shooting from the field and 18.2 percent (4 of 22) from deep, in addition to forcing 17 turnovers.
“We got to their shooters pretty well,” he told ESPN after the game. “This group is doing a great job defensively and has picked up a lot of what we asked of them.”
Colorado State wouldn’t be in the semifinals if not for Roddy, who took over the game in dominating fashion.
Roddy scored a career-high 30 points on 10-of-14 shooting and added a game-high nine rebounds to help the Rams rally from a 27-21 halftime deficit and remain undefeated.
The Rams opened the second half on a 24-15 run to take a 45-42 lead they wouldn’t relinquish following James Moors’ jumper with 10 minutes left in the game.
Roddy, who is averaging 25.0 points the past three games, was buffered against the Braves by Dischon Thomas, who scored 11 points, and John Tonje, who came off the bench to score 13.
“I’ve got a group that’s been through this before,” Colorado State coach Niko Medved said. “We had to keep our composure, settle down, figure out what we needed to do, execute a lot more soundly, trust what we do, and I thought we did that. And obviously, David Roddy was just a man.”
–Field Level Media
