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 On Thursday night, the Creighton senior forward etched his name
in the Garden and Big East tournament record books with a sterling
first-half performance on the way to the Bluejays' 84-62 win over
the DePaul Blue Demons in the quarterfinals.
McDermott, the Big East Conference Player of the Year, scored 35
points, the most by a player in his Big East tournament debut. He
set a tournament record for most points in a half, pouring in 27 in
the opening 20 mintues for No. 14 Creighton (25-6), the tournament's
second seed.
It marked the 25th time that McDermott has scored at least 30 points
this season.
"The Garden is about as good as it gets," McDermott said. "I watched
the (Big East) tournament a lot. You remember the Kemba (Walker)
moment, so many great games. So just to be part of it definitely was
in the back of my mind.
"In warm-ups, it felt surreal out there."
Creighton plays the Xavier-Marquette winner in the semifinals on
Friday.
 DePaul (12-21) now has 50 straight losses to ranked opponents.
The Blue Demons, who advanced to the second round of the tournament
for only the second time since joining a conference, were led by
guard Brandon Young, who scored 22 points. Young passed Doug Corzine
for third place on the school's scoring list with 1,899 points.
"I think Brandon (Young) exemplifies what our program is all about,"
DePaul coach Oliver Purnell said. "He wouldn't say this, but I think
he's playing his best basketball by far coming down the stretch when
we needed him most.
"I'll say to him (Young) now what I said in the locker room. If he
(Young) battles like this in anything he does, not only basketball,
but anything he does beyond basketball and sticks to it, he's going
to be successful."
Creighton leads the nation in 3-point percentage (42.0) and averages
10.3 per game. The Bluejays enjoyed one of their better shooting
performances, going 32-for-53 (60.4 percent) and were 14-for-22
beyond the arc.
The responsibility of shooting the long ball usually falls to
Creighton forward Ethan Wragge, but against DePaul, McDermott took
over that aspect of the offense, making a personal season-high seven
3's.
"I was just feeling in the rhythm, in the zone," McDermott. "I just
happened to get going and my teammates recognized that I had the hot
hand.
"It just felt like everything is going to go in. It's one of those
feelings where you just feel like you have all the energy and
confidence in the world."
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DePaul got as close as 10 points at 60-50 after a layup from guard
Billy Garrett Jr. with 9:30 left, but Creighton extended its lead to
20 points at 72-52 by going on a 12-2 run with 5:50 remaining.
McDermott put on a long-range jump shooting exhibition in the first
half. Scoring from all areas beyond the perimeter, he poured in 27
first-half points to lead Creighton to a 49-29 lead.
He was inexplicably left open on the outside in the first half and
he took advantage, drilling 7 of 9 3-point attempts. The Bluejays
were 10-for-16 from 3-point range.
Creighton came out and accomplished what it is known for — draining
3-pointers. The Bluejays sank six of their first nine and took a
20-8 lead. McDermott scored 11 of those points and guard Jahenns
Manigat contributed nine.
When Creighton lost to St. John's 70-65 at Madison Square Garden in
early February, McDermott was held scoreless in the last seven
minutes of the game.
"St. John's did a great job there in the second half," McDermott
said. "But a lot of it was my fault. I kind of quit moving with the
ball a little.
"I wanted to come in today with a mindset just to continue to keep
moving, to be aggressive. It's not only going to give me shots, but
it's going to get shots for my teammates."
NOTES: Creighton F Doug McDermott was selected the Big East's Player
of the Week eight times this season — the most for a player in the
history of the conference. ... McDermott is looking to become the
first player in Big East history to lead the nation in scoring. He
was averaging 26.5 points per game before Thursday. ... Bluejays F
Ethan Wragge took the highest percentage (98 percent) of 3-point
shots in the country this season. Out of his 98 made field goals
this season, 96 came from 3-point range. ... DePaul used 12 starting
lineups in 18 Big East Conference games this season.
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