Former Connolly standout Cooper Creek continues to shine, lead by example in college

WORCESTER — It’s been three years since Cooper Creek last graced the parquet at Bishop Connolly, but his the impact of his time there, both on himself and the program, won't soon be forgotten.

The 6-foot-8 forward from Merredin, Australia took the Mayflower League by storm during his two season stint with the Cougars in 2017-18 and 2018-19, particularly in his senior season where he averaged 22.7 points, 13.7 rebound and five blocks as he helped lead Connolly all the way to the Division 4 South semifinals before falling to eventual Division 4 finalist Abington and was named the 2018-19 MAC Comprehensive Player of the Year and the 2019 Herald News Boys Basketball Player of the Year.

From there, Creek embarked on a summer of AAU action with the Boston Bobcats and Mass Rivals, garnering the attention of several prep schools and colleges before spending a year at the Williston Northampton School in Easthampton, where he averaged 15 points, nine rebounds and three blocks for the Wildcats before committing to Division II Assumption University in the spring of 2020 during one of the more hectic college commitment cycles ever seen.

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Now a college junior, Creek is again coming into his own with the Greyhounds, averaging 14 points, 7.6 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game through his first seven games of the season.

"Individually I’ve been feeling pretty good," Creek said. "I’ve been shooting the ball pretty well, and (we have) as a group as well."

In Assumption's 68-67 win against NE-10 foes St. Michael's College, Creek led the way in rebounds with 12 while also scoring 10 points, including a pair of three-pointers, and adding two blocks as the Greyhounds earned their first league win of the 2022-23 campaign after a pair of narrow losses to Franklin Pierce and American International.

"We’ve been in a few close games, which obviously you don’t want to lose those, but in terms of where we’re at as a team, I’d rather be in close games than getting blown out so I think we’re in a good spot to progress going forward," Creek said.

Additionally, with a mix of young talent and more experienced players taking on bigger roles, Creek feels like Assumption is a good spot to build on their successes of the past couple seasons.

"We’ve got six young guys coming in, we’ve got a bunch of guys like myself taking on new roles so I think we’re in a good spot to keep on growing," Creek said.

For Assumption coach Scott Faucher, it's Creek's skills and size mixed with work ethic, shooting abilities and team-first mentality that makes him a crucial player for the Greyhounds.

"(Creek is a) selfless individual who will do anything that helps the team," Faucher said. "Most importantly, (he is a) positive role model in his community and always conduct himself in a positive manner on and off the court."

It's a winning formula the now 21-year-old has developed over the course of a journey that's taken him across the globe in pursuit of his ultimate dream of being a professional basketball player.

From the Outback to the Spindle City

For Creek, basketball is in his blood.

His father Wayne Creek played semi-professional basketball throughout the ’90s and ’00s for the Goldfields Giants of Australia’s NBL1 West, later going on to coach the Kalgoorlie, Western Australia-based club from 2010-2011 and again from 2019-2022, before moving on to another coaching opportunity in Perth, while his four younger brothers, including fellow former Cougar Paxton Creek, all are involved in the game as well.

In addition to basketball, Creek also grew up playing Australian rules football, or simply football or footy to most Aussies, a fast-paced, physical game which involves a lot of jumping and jostling for control of the ball, skills which Creek says have carried over well into basketball, particularly when it comes to rebounding and blocking.

“Growing up I’d play basketball about five or six months of the year and then I’d play (Australian) football for the next six,“ Creek said, noting he found it a bit of a culture shock when he came to the States and saw many athletes playing basketball yearlong.

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“It’s a lot different to how it is here," Creek said. "Growing up in Australia really helped me appreciate other sports and helped me hone skills that I wouldn’t have if I grew up over here, because I wouldn’t be able to kick a footy and that comes over here and helps me on the court, so that type of upbringing back home really helps me now in ways I still don’t understand, but it helps me out on the court.”

With basketball, like most sports in Australia, only offered at the club level, and looking for ways to grow and improve in the game, Cooper’s mother Peta suggested he look at studying abroad in the United States and at the age of 15 he did just that, embarking on a journey across the globe from Merredin to the halls of B.M.C. Durfee High School in Fall River in December 2016.

While attending Durfee, Creek’s host father just so happened to be Brian Shea, brother of Bishop Connolly boys basketball coach Bill Shea, who immediately saw potential in the young man.

“Right away I could tell he was interested in learning," Shea said. "He had good hands and he had big hands and he was dunking the ball and I was like 'you learn how to play a little bit of offense and you can be a scholarship player.' I saw it right away, just the way he was built. His commitment and work ethic was like a pro. He was all about getting better and learning and very coachable and he had abilities and before you know it he was knocking back threes."

Creek took a liking to Shea as well, deciding to come back to Fall River the following school year and enroll at Bishop Connolly as well as play basketball, which did take a bit of an adjustment at first.

"His first game for Connolly, he had 11 points, 10 rebounds and nine blocks, and nine turnovers,” Shea said. “He fouled out and he was not ready for the physicality, he was not ready for the speed of the game, so it took him four or five games his junior year to get used to the quickness and the physicality because he hadn't played at that intensity back in Australia.”

As for Creek himself, it was diving in head first while working on his fundamentals with Shea that he felt helped propel him to success.

"I think, just getting thrown into the fire pretty much, and just trying to work every day just to get better really helped me escalate my game pretty quickly,” Creek said. ”I think it’s really helped me work on my mindset more than anything else. When I first got here, I was a little more timid and Coach Shea… had to yell at me to shoot the ball, so now it’s really more aggressive and working on stuff everyday and that’s probably just built in over the course of my playing career so far.”

As he began to feel more comfortable in the game, including developing a solid three-point shot, word began to get out more and more of the Cougars’ new star, and Creek quickly felt the love of the Greater Fall River community.

“Towards the end of my junior year when I was doing really well and into my senior year when more and more people started coming to the games and I meant more and more people, it just really meant a lot,” Creek said. ”It really made me feel like Fall River was like a home for me, even though it can be a little bit crazy at times, but I really enjoyed it there and I almost claim that area as a sort of ‘home away from home.’”

For two years, Creek starred for the Cougars on the court, earning MAC All-Star and Herald News All-Scholastic accolades in both campaigns.

“When I got there and got my two seasons, playing regular high school ball under Coach Shea, I felt like my game just kept on getting better and better,” Creek said. ”Prior to when I got here, I was OK, but I couldn’t shoot like I can now. All I could do was really rebound and make layups and just block shots pretty much, so I think having the high school experience has really helped me to get to where I am today.”

Nearly three years after graduating from Connolly, Creek said he still appreciates those who helped him along the way, including former coaches, teammates, classmates and the Phillips family of Tiverton, with whom he lived his senior year.

“I really think the Fall River area has played a big part in where I am today,” Creek said.

To prep school and beyond

After a successful summer of AAU basketball in 2019, Creek opted to go the prep school route as he headed out to Western Massachusetts to attend the Williston Northampton School.

“It was a different experience,” Creek said. “It was my first time at boarding school, I know I’ve been an exchange student for a little while, but living on my own was different. I think I was a little bit further along than most kids, considering I was away from my parents (for so long) but I really enjoyed it.”

While with the Wildcats, Creek had the chance to compete against some of the top tier talent of the England Prep School Athletic Conference, including Mac Etienne, who now plays for UCLA, and Kyle Filipowski, who plays for Duke.

“(Playing there gave me) a bunch of good competition that helped me to escalate my game and overall be seen,“ Creek said. ”Being able to get in the gym whenever I wanted (and) having the shooting machine was big for me as well because I didn’t need to get anybody to come and rebound, all of those little things that prep schools offer really helped me to keep working.”

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Creek also credited Williston Northampton coach Ben Farmer as a big help in growing his game during his time in Easthampton.

While with the Wildcats, Creek began to gain more attention from NCAA Division I and Division II basketball programs, though unfortunately for him, the end of his prep season and start of the college commitment process coincided with the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.

“During that time scholarships were getting taken away left, right and center because AAU wasn’t going to be a thing that summer,” Creek said.

It was also during that time that one coach and one program in particular began to stand out: Assumption.

“Coach Faucher was really, really good at that time because if I’d call him, he’d pick up. If I sent him a message, he’d hit me back up in 10 to 20 minutes so he was just really accommodating in that sense and I felt like Assumption would provide me with the best opportunity to really improve my game and give me a good platform to continue to grow as a person and I felt like I’d enjoy it here which I have thus far,” Creek said.

He was also impressed with the way Faucher turned the program around after taking the reigns following the 2019-20 season.

“One of the biggest things I noticed was the change in play style and enthusiasm from one year to the next,” Creek said. ”(When Faucher took over) it was like something just clicked in the program and everyone was just loving playing and moving up and down and enjoying each other.”

After not seeing action in his freshman season, Creek made his debut for the Greyhounds last year as a sophomore, appearing in 20 games scoring 93 points, including 23 three-pointers, and recording 59 rebounds, 10 blocks and three steals in 268 minutes of action.

“Last year starting off, it was definitely more of a character year to start off,” Creek said. ”I wasn’t playing a bunch and I hurt my knee, so I was really trying to just learn and learn a lot really quickly so I could get into the position where I could play and I think having that mindset has really helped me on the backend and now this year coming into more of a bigger role on the team.”

Still Creek says he has plenty he needs to work on.

“I’m still learning,” Creek said. ”I’ve got to be a bit more vocal on the court when I get tired, it’s just little things like that which make a big impact on the court, so I think so far it’s helped me grow my game leaps and bounds and hopefully for the next season and the one after and possibly the one after I can continue to do so.”

His dedication to learning and improving his craft through hard work and determination, as well as his team-first mentality, is something that goes noticed by those around him.

“From a basketball standpoint, Creek is one of the best shooters I’ve ever been around and he is constantly working to improve other areas of (his) game,” Faucher said.

“He's so team-oriented,” Shea said. “He's just that kind of guy. His work ethic is very mature. He's more mature than the average kid that age. He came all the way across the world at 15 years old not knowing anybody. He came over and just made the most of it.”

His work ethic has helped make him into a role model for some of his freshman teammates, including 2022 Dave Cowens Award winner and 2021-22 Taunton Daily Gazette Boys Basketball Player of the Year Trent Santos.

“Coop is like the ideal (college athlete): he eats right, everyone will go to the dining hall and eat pizza and burgers and he’ll eat a salad and things like that,” Santos said. ”He watches film, he’s always in here shooting, so he’s a role model for me here for sure.”

As for going forward, Creek said he is focused on the immediate success of his team this season and playing in part in helping to ensure it.

“It sounds a bit cliche, but I’m really focused on the present,” Creek said. ”Obviously we have goals, like I want us to continue to grow as a team, especially with young guys to continue to build the culture, especially just working out all of the time and really trying to hone in on each other, like iron sharpens iron. For this season, hopefully we can just keep improving on the last one, make the NE-10 playoffs and really make some noise towards the end, but we’ve still got 21 games until we can do that, so we just take it one game at a time, one practice at a time and one workout at a time and just continue to build and build as a team and I think we’re moving in the right direction.”

Taunton Daily Gazette and Herald News sports reporter Cameron Merritt can be reached at cmerritt@tauntongazette.com. You can follow him on Twitter at @CamMerritt_News. Support local journalism by purchasing a digital or print subscription to the The Herald News today.