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Morning After: Creighton Endures Epic Meltdown in Loss to Georgetown

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Maurice Watson has a moment of contemplation by himself on the court during Thursday's loss at Indiana. (Photo by Mark Davis / WBR)

[Box Score]

Key Stats:

Creighton outrebounded Georgetown 42-36, including a 16-11 edge on the offensive glass. The Jays outscore the Hoyas 15-8 on second-chance points. CU made 16 of their first 20 free throws (but just one of their last four). Creighton has just 10 turnovers, including only two in the second half before the final moments.

Deep breaths before this next one…

Creighton led for 32:43 in the game, and 18:40 in the second half. And lost.

Standout Performance:

Maurice Watson was fantastic, playing 38 minutes before fouling out in the final moments. He did everything — scored 16 points, had seven assists (including two or three ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS passes that shouldn’t have been successful, but were because Mo is a superhero without the cape), six rebounds including two offensive boards, and a steal. Oh, and he played great defense on the perimeter, too.

Geoff Groselle had 11 points, 8 rebounds and 2 blocks, while Zach Hanson had 12 points on 6-6 shooting and 2 boards, giving the Jays 23 points and 10 rebounds from their two centers. Cole Huff had one of his better all-around nights, scoring 14 points with 7 rebounds and even had a blocked shot.

If the final minutes had gone differently, there would be so many things we’d be excited about this morning. But they didn’t, and so the Bluejay fanbase is not. As this game gets further away in the rear-view mirror, we will, but not today.

Recap & Analysis:

The first half of Tuesday’s battle of second-place teams featured 11 lead changes, with Creighton and Georgetown going back-and-forth for most of the half. Trailing 24-21 with 6:29 to play, Zach Hanson made jumpers on two straight possessions to give the Jays a lead, kick-starting a 10-0 run that gave them a 31-24 edge at the final media timeout of the half. At that point, Hanson had eight points on 4-4 shooting, Watson had six points with seven rebounds and five assists, and the Jays were starting to dominate the game in every facet — outrebounding the Hoyas, doing what they wanted defensively, and getting good looks offensively even if they weren’t falling. Illustrating the latter point, they led Georgetown on the road by seven despite being 3-10 from three-point range, which shows just how well they were playing in every other facet of the game.

As they’ve done so many times before, unfortunately, they couldn’t finish. Creighton went 0-3 from three-point range over the final three minutes of the half, turn it over on two other possessions, and allowed Georgetown to rattle off an 8-0 run to take a 32-31 lead into the break. The Jays had been *this* close from taking a double-digit lead into the locker room, but thanks to another late-half meltdown, instead trailed by one.

It was short-lived, thankfully, as Groselle nailed a jumper 19 seconds into the second half to re-gain the lead, and a minute later, following a four-point play by the Hoyas’ Marcus Derrickson — courtesy of a Toby Hegner foul on a made-three — Hegner converted a three-point play of his own to put the Jays up 38-36.

Over the next 16 minutes, Creighton looked and played about as well as you could imagine. Against a good Georgetown team playing well, they withstood a run, re-took the lead, then steadily built a double-digit advantage and held it for most of the second half. They defended well, forcing Georgetown into several long scoring droughts while not giving up much (if anything) easy. They were tough inside, particularly Groselle and Hanson, preventing second-chance opportunities for the Hoyas while getting their own. Their forwards, particularly Huff and Hegner, weren’t great but had nice games on both ends of the court. Mo Watson looked like a Big East Player of the Year candidate, scoring himself and setting up his teammates for great looks with his ability to penetrate — his teammates got terrific looks around the perimeter all night, and even though they couldn’t make them, they had a lead. On the road. At Georgetown.

With 3:08 to play, Cole Huff calmly drained a pair of free throws to push the lead out to 11, and after a quick layup from Bradley Hayes, Watson drove straight to the rim and made what appeared to be a dagger, pushing the lead back to 11. There was 2:32 to play, and it looked like the game was over.

Butler’s beat writer said this:

Creighton’s official account tweeted this:

Little did they know what was to come.

***

Derrickson nailed a three the next trip down for Georgetown, cutting the lead to 70-62. On Creighton’s next possession, Watson drove inside and kicked it out to Zierden for a wide-open three. It missed.

Riyan Williams made one-of-two free throws for Georgetown, and Groselle answered by making one-of-two for the Bluejays. 1:35 remained, and they still had a 71-63 lead. Eight points. Plenty of cushion.

D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera drove to the rack on the next Georgetown possession, and was inexplicably fouled by Huff. Predictably, he calmly made the first free throw. Unexpectedly, he missed the second. Obviously, the Jays couldn’t secure the rebound, with Hegner and Huff both getting hands on it but two Georgetown players knocking it away. Tragically, Smith-Rivera made a layup to make it a three-point possession. Suddenly, it was 71-66.

On their next possession, Hegner got the ball on the perimeter but struggled to control it as L.J. Peak pressured him, and Peak came up with the steal. He kicked it out to Smith-Rivera, who was fouled by Watson — his fourth — and Smith-Rivera made both free throws this time. 71-68 Bluejays.

The inbounds pass went to Watson, who dribbled out of control near mid-court and lost the handles, where Kaleb Johnson stripped him and raced to the other end for a thunderous dunk. It was now 71-70 Bluejays, and there was no longer plenty of cushion.

On their next trip down the floor, James Milliken was fouled, and he made both free throws to push the lead back out to three. The Jays called timeout — their first and, as it would turn out, only timeout in this entire sequence — to substitute Khyri Thomas in for Milliken, because of his defensive prowess.

Peak then missed a shot in the lane for the Hoyas, but the Jays couldn’t secure the rebound, allowing Reggie Cameron to grab it and tip it in with 30 seconds to go. 73-72 Bluejays.

Thomas remained in the game, despite his 46% free throw shooting percentage, and wouldn’t you know it, as the Jays attempted to break the Hoya press, he got the ball at the top of the key. Georgetown, knowing his immense struggles from the line, probably couldn’t believe their good fortune and couldn’t foul him quick enough. He clanked both free throws off the rim, neither coming particularly close to going in, leaving the Jays in need of a defensive stop to win after leading by 11 moments earlier.

Smith-Rivera made his move towards the rim with about 10 seconds to go, and as he cut through the lane, he was fouled by Watson. Not only was it his fifth foul, putting him on the bench for the final offensive possession, it put an 80% free-throw shooter at the line with the game in the balance. Smith-Rivera made both, and with two timeouts left and their point guard on the bench, the Jays opted to try and catch Georgetown off-guard. They inbounded it to Milliken, who raced up court and launched a wild shot at the buzzer, which came nowhere close to the basket.

74-73 Hoyas, final. They led for a minute and 20 seconds in the second half — from the 19:15 mark to the 18:01 mark, and for the final six seconds.

***

In the aftermath of another late-game collapse, there was plenty of blame tossed around and plenty of questions. While he couldn’t call for time himself during a live ball situation, why did Coach Mac not call timeout (or yell for one of his players to do so) at any point during the 15-3 run that decided the game? Why was your worst free-throw shooter, Khyri Thomas, in the game with a chance to be fouled (and be sent to the line)? Why did they not call timeout to set up a final play once they lost the lead with Watson out? Why was anyone but Watson handling the ball in the final 90 seconds, giving Georgetown the opportunity to put worse shooters on the line?

It’s the fourth time this year that they’ve blown an opportunity to win late, and the latest in a long line of close losses in the post-Doug McDermott Era of Creighton Basketball. Think about it: close out both Providence and Georgetown, and this is a team with a 7-1 record in the league, in the NCAA Tournament discussion despite a horrible non-conference slate. Close out Arizona State, too, and this is a 17-4 team ranked in the Top 20, solidly in the tournament and not even on the bubble. They led for nearly 33 minutes last night. They led Providence for 34. They led Arizona State for 29. They lost all three.

That’s why this one is so devastating, why it feels like so much more of a gut-punch than any of the other ones the last two years, and why it still hurts so much the next day. This team is CLOSE. Close to being so much better than they are. Close to being in the thick of both the Big East race and the NCAA Tournament. Instead, they lost another game that was there for the taking, dealing those hopes a devastating, perhaps fatal, blow.

This one is going to hurt for awhile.

They Said It:

“Fatigue was not an issue. We do a good job of conditioning in off season and every practice we transition a lot. I do a good job of taking care of my body during the year, so I don’t think fatigue was an issue. I think I need to be stronger mentally, to not turn the ball over three times in the last five or six minutes. That’s unacceptable, so it’s not really fatigue; it’s a mental on my part.” -Maurice Watson in postgame press conference

“I think at the end of both halves, we let the shots that we didn’t make dictate our play. When a lot of those shots are open shots, it kind of puts a damper on the confidence level that some of our shooters have and the confidence we have as a team. When we work hard and execute our plays to get an open shot and we don’t knock them down, it tends to weigh on us on the defensive end and I think that’s what we did. We had some rough patches and that’s part of our maturity. You have to be able to dig down like we did during our game against Providence; dig down like we did in the last six minutes against Georgetown the first time we played them at home, when shots aren’t falling. We have to make free throws down the stretch and I think I have to lead my guys better. I felt like that at the end of the game I let the turnovers dictate my body language and that’s not something I can do. These guys rely on me, so I need to learn from this. I need to go back to the drawing board and not be in my head so much and find a way to keep my head up and keep my guys going.” -Maurice Watson in postgame press conference

“Georgetown made some plays down the stretch. It felt like we dominated the game for the most part, for 37 minutes and we didn’t execute very well late. As their coach I have to find a way to bring my team home in that situation and I didn’t do my job today.” -Greg McDermott in postgame press conference

“Well we wanted to be spaced and I don’t think that hurt us. There was maybe one turnover as a result of that, but we missed the front end on 1-and-1. We had a wide open three to really open, 70-62, that would have put an end to it; up top, where Maurice [Watson Jr.] made a great decision coming out of the double team. Georgetown is long and athletic and can pose problems when they play in desperation. Obviously it was a pretty physical game. There was a lot of physicality that probably went unnoticed in the last few minutes.” -Greg McDermott in postgame press conference

“[Trey] Mourning did a good job the first half, providing a little bit more spacing because of his ability to shoot the basketball, so obviously we had to respect that coming into the second half. We also felt of Georgetown’s three guys, he was the weakest defensively on the block so we wanted to go at him with [Geoffrey] Groselle, which we were able to do early in the half.” -Greg McDermott in postgame press conference

“It is difficult to keep a guy like D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera in front of you when he is in desperation mode. The game is over if he doesn’t make a play. You want to stay a little closer to 3-point shooters when it’s a six-point game or nine-point game, because the three-point shot hurts you more than two. And we just gave up too many easy-two’s and that the reason I decided to go to the zone in the last couple possessions, but Georgetown still found a way to get into the teeth of our zone.” -Greg McDermott in postgame press conference

“This loss hurts us if we don’t learn from it. There is a lot of possessions in the course of the that game, where we made mistakes, where I made mistakes that I have to learn from and where each one of our guys didn’t execute part of the game, which is important to us. If we don’t learn from that, then it’s a devastating loss. If we’re mature enough to understand it’s one game in the big scope of things and we learn from it, we come back to the practice floor with energy and focus on Thursday then I think it can make us better.” -Greg McDermott in postgame press conference

You Said It:

The absurdly long review…

On Mo Watson…

On the beginning of the second half…

On the officials…

The (near) thrill of victory…

The collapse…

And the agony of defeat…

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