Key Stats:
Davion Mintz, Ty-Shon Alexander and Mitch Ballock have combined to go 11-for-61 from the field the last two games — 3-of-30 at Seton Hall, and 8-of-31 at Xavier. It’s a wonder CU was even in position to blow the lead with numbers like that.
Martin Krampelj missed a double-double by one rebound, logging 18 points and 9 rebounds. Alexander missed a double-double by one point, with 9 points and 10 boards. Damien Jefferson scored his first points since January 9 after returning from injury, and had a nice game with five points, six rebounds, one assist and one steal. And as a team, they had a season-high seven blocks, with all three big men — Krampelj, Samson Froling, and Christian Bishop — blocking two shots apiece.
Press Conference:
Recap:
After enduring a gut punch against Marquette, a knee-below-the-belt at Villanova, and a karate chop to the back of the neck at Seton Hall, Creighton’s 2018-19 season suffered — in Mortal Kombat parlance — a finishing move in the waning seconds Wednesday night at Xavier.
Creighton had a three-point lead and 0.8 seconds left against Marquette, giving them better than 99% odds of a win. But they found a way to lose. Creighton held a three-point lead and the ball in the final three minutes at Villanova, giving them a better than 70% chance of winning. But they found a way to lose that night, too. Creighton had a six point lead in the final three minutes at Seton Hall, and better than 90% odds of winning at that point. And they found a way to lose that one, as well.
Which brings us to last night, when the capper to a road trip from Hell finished off whatever glimmer of hope still remained in this season of missed opportunity.
Ahead 59-57 with 25 seconds to play, Mitch Ballock attempted to inbound the ball on Creighton’s end of the floor, couldn’t get it in, and called timeout. On his second attempt, he once again couldn’t get it in to his first read, and his second read led him astray — he believed Davion Mintz was going to head towards the other hoop away from the congestion, so he threw it there.
Trouble was, Mintz went the opposite direction, back towards his own basket. And there to catch it instead was Xavier’s Quentin Goodin, who grabbed the ball, raced to the basket nearly uncontested, and scored the tying layup before anyone could comprehend what exactly was happening. A delirious Cintas Center crowd went berserk. Creighton coaches, players, and fans were in disbelief.
Again? They were headed to overtime AGAIN after a botched inbounds pass?
They had another timeout to use if he was truly indecisive and felt he needed to reset. Beyond that, even a five-second call would be better than a live-ball turnover, especially a live-ball turnover on the other end of the floor where you’re essentially creating a fastbreak opportunity.
“It is truly remarkable the amount of ways this team has found to lose,” analyst Nick Bahe said on the postgame radio show. “It’s hard to repeat the same general thing every game, where Creighton plays well enough, puts themselves in position to win, and can’t seal the deal. You wonder if the team has any confidence down the stretch in these games.”
Given their inability to close games out, it’s a completely fair question to ask. In all honesty, it’s the predominant theme in the story of their season.
Ballock’s turnover is the distinguishing play from the loss, but there’s a lot of things that went wrong in this game for Creighton that led to that moment. Layups and free throws were missed. Turnovers were committed. Bad decisions with the ball were made. Opportunities to put the game away were squandered.
Xavier went 11 minutes and 30 seconds with just six points, stretching from the 6:39 mark of the first half when they led 31-23 to the 15:12 mark of the second half; Creighton managed to tie the score at 37 at that point, but the Jays’ 14-6 run took over one-fourth of the game to happen. That’s a lot of bad offensive basketball. But the Bluejays’ zone defense was a bright spot, flummoxing Xavier and neutralizing Tyrique Jones’ size advantage in the paint.
Thanks in part to their zone, and to finally making a few shots, CU appeared to be taking control midway through the second half, finally. After back-to-back buckets from Kaleb Joseph they took a four-point lead — on this night, that might as well have been 30 — at 48-44. Xavier kept things close, and even retook the lead briefly at 51-50 on a three by Naji Marshall, but a pair of threes by Ty-Shon Alexander and Martin Krampelj gave Creighton a five-point edge with two minutes to go.
On Xavier’s next possession, they got not one but two offensive rebounds, eventually resulting in a three from Naji Marshall to cut the lead to 56-54. “If we get one of those rebounds, the game’s over,” Greg McDermott said on his postgame radio show. They didn’t get the rebound, but they did get a three of their own from Mintz with 1:02 to go. That should have been the game.
And it might have been if not for a defensive mishap.
The only thing you can’t give up defensively in that situation is a three-pointer. So of course, Creighton did just that. Nick Bahe was incredulous in the postgame show as he talked about the moment when Marshall hit his second three in as many possessions.
“The only guy on the floor in a Xavier uniform that has made a three in the game is Naji Marshall. You have to have awareness as a player. You have to know the score as a player. And you have to know who on the floor has made a shot! In a game where no one’s made a shot, who’s the one guy that has? When you’re in a zone, and that one guy comes into your area, you better know! You can talk all you want about ‘Coach McDermott needs to do this, Coach needs to do that,’ but listen. This loss is not on Greg McDermott. This is a game where Creighton couldn’t even make a layup, and he pushed the right buttons switching to a zone. That gave his team an opportunity to win, and they didn’t execute. So I don’t want to hear any of that stuff tonight. None.”
Moments later, Ballock’s inbounds play happened.
“That’s a junior high turnover,” Bahe said on the postgame show with his voice raising in frustration. “You just can’t make it. Mitch plays his you-know-what off, and that’s fine, but you know what? You can’t make that turnover. It’s a horrible decision. Poise under pressure has to be a thing at some point, and guys have to step up and handle it. Period. It’s so sad and frustrating to watch this happen. Because it’s pretty scary to think about what this team would look like if they’d ever actually put it all together.”
Just like in the Marquette meltdown and the Villanova collapse, there was an overtime period still to play after the end-of-regulation gut punch, and just like in those games, it did not go well. Creighton made just one basket, and scored just two points. And with four seconds left, down by three, they got a better look than you could ever possibly imagine out of an inbounds play under your own basket. Mintz released, no defender went with him, and he caught the pass in front of his own bench — with the nearest defender several feet away.
The shot clanked off the rim, unfortunately, and the Jays lost 64-61.
“Boy, we’ve found a lot of ways to lose,” McDermott said on his postgame show.
Ain’t that the truth?