A month ago in Newark, Creighton led by as many as 16 points in the second half only to see Seton Hall rally for an improbable win. Saturday, the Jays returned the favor, exacting revenge with a comeback win that was even more improbable. Trailing 67-58 with 1:27 to play, they had just a 1.5% chance of victory according to KenPom — and proceeded to end the game on an 11-1 run to steal it, as Nik Graves buried the game-winning three with 2.5 seconds left.
“We had no business losing that game (at Seton Hall). We had no business winning this game,” Greg McDermott said. “We kind of flipped the script on what happened in Newark.”
It’s kind of wild how similar they were; both meltdowns featured many of the same situations, from missed free throws to near-five second calls to giving up offensive rebounds and second chance points. In Newark, Creighton was leading by two with under a minute left when Graves split two free throws. Seton Hall scored to cut it to one with 22 seconds left and then the Jays couldn’t get the ball inbounded; after calling timeout to avoid the five-second call they turned it over on the second attempt. Then the Pirates won the game in the final seconds.
Saturday, Creighton trailed by four with 31 seconds left. Seton Hall couldn’t get the ball inbounded, and called timeout to avoid the five second call. On their second attempt, they turned it over, Fedor Zugic made a three to cut the lead to a single point, and then the Pirates split a pair of free throws to leave the door open. Then the Bluejays won it in the final seconds.
Eerie isn’t it? Almost like they had an angel lending a helping hand.
“That’s what I told the guys in the locker room,” McDermott said. “There’s no question Kelly (Dix) was watching over us today, and what her son was able to do this week, it’s just absolutely amazing to me.”
Isaac Traudt got them off to a fast start, Josh Dix carried them during the middle of the game, Fedor Zugic hit two huge threes late to spark the rally, and then Graves won it. Traudt made four treys in the first five minutes and added a fifth a couple of minutes later, helping the Bluejays grab a 22-15 advantage with 11:22 left in the first half. They left him wide open repeatedly, though based on his struggles recently, you could understand why. He was 0-of-7 from three in the first meeting and had only made six total threes over the last six games.
“He was huge for us. We needed to get off to a start like that to get the crowd into the game,” McDermott said. “Isaac stuck with himself. He continued to work and obviously he was huge today.”
Every one of IT’s 5 made threes in the first 8 minutes ⬇️⬇️#GoJays https://t.co/jDRVqralQe pic.twitter.com/NcBRbyKHF2
— Creighton Men’s Basketball (@BluejayMBB) February 7, 2026
Then Dix scored eight straight points, hitting a pair of threes and a fast break layup, and the teams were tied 30-30.
Josh Dix for 3️⃣!#GoJays // 📺 Peacock pic.twitter.com/9hDEuHwWWq
— Creighton Men’s Basketball (@BluejayMBB) February 7, 2026
DIME. #GoJays // 📺 Peacock pic.twitter.com/OdCAnWajEG
— Creighton Men’s Basketball (@BluejayMBB) February 7, 2026
Early in the second half, Dix hit two more threes and assisted on a three for Traudt; at the under-16 timeout, Seton Hall led 42-41 and all but seven of CU’s points had come from Dix or Traudt.
The Pirates outscored CU 15-6 over the next eight minutes, taking a 57-47 lead. And when they maintained that margin through the under-four timeout, all but the most optimistic observers figured CU was headed for a loss.
Zugic had other ideas. He’d score nine of the Jays’ 16 points in the final three minutes, jump-starting the comeback by drawing a foul on a three point attempt. He made all three free throws to cut it to seven with 3:07 left. The teams traded buckets over the next minute, and then Green created a much-needed extra possession by stealing the ball at midcourt, racing down the floor and scoring at the rim. It was a savvy veteran play where he saw that Zugic had stopped Budd Clark near the sideline, so Green left the paint, sprinted 10 feet to trap Clark and then poked the ball away. And though Clark answered with a bucket, Zugic answered that with a three to make it a six-point game at 67-61.
“So we changed our defensive ball screen coverage late in the game to kind of jump into ball screens,” Green said. “I knew that Clark kind plays a little bit slowly and he doesn’t really react when a big man comes out on him, he thinks he has too much space. So I reached out for the bal right as he was going down with the dribble and I was able to steal it. And then I knew he was gonna try to run through the play at the other end, so I just kept the ball above my head where he couldn’t reach it and put it in.”
After a defensive stop, Dix misfired on a three but Green outworked three Pirates for the offensive rebound, and tipped the ball in for a layup. 67-63.
On the ensuing inbounds play, Seton Hall couldn’t get the ball in against a surprisingly feisty Bluejay press and had to call timeout to avoid a five-second call. They didn’t fare any better the second time, and they stepped on the baseline trying to get the ball in. Dix missed again on a three, and again the Jays capitalized on a second chance. Graves got the offensive rebound this time, and kicked it out to Zugic who buried another three. Suddenly it was 67-66.
Fedor Zugic tied his career high (13 points) against Seton Hall including this shot to cut the lead to 1🔥
Everyone will remember the Nik Graves shot but Zugy scored 9 points in 2 minutes to help get us there🇲🇪
Don’t look back Zugy. Don’t look back. pic.twitter.com/bMpgyf2ZTJ
— CreighTakes (@CreighTakes) February 8, 2026
They fouled Trey Parker to extend the game at the line, and despite being an 83.9% free throw shooter, he made the first but missed the second.
“The crowd was huge,” McDermott said. “They don’t miss that free throw late in the game unless the crowd’s doing what they’re doing.”
Green rebounded the miss, and with no timeouts, he immediately got the ball to Graves and directed traffic to get the Jays into place for the set they’d called in the last huddle. Graves said the plan was for him to get a paint touch for Green, and get the ball back on a handoff. But Seton Hall sniffed it out and forced them to improvise.
“They sort of blew up that initial handoff, and they top blocked Josh — they just stood on top of him, made sure he couldn’t come off any screens,” Graves said on the postgame radio show. “And at that point I didn’t want us to end up with a bad shot, or have to force anything. I think my instincts kicked in a little bit. It felt great coming out. Honestly, that’s a shot I work on a lot. It’s probably my go-to shot if I had to shoot any shot as I step back. So it felt really good coming off my hand.”
NIK GRAVES FOR THE WIN.#GoJays pic.twitter.com/OEBwPjqHtq
— Creighton Men’s Basketball (@BluejayMBB) February 8, 2026
“He’s worked on that step back, he’s made a ton of them in practice, and he might shoot those better than he shoots a catch-and-shoot 3-point shot,” McDermott said. “He said he was 0-for-7 on game winners at Charlotte, and today was his first one. So I think we think we had a little help from heaven today.”
Here’s how it sounded on 1620, with John Bishop and Taylor Stormberg delivering an all-time call that included seven, count ‘em, SEVEN “Jays Win!”s from Bishop over screams of disbelief from Stormberg. All that before Bishop yelled “Down goes the pirate ship to the bottom of the ocean!” Incredible stuff.
Fedor Zugic tied his career high (13 points) against Seton Hall including this shot to cut the lead to 1🔥
Everyone will remember the Nik Graves shot but Zugy scored 9 points in 2 minutes to help get us there🇲🇪
Don’t look back Zugy. Don’t look back. pic.twitter.com/bMpgyf2ZTJ
— CreighTakes (@CreighTakes) February 8, 2026
“A lot of people in that situation would probably fold over and just take the loss. But I mean, our guys, we’re just gonna battle through that,” Green said on the postgame radio show. “We’ve been in those positions before. It’s just a credit to the coaching staff for giving us things we can execute and a credit to my teammates for executing those things.”
It’s the third consecutive home win where the Jays have won after a crazy finish. Against Georgetown on January 13, they rallied from a seven point deficit with 1:47 left to force overtime where Austin Swartz carried them to the win. Against Xavier on January 21, they rallied from down four with 53 seconds left and won it on a last-second shot from Swartz. And now on February 7, they rallied from down nine with 87 seconds left to win on a last-second shot from Graves.
“Unbelievable,” McDermott said. “I’ve experienced some crazy ones over 30 some years, but to have three in a row like this? Three wins in a row like this at home and in the fashion that they transpired? I don’t know if I’ve ever experienced that.”
This time, they found a way to do it while the hero of the previous two wins, Austin Swartz, was out with an ankle injury — and at the tail end of one of the most emotional weeks of their lives, following the loss of Josh Dix’ mom Kelly on Wednesday.
“It was hard for all of us because you want to help Josh,” McDermott said. “He was away from his family at a time when he should be with his family, but he was adamant that he stay and play. It’s kind of a helpless feeling. You feel an obligation to someone that’s on your team to help them through anything, and that one’s hard. It’s not going to get easier for Josh. This new normal without Kelly is going to be hard, but basketball is his release. It’s his distraction from everything that’s been going on with her health for the last couple months, and certainly this week.”
Dix and Zugic both missed practice on Monday and Tuesday with the flu. Swartz and Graves missed practice on Thursday after getting banged up in the loss to Georgetown, and Dix was absent so he could spend the day with his family. Graves and Dix returned to the practice floor Friday, but Swartz was still out. With so many guys out, players were out of position in practice and they couldn’t do their usual prep.
“I know I’m drained emotionally, and I haven’t been on the practice floor,” McDermott said. “I’ve just had a whistle in my mouth; that’s the level of my exertion. But they worked hard all week. They were there for Josh and I couldn’t be happier for them, because they’ve navigated a very difficult time, and we’re still in the middle of it. They’ve navigated it like the true character that they all possess.”
Inside the Box:
This was the tenth time in CHI Health Center history that Creighton has made a go-ahead basket in the last 10 seconds to win a game, and just the fourth time they were trailing before the shot — though it was the second time they’ve done it in three weeks. And coming with 2.5 seconds to go, it’s the second-latest of those four.
Creighton’s largest deficit was 10, meaning that they now own 33 double-digit comeback wins under Greg McDermott, including three this season.
CU had 18 turnovers that led to 23 points for Seton Hall, though they cut those numbers to six and nine in the second half. And they offset it by turning 14 Pirate turnovers into 21 points for themselves. Both teams had nine offensive rebounds, and Creighton had a slight 13-12 edge in second chance points. The Jays also had a 10-9 edge in free throws made.
While Seton Hall outscored Creighton 34-20 in the paint, the Jays more than made up for it by outscoring them 39-15 on threes.
Second-leading scorer Austin Swartz missed the game with a minor ankle injury, though getting 18 from Isaac Traudt on six made 3-pointers was exactly the kind of unexpected production needed in his absence.
Zugic had 13, with nine coming in the final three minutes. Green had 11 points, seven rebounds and four steals. And while Graves scored just seven, three came on the game-winner, and he led the team with seven rebounds while chipping in five assists.
And then there was Dix, who added 16 points and three assists versus zero turnovers in 38 minutes, and knocked down four 3-pointers.
“He had one of the best games he’s had in this building, and he had the ball in his hands a lot because we had some problems with other guys trying to fight that pressure,” McDermott said. “To play 38 minutes when he was out with the flu Monday, Tuesday, then you take Wednesday’s events and he didn’t practice Thursday, plays 38 minutes, he doesn’t turn it over against that pressure. I mean, come on; that’s superhuman stuff, given what he’s had to go through this week.”
“Josh is an amazing guy. I’ve known him since I was in, I think, third grade,” Green said. “We used to play on the same AAU team, so I’ve known him forever and I’ve also known his mom for a long time. So obviously me hearing that news was heartbreaking, obviously. Josh is a very strong person. He’s battled through very tough things before and like, I know he’s super resilient but the way that he doesn’t show it on the court and during practice and stuff is just so inspiring to me.”
Green added that the entire team has made a conscious effort to make they stick close to Dix as much as they can. “We have to make sure that he knows that he’s loved, make sure we’re constantly around him to show that he’s never alone and he’s gonna get through this. We’re all gonna get through it together.”
Graves said he can’t imagine what’s going through Dix’ head, but like everyone on the team, is doing what he can to support him.
“Josh is probably one of my best friends on this team. We’re both seniors, the only two seniors, honestly,” Graves said. “I can’t really imagine what he’s going through, but I hope he knows I’m always here for him to help, and I think that goes for everyone on the team. We’re just one big brotherhood and big old support system.”
“What Josh has been dealing with, that didn’t just start Wednesday, that’s been the last couple of months,” McDermott said. “It’s been very difficult for him and they’ve stuck together, they’ve fought for each other. We’re far from perfect, but I love those guys in that locker room. Sometimes it’s hard to figure out what you have, what their character is. Well, I found out this week. It’s a pretty special group.”