In the days leading up to the start of practice for the 2012-13 season, White & Blue Review will look back on the top five games, performances and moments of last season, as voted on by the editors of WBR. Today is the fourth in that series.
There’s been a lot of memories over the first decade of the Qwest/CenturyLink Center. But over the span of three days in late February last year, Creighton fans experienced two of the craziest, most thrilling games in the building’s history. On their own, the two games were memorable; that they came over the span of 72 hours make them unforgettable.
First up was a BracketBusters game against Long Beach State, an uber-athletic team that led for most of the night. A sold-out crowd in Omaha and a national television audience on ESPN saw two high-octane offenses duke it out, and a first-team All American will his team to victory. With 4:30 to play, Long Beach led 76-69 and had turned away one rally after another in frustrating fashion. With time for a last gasp comeback waning, Doug McDermott made a cross-court pass to the far wing, where a wide-open Ethan Wragge fired up a three-pointer. The shot missed badly, but flying seemingly out of nowhere was McDermott, who in one motion caught the ball, redirected it, and tipped the ball in. It was the sort of play that said to his teammates and to the Creighton fans, “We’re winning this game.”
That play, just before the under-four timeout, changed the course of the game as the Jays seized momentum. Creighton outscored Long Beach State 10-3 from that point forward, taking confidence from Doug McDermott’s example. They played their most inspired defense of the season, with freshman Austin Chatman fighting through screens to stay in the grill of LBSU point guard Casper Ware, forcing him into wild shots and taking them out of their offensive flow. They made clutch play after clutch play, from McDermott’s rebound and putback with just under two minutes left to cut the lead to two, to Gregory Echenique’s running hook shot to tie it at 79 with 90 seconds left, to Echenique ripping down his most ferocious rebound in a career full of ferocious rebounds with 48 seconds left, to Echenique forcing a turnover to set up the final possession after Chatman turned it over on a dubious over-and-back call.
All of that set up one final possession, where Antoine Young in his second-to-last home game had his signature moment, as I wrote in the aftermath. “Saturday night, Antoine Young got his chance for a signature moment, and he turned it into one of the most memorable shots in the history of Creighton basketball. In front a rowdy, rambunctious crowd and a national television audience, against an incredibly talented opponent who had led virtually the entire game and turned away Bluejay rallies time after time, Young drove the lane as he’s done hundreds of times before, making the same slightly-off-balance shot he’s made hundreds of times before, to finally give his team a lead just as the game clock read all zeroes. Creighton students rushed the court, lifting Young up on their shoulders as the conquering hero, and who could blame them?
In his second-to-last home game, the player who’s been a Bluejay since his 16th birthday when he became the youngest commit in school history finally had his moment. When people talk about the greatest shots in Creighton history, they mention Gene Harmon’s 30-foot buzzer beater to take down #7 Houston in 1973. They mention James Farr’s game-winner with three seconds left to defeat SIU in the 1989 MVC Championship Game. They mention Chuck Officer’s 35-foot heave to upset Notre Dame in 1961. They mention Rick Apke’s buzzer-beater in the 1978 MVC Championship Game that sent Larry Bird’s Indiana State team to defeat. They mention Booker Woodfox’s shot at the buzzer to defeat Wichita State in the 2009 MVC Tournament. They mention Terrell Taylor’s three-pointer to defeat Florida in the 2002 NCAA Tournament.
And now, they’ll mention Antoine Young’s buzzer-beater against Long Beach State in 2012. Long after the records for assists and games played that he’s setting at the twilight of his collegiate career are broken by a new generation of great Bluejays, his shot just after 11PM on a Saturday in February of 2012 will be remembered.”
Otter summed up the feeling of fans exhaling after the game. “A season ticket holder in our row, let’s call him Greg, turned to the rest of us as we shuffled in stunned giddiness out of section 123 and into prime downtown Omaha time Saturday night. His message was simple: ‘Last Saturday might be as bad as I’ve felt leaving this building. Tonight might be the best.'”
As those fans exited into the Omaha night, none of them had any idea that what they’d just witnessed was merely an appetizer.
Evansville has the sort of team that gives Creighton fits — their strength is behind the arc, where numerous sharpshooters salivate at the thought of mediocre perimeter defense. What happened on Senior Night was ridiculous, however, even for them. Colt Ryan set a building-record with 43 points and Denver Holmes added 25, both players making trey after frustrating trey, as the Aces built an inexplicable 14-point lead midway through the second half. Their unconscious shooting, combined with Doug McDermott going 5-12 from the free throw line, led to a lot of groaning from the crowd.
Luckily the Bluejay defense, slaughtered for most of the game, came up big late as the Jays desperately mounted a comeback. Patrick Marshall wrote the next day, “The Bluejays took a page out of their book to make a comeback similar to the game against Long Beach State last Saturday. They started driving to the basket and cutting into the lead.
Similar to what they did against LBSU, the Bluejay defense ratcheted things up in the final possessions as they forced Evansville into two straight shot clock violations. After the first one, Young drove to the basket and missed a shot, but Gregory Echenique was there to put the basket back in to get Creighton within two. The second shot clock violation set up the Bluejays for a chance to tie or win the game.”
Much like the game against LBSU, the play was drawn up for Antoine Young. This time, because his team was behind by two instead of tied, he made his drive to the rim sooner, putting up a shot with three seconds left. That turned out to be a fortuitous decision when his shot missed. The rebound was tipped frantically by several players before Gregory Echenique made a desperate open-palm slap at the ball — his volleyball-type move was literally the only thing he had time for — and as the clock showed zeroes, the ball dropped through the net. I’ve been at all but a handful of games in the history of the Qwest/CenturyLink Center, and the noise level after that shot went in was as loud as I’ve ever witnessed.
The overtime period saw the teams trade baskets before another Omaha native, Josh Jones, took over. Trailing by two, he drove to the rim for a bucket that tied it, then converted the and-one to give Creighton the lead. Ryan answered with a jumper to put Evansville back ahead 92-91, and then Jones counter-punched with a jumper of his own to give the Jays a 93-92 lead. After a stop on the other end where they finally got Colt Ryan to miss a shot, the Jays had escaped for a second-straight home game.
The late-game heroics were captured by WBR photographer extraordinaire Adam Streur in the debut of Hoop-Cam, a remote controlled camera attached to the backboard. His wide-angle shot of Echenique’s desperation slapshot might be my favorite photo he’s shot for the site — it perfectly captures so many things. Echenique’s slap. The clock on the backboard showing 0.3 seconds. McDermott and Wragge helplessly watching. The entire arena standing, holding their collective breath. It’s an amazing freeze-frame of a moment in time, at the exact millisecond that something amazing is happening. The photo is framed on the wall of my office, and I find myself staring at it often. Every single time it puts me back in that moment, standing ten rows up from the basket, hoping against all hope that the shot would drop.
It’s tough to rank anything higher than the LBSU/Evansville back-to-back comeback wins, but it’s only number two on our list. Check back tomorrow for the Number One moment of the 2011-12 season!