Jays survive Ryan, Aces

Box Score: Creighton 93, Evansville 92, OT
Photo Showcase: Evansville at Creighton
Video Below: See Game highlights, post game comments from Creighton coach Greg McDermott and Senior Night celebrations from Creighton's win over Evansville

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Josh Jones wasn’t going to let his buddy down Tuesday night.

Jones buried a jumper with 22.8 seconds to play in overtime, and Creighton hung on to post a 93-92 Missouri Valley victory over a scrappy Evansville team that threatened to ruin Senior Night for Jones’ longtime friend, Antoine Young.

“I’ve known Antoine since fifth grade,” Jones said. “I needed him to go away with this (win). You don’t want the last memory for someone you care about so much to be something so sad.”

Creighton still had to survive the Purple Aces’ last shot, which naturally went to Colt Ryan. The 6-foot-5 junior set a CenturyLink Center record for points with 43, with his last basket giving Evansville a 92-91 lead with 48 seconds remaining.

His last shot, with Young guarding him, was a 3-pointer that hit the front of the rim and then the backboard before bouncing away. Doug McDermott grabbed the rebound for Creighton to finally provide relief for the announced crowd of 16,447 who witnessed the Bluejays’ second straight heartstopper of a victory.

Creighton pulled out an 81-79 win over Long Beach State on Saturday night, winning when Young made a jumper with three-tenths of a second to play. After trailing by 14 with 8:42 left Tuesday, Creighton again put the ball in Young’s hands at the end of regulation in an attempt to tie the game.

This time, his jumper spun out, but McDermott and Ethan Wragge tipped the ball to keep it alive before 6-foot-9 Gregory Echenique swiped at it, sending it banking through the basket as time expired.

“I don’t remember much after Antoine took the shot,” said Echenique, whose tip-in with 49 seconds left had gotten Creighton within 83-81. “Doug and Ethan did a good job of keeping the ball alive, and I knew there wasn’t time for me to grab it and try to put it back in.

“I just kind of slapped at it and it went in. I’m not sure how it did, but I was sure glad it did.”

The teams traded baskets on their first two possessions of overtime before Troy Taylor’s three-point play gave Evansville a 90-87 lead with 2:04 to play. Jones, who finished with 11 points, countered with a three-point play of his own to tie it with 1:44 remaining.

Ryan, with Echenique guarding him beyond the 3-point line, missed a contested jumper, and McDermott went to the free-throw line after being fouled in the battle for the rebound.

An 83.3 percent free-throw shooter coming into the game, McDermott missed his first attempt — he finished 6 of 13 from the line. He made his second for a 91-90 lead that Ryan erased when he made his 17th basket of the night.

Then it was up to Jones, who came off a screen from Echenique to knock down his game-winner that improved Creighton to 24-5 and 13-4 in the league.

“I knew Josh could hit that shot,” Young said. “Coach was telling me to come get the ball, but it was now or never and I had enough faith in him to leave him alone. He came off (the screen) and made a tough shot.

“But he’s very capable of doing that, so it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary.”

Creighton’s last two wins definitely fall into the out-of-the-ordinary category. The Bluejays won both contests in spite of leading a grand total of three-tenths of a second in the second halves of the two games.

They trailed for all but 5½ minutes of Tuesday’s game as Evansville (14-14, 8-9) attempted to hang a second loss on Creighton in the span of two weeks. The Purple Aces had stunned Creighton 65-57 in Evansville on Feb. 7.

“I told the guys in the locker room that no one will ever be able to take this memory away from them of how we ended our season here at the CenturyLink tonight and Saturday night,” Creighton coach Greg McDermott said. “You can play your entire career and not be a part of games like that.

“And games like that with 17,000 people here. Our fans have been terrific all season, and without question, we don’t win either one of these games if they’re not as supportive as they’ve been.”

For most of Tuesday, Creighton fans could marvel only at the shot-making ability displayed by Ryan and teammate Denver Holes. Ryan’s career night saw him make 17 of 24 shots from the field, including 4 of 8 3-point attempts.

Holmes made 8 of 9 shots, including 4 of 8 from beyond the arc, in scoring 25 points. It was his jumper, with 8:42 to play, that put Evansville ahead 71-57.

From that point on, Creighton scored on 11 of its final 14 possessions in regulation. The Bluejays got points on their last seven possessions, while Evansville’s last two possessions of regulation resulted in shot-clock violations.

Creighton managed to counter the big nights by Ryan and Holmes by getting double-figure scoring from Doug McDermott (21 points), Young (21), Avery Dingman (14), Jahenns Manigat (12) and Jones (11). Echenique finished with nine points, six coming in the last six minutes of the contest.

“I’m proud of those guys in the locker room,” Greg McDermott said. “We didn’t have it tonight. We were half a step slow most of the game, and we ran into a couple of guys that were really hard to stop.

“But with the game on the line, we scored and forced a couple of shot clock violations. We got the bounce of the ball.”

And then Jones made sure that his friend got to address the crowd after the game with victory in his voice.
“I wanted this for my team,” Jones said, “but it was personal for ’Toine.”

Contact the writer:

402-679-2298, steve.pivovar@owh.com

twitter.com/PivOWH

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Video: See Game highlights, post game comments from Creighton coach Greg McDermott and Senior Night celebrations from Creighton's win over Evansville:

Highlights from Creighton's win over Evansville>br>

Creighton's Senior Night celebrations>br>

Creighton Coach Greg McDermott after the game>br>

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