Sixth-seeded Creighton Advances Past Third-Seeded Providence In #BEtourney Quarterfinals
By SEAN BRENNAN
Special to BIGEAST.com
When the 2016-17 season tipped off back in November, there were expectations of a special season hitting Omaha this year. The Creighton Bluejays had the look of a team that was about to make a lot of noise, not just in the BIG EAST season, but nationally, as some pundits spoke of the Jays as a Sweet 16-caliber team, perhaps even an Elite Eight program.
The Bluejays had all the ingredients - a high-powered offense, a superlative point guard in Maurice Watson Jr., a giant presence in the middle in 7-0 freshman Justin Patton and a prolific scorer in Marcus Foster. Three of the four elements remained with the Bluejays as they arrived in New York City for the BIG EAST Tournament – the offense was still high-octane, averaging 83.5 points a game, Patton had such a remarkable first season that he landed conference Rookie of the Year honors and Foster finished second in the conference in scoring at 18.5 points a game, just a tick behind conference leader Josh Hart.
But the loss of Watson to a knee injury in January was supposed to end all that talk of a deep tournament run. As far as quarterbacks go, taking Watson off the court was like taking Tom Brady off the field and expecting Super Bowl glory. But a funny thing happened to the Bluejays in the aftermath of Watson’s injury – they found they had another weapon they didn’t realize they had in Khyri Thomas, a player Seton Hall coach Kevin Willard called the most improved player in the league this year.
Thursday night was just the latest example of Thomas’ value to the Bluejays as he scored a game-high 19 points while also adding six rebounds and three steals as No. 6 Creighton held off a game Providence team and came away with a 70-58 victory.
The win ups Creighton’s record to 24-8 on the season and moves them into Friday night’s semifinal matchup with Xavier. The two teams split the season series this year with each team winning on the other’s floor.
“I’m really proud of our team. We kind of won a rock fight tonight,” said Creighton head coach Greg McDermott, who recorded his 165th victory to move into second place on the school’s all-time wins list. “Extremely proud of the team to get back to the semifinals, to have an opportunity to play in another championship game.”
After a closely played first half that saw the third-seeded Friars (20-12) take a 30-27 lead into the break, Creighton used a 10-0 run to open the second half and open up a 37-30 cushion with 16:19 to play. The Bluejays were still holding a 10-point advantage five minutes later, this time at 44-34, when Providence looked to be making its move. A layup by Maliek White followed by Emmitt Holt’s layup and a pair of free throws by Kyron Cartwright (15 points) pulled the Friars within, 44-40, with just under 10:00 to go.
But it didn’t take Creighton long to bounce its’ lead back up to nine points at 51-42 after Cole Huff (10 points) drilled his second three-pointer of the game. The Creighton lead continued to hover between six and nine points until the final minutes but Providence could never close the gap because of some woeful foul shooting. The Friars went just 14-of-26 from the free throw line in the game with six of those misfires coming in the final five minutes.
With the Providence loss, the tournament’s second (Butler), third (Providence) and fourth (Marquette) seeds all fell on Thursday.
“I said it a long time ago, when we lost Maurice and Xavier lost Edmond (Sumner), you could take the other eight (teams) and put us all in a hat and pick us out any night,” McDermott said. “There’s not much difference and any given night anything could happen. I think that’s what you’ve seen happen in the league over the course since those two injuries have taken place. But there’s great basketball in this league and I think it’s going to be evident when Selection Sunday rolls around.”
For Providence it was a surprise season that is expected to continue with an NCAA Tournament invitation on Sunday. The Friars lost both Kris Dunn and Ben Bentil to the NBA last spring and that one-two punch to the Friars’ collective gut was supposed to be too much for them to overcome this season. At least the BIG EAST coaches felt that way as they picked the Friars to finish ninth in the conference’s preseason poll and all head coach Ed Cooley did was lead the Friars to 20 wins an a share of third place in the conference. Bu Cooley is not buying that his Friars are a lock for the NCAA tournament, choosing instead to dwell on a missed opportunity to seal the deal.
“What I just talked to the team about is anytime you have a chance to control your own destiny, not just in basketball, in life, when you have a chance to control what you want to do and you don’t take advantage of it, don’t complain,” Cooley said. “We had an opportunity to cement ourselves clearly and we didn’ take advantage of that.”