Bluiett’s Gutsy Final-Minute Bucket Pushes Xavier Past Butler, 62-57
By SEAN BRENNAN
Special to BIGEAST.com
NEW YORK - Like nine other teams that crashed New York City this week, Xavier arrived at the World’s Most Famous Arena with hopes of making the trip back home to Cincinnati toting some BIG EAST Tournament championship hardware. But unlike, say, Villanova, Butler, Creighton, Seton Hall, Providence and Marquette, Xavier was viewed as a team that still had some work to do this week in order to make a rock-solid claim to an NCAA Tournament invitation.
Wednesday was a nice start when the Musketeers knocked off DePaul in their first-round game. But beating a team that came into the game having lost 13 of its previous 14 games, well, that wasn’t going to move the needle at all with those fickle selection committee members.
No, after losing six of seven games coming into the tournament, what the Musketeers needed was a statement victory, one that would leave no doubt as to whether they belonged in the “Field of 68.” Sure, the loss of Edmond Sumner, one of the conference’s finest talents, to an ACL injury should merit some consideration from the committee, but who knows how much? The last thing Xavier wanted to do was leave its’ NCAA fate in the hands of some group of guys in a smoke-filled room in New York.
What they needed was a victory over Butler. And thanks to Trevon Bluiett and Malcolm Bernard, the Musketeers got exactly what they needed.
Bluiett’s jumper with 16.5 seconds to go snapped a 57-57 tie but Xavier had to hold its breath until Butler’s Kamar Baldwin missed on a three-point attempt and Tyler Lewis came up empty on a short jumper with 3.3 seconds to play as Xavier survived to pull out a 62-57 victory over the second-seeded Bulldogs in the BIG EAST Quarterfinals at Madison Square Garden. The No. 7 Musketeers (21-12) move on to Friday night’s semifinals – their fourth straight trip to the semis - secure that their name will now be called on Selection Sunday.
Yes, the Musketeers can now finally exhale.
“I don’t look at it as relief,” Xavier coach Chris Mack said. “We have competitive guys and they understand what’s at stake. I don’t know how you can’t? Everywhere you go guys have their phones up to their noses. So I’m sure they’ve been Snapchatting but at the same time they’re probably checking Twitter and seeing the bottom line on ESPN and Fox Sports 1. We’re aware of all that stuff. The bigger issue is making sure we play our best against really good teams and Butler is a really good team, good program and they’ve had a special year.”
Xavier’s season just got a lot more special, too, with the victory but it was a grind all the way to the finish line. Butler had opened a 49-42 lead with 7:54 to play after a bucket by Tyler Wideman. But the Musketeers were up for the fight and just over two minutes later, after Bernard’s (12 points, 10 rebounds) three-pointer knotted the game at 49-49 with 5:50 remaining, the stage was being set for a nailbiting conclusion.
Neither team was able to manage more than a three-point lead the rest of the way and there were also two ties, at 56-all and 57-57, the latter coming after Baldwin sank one of two free throws with 38.6 seconds to play.
But with their NCAA hopes hanging in the balance, the Musketeers turned to Bluiett and he delivered in a big way, knocking down his game-winning jumper with 16.5 seconds to play even though everyone in the building knew he would take the critical shot.
“Coach wanted me to get the ball around the elbow and just kind of make a play off that,” said Bluiett, who finished with a game-high 23 points. “When I turned around and saw the basket, I felt like I had an advantage trying to get to the rim. So I tried to use my body a little bit. The main thing was just to stay poised and just get a shot off.”
After Baldwin and Lewis came up empty on Butler’s last possession, Xavier’s J.P Macura sank one of two free throws with 3.3 seconds to play and when the Bulldogs fumbled the rebound, Xavier’s Tyrique Jones came up with the loose ball and dunked it home as the buzzer sounded.
So while Xavier is no longer residing in NCAA Bubbletown, Mack said he wanted to talk less about the NCAA and more about the task at hand, the BIG EAST Tournament.
“I still don’t know where we stand,” Mack said regarding the NCAA. “Again, I only care about the BIG EAST Tournament right now. I mean the game could have gone either way down to the wire. Our guys made some big-time plays and Malcolm probably had the best game of his career. And Trevon has done it all year. That’s why we put the ball in his hands. Let’s talk about the BIG EAST Tournament and (how) it’s special to be playing Friday night.”