Box Score | Creighton Quotes | Villanova Quotes
By SEAN BRENNAN
BIGEAST.com
Thursday night’s quarterfinal finale was - on paper at least - the matchup of the day.
There was Villanova, practically BIG EAST royalty with their six championship game appearances and five title wins since the realignment, slumming as a No. 6 seed. It’s just not where we are used to seeing Villanova at this time of year. But there it was.
On the other side you had Creighton. The Bluejays were the preseason pick for the top dog in the BIG EAST this year and after a bumpy start to their season the Jays righted their ship and became the team later in the season everyone expected them to be.
Villanova has also, more or less, made Madison Square Garden a second home for the most part, too. Since 2014, the Wildcats are 28-3 in games played there, including a sterling 18-3 in conference tournament games. Meanwhile, Creighton has reached the championship game in each of the past two seasons only to be knocked off both times, by Georgetown two years ago and Villanova last year.
For Villanova, Thursday night represented a chance to prove to people that the Wildcats, now fully healthy with the return of Justin Moore, Freshman of the Year Cam Whitmore and Jordan Longino from injuries, were once again a Villanova team to be reckoned with. Ready to make another title run.
For Creighton, it was a case of unfinished business. Four times to the title game, including the last two, and no trophy to take home? The time had come for the Bluejays to finally scratch that itch.
Oh, and one last thing to consider: Thursday night’s meeting was just the third time the Bluejays and Wildcats had ever met in the BIG EAST Tournament with Villanova winning both previous meetings. Those victories came in the 2017 and 2022 championship games. So how much do you think Creighton wanted to extract a modicum of revenge?
Well, the third time proved to be the charm for the Bluejays as they built a 20-point lead with under 7:00 to play, then survived a scare when Villanova shaved its deficit to nine points on two occasions down the stretch before Creighton pulled out an 87-74 victory.
The third-seeded Bluejays (21-11) now advance to the semifinals Friday night where they will tangle with No. 2 Xavier for the right to get to the championship game. Villanova not only finds itself leaving the BIG EAST Tournament much earlier than any time since the realignment, but the Wildcats’ (17-16) dream of an NCAA Tournament invitation is now over as they needed to run the table at the Garden this weekend in order to grab a Big Dance ticket.
Ryan Kalkbrenner finished with a game-high 21 points for Creighton, which also got huge contributions from Ryan Nembhard (17 points), Baylor Scheierman (12 points, 12 rebounds) and Alex Kaluma (18 points). Nova was led by Eric Dixon’s 20 points with 17 apiece from Brandon Slater and Caleb Daniels.
“I always feel like if you want to beat Villanova, you’ve got to make as many threes as they do,” Creighton coach Greg McDermoitt said. “We had 12, they had 13 and they had a bunch of them late. Proud of our guys. Twenty-two assists against a Villanova defense is one heck of an effort. Anytime you can beat Villanova it’s a great win for our program. You have to beat Villanova because they don’t beat themselves.”
After a first half that saw Creighton limit Villanova to just 23 points, the Bluejays kept their foot on the gas after halftime, using a 17-7 spurt to open the second half and take a 49-30 lead with 14:02 to play. Eight minutes later it was still a 20-point lead for the Jays after Kalkbrenner tossed in a layup for a 65-45 lead. But you know Villanova. They weren’t about to fold their tent. It’s not in its DNA. So, when they cut their deficit to 70-61 with 4:02 to play it got a tad dicey for Creighton.
“We hung on for dear life,” was how McDermott put it.
But a couple of three-point plays by Kalkbrenner in the final 3:26 helped seal the deal for Creighton, which was under some pressure to deliver a victory Thursday night.
“There’s a lot of pressure to win the first game of the tournament,” McDermott said. “We had a lot of people who showed up and traveled out here from Omaha and they’re not very happy if they have to go home tomorrow. So there is a little added pressure to get to that semifinal game and make sure they’re here for the weekend.”
It was also a special night for Nembhard. Not only was it his 20th birthday (actually, by the time the game finished it was just after midnight when Nembhard turned 20). But it was also his first taste of the BIG EAST Tournament after missing last year’s with a wrist injury.
“It felt great,” Nembard said. “It’s a huge stage. It was great being out there. I missed that last year so I’m super excited to get that win. It was a big win for us and I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”