Creighton Athletics,
PITTSBURGH, Pa. -- It took 50 minutes, but the Creighton men's basketball team is returning to the Sweet 16 for the third time in four seasons after a hard-fought 86-73 win over Oregon on Saturday, March 23rd in Pittsburgh, Pa. With the win, Creighton (25-9) advances to next Friday's Regional Semifinal in Detroit against Tennessee. Oregon finishes the campaign 24-12.
Down 62-58 with under 30 seconds remaining, the Bluejays rally to force overtime began with a pair of free throws from Baylor Scheierman. A missed front end by the Ducks opened the door and Scheierman took full advantage, knocking down a pull-up jumper with eight seconds remaining to knot the game at 62-62. Oregon had a shot to claim the win, but came up just short as the game moved to an extra five minutes.
In the first overtime Oregon denied Bluejay fans as the Ducks got a game-tying three-pointer from Jermaine Couisnard with 16 seconds remaining and Trey Alexander's attempt to knock down a buzzer beater fell off the rim.
In the second overtime the Bluejays left no doubt, scoring the first 15 points of the fourth session. Steven Ashworth and Trey Alexander each had five point in the second overtime, ignited by a three-pointer from Ashworth, followed by a trey from Ryan Kalkbrenner to make it 77-71 with 3:09 remaining. Creighton went on to extend its lead to 86-71, not allowing Oregon to score until 34 seconds remained in the second overtime.
The first half featured six ties and two lead changes as neither team was able to put together an extended scoring run. Just two days after scoring 40 points, Oregon star Jermaine Couisnard picked up two early fouls and was sent to the bench. He went to work after checking back in, scoring 15 points to lead all players in the first half. The Ducks led 32-30 with 1:46 to play in the opening stanza before CU closed the half with trifectas from Baylor Scheierman and Steven Ashworth to take a 36-34 lead into the break.
Ryan Kalkbrenner led CU with 12 points and seven rebounds at the break, while Alexander and Scheierman each added eight points and Jasen Green and Scheierman hauled in six rebounds. Creighton launched 23 three-pointers in the first half, making six, after shooting 10-of-17 from downtown in Thursday's win vs. Akron.
Each of Oregon's first 26 points after halftime were scored by either Couisnard or N'Faly Dante. The Ducks used a 9-0 run to take its biggest lead at 58-52 on a trey by Couisnard before Ashworth broke the drought with a three-ball after a Bluejay timeout, starting a 6-0 Creighton run as Kalkbrenner contributed two free throws and Mason Miller knotted the game with 1-of-2 from the line.
NOTES: Trey Alexander started his eighth NCAA Tournament game, extending a program record ... The game was Creighton's 100th in a row to be televised ... Oregon has won 20+ games in 14 straight seasons, while Creighton has done it 13 of the past 14 campaigns ... Creighton made a three-pointer for the 1,019th straight game ... Baylor Scheierman reached 350 career three-pointers with a triple late in the first half ... Creighton has now attempted 995 three-pointers this season, breaking the previous record of 961 done over the course of 35 games in 2018-19 ... Ryan Kalkbrenner recorded his 300th career blocked shot ... Ryan Kalkbrenner had his eighth double-double of the year and 16th of the season ...
The following Creighton career NCAA Tournament records were broken on Saturday. Ryan Kalkbrenner (140) broke Doug McDermott's (129) record for points, Baylor Scheierman (17) set the mark for made three-pointers, passing the mark of 16 held by Ethan Wragge and Kyle Korver ... Greg McDermott's 325 victories are Creighton are second-most in program history behind Dana Altman's 327. Altman is the Oregon head coach ... Creighton improved to 20-25 all-time in the NCAA Tournament, and 4-10 in its second NCAA Tournament game of an appearance ... Creighton is now 3-1 as a No. 3 seed and 2-2 against a No. 11 seed ... Greg McDermott is now 11-8 as Creighton's head coach in the NCAA Tournament, and 19-12 in the postseason. All other CU coaches are 8-17 in the NCAA Tournament and 17-29 in the postseason ... Creighton has won multiple games in the postseason for the fourth time in its last five trips ... Creighton's 25 wins are its most in one season since 2016-17, and just the seventh time in program history with 25 or more victories ... Ryan Kalkbrenner played in his eighth career NCAA Tournament win, extending his own program record.