2005-06 Game Recaps: January 2006 Archives

I've been to over 100 Creighton games in the 10 years I've lived here in Omaha, and I've never been present for a game-winning shot at the buzzer. Until Saturday night. For that matter, I've never been in an arena, or a stadium, or a ballpark and seen my team win on a last-second play. Until Saturday night.

Saturday night, Creighton fell behind 25-6 in the first 12 minutes of the game. A furious comeback put them in position for Anthony Tolliver to hit a 15-foot jumper as time expired to win 57-55. The entire 12-second sequence unfolded right in front of us...

As Johnny Mathies brought the ball up the court, my old college roommate John (who was in town for the game) was incredulous that the Jays weren't calling timeout. When I watched the TiVo of the game the next day, the TV announcers shared that opinion. I knew better -- Dana Altman prefers his teams to go for the winning shot without calling timeout. Sure, you can set up a play, but the defense can too, and he's always trusted his teams to create a shot without having to draw something up. Sometimes it backfires, like in the 2004 NIT game against Nebraska. Sometimes like Saturday night, it works beautifully.

I'm still not exactly sure when Bradley became such a heated, despised opponent, but last night was the most physical, black and blue game I can remember seeing in several years. Easily the roughest game in the history of the Qwest Center. Easily. Three technical fouls. One shoving match. A coach out on the floor pulling players apart. A cheap shot intentional foul sending Dane Watts crashing face first into the basket support. Several fans being escorted out for making comments deemed in poor taste. And, oh yeah, a pretty good ball game in between.

Jays played a lackluster first half, and were behind 38-28 going in to the break. In the first five minutes of the second half, Creighton took the fight to Bradley, both literally and figuratively. Before the first TV timeout, the game was tied and two players had scuffled -- and been Teed up. The tensions only ratcheted up from there, and the hot start extended into an 18-4 run and a lead Creighton would never again give up en route to a 80-76 win.

An alley-oop dunk to Anthony Tolliver at the one-minute mark gave the Jays a 10 point lead and should have punctuated the win. But in that last minute, Bradley scored an incredible 16 POINTS!!! In a minute!! They were raining threes from everywhere on the court, fouling to stop the clock, and then hitting more threes. I've never seen anything like it. When they cut the lead to 77-76 with 17 seconds left, I was too stunned to even speak. Had they come back to win, I might still be in that predicament. Luckily, the Jays held on in what was the second most physical game I've been witness to in person. Still can't match the Creighton-UNI game up in Cedar Falls 8 or 9 years ago where one of the Creighton players, Doug Swenson I think, actually threw a punch at a Northern Iowa player and started a brawl. I was scared for my life that night, being on the road. We were at home this time at least.