2006-07 Game 24: Jays 79, Evansville 74

I needed the Power of the Mini Donuts tonight, because I ate entirely too much at Valentino's with the guys for lunch. That left me lethargic and slow, and with "blah" team Evansville in town, I needed to not only eat the whole bag but "drink" the remaining sugar from the bottom of the bag just to get back up to normal energy levels.

Then the game started, and I started having flashbacks to December. This is not a good thing, I can assure you.

You remember December, don't you? Opponents shooting ridiculous percentages from behind the arc, the Jays playing Ole defense, and shooting poorly themselves. It was 9-2 Evansville at the first timeout, and for the next 10 minutes, the Aces led at arms' length. 13-8, 17-11, 21-15, 24-22. Then the Jays stopped keeping pace offensively, continued to "forget" to play defense, and the lead started to swell. When it was all said and done, the Jays faced the largest half-time deficit in the history of the Qwest Center, 48-34. How bad was it?

They allow 60 points a game, and gave up 48 in one half. Evansville shot 62% from the field, and made 8-15 from behind the arc. They were outrebounded by double-digits. And they left the court to a smattering of boos -- not for the result, but for the effort. Seriously, its one thing to fall behind by 14 at home, but its entirely another to display a complete and utter lack of effort. They didn't want to be there, they thought they could just show up and win, and they got their butts kicked.

I was talking to a friend of mine in the Athletic Department after the game, and I asked him what in the world Dana Altman told the team at the half. He lit into them for almost 2 minutes, getting all the frustration off his chest and letting them know exactly how disappointed he was. Then he laid out what they needed to do in the second half -- and told them if they did those things, they'd be in it...and if not, they'd lose.

Nate Funk told reporters after the game that in the first half, "They sucked, I sucked, we all sucked." Nice.

So in the second half, did the Jays have a chance to come back?

Funk hit a 3 on the first possession to cut the lead to 48-37, and then Nick Porter stole the ball, dished it to Tolliver for a layup and it was 48-39. An Evansville turnover on the inbounds pass led to an easy layup -- and foul -- for Porter, and it was 48-41. His free throw made it 48-42. A turnover on the press and a fast-break layup by Funk made it 48-44, and Evansville called timeout. It was the 17:23 mark of the second half, and the Jays had already sliced a 14 point lead to 4.

It continued as the Jays used a 16-2 run in the first five minutes of the half to tie the game at 50-50. Amazing. Not only did they come back, they did it quickly, and by playing old-time Creighton hoops. Full-court press, man-to-man defense, fast-break quick-strike offense, great ball movement and shooting a high-percentage from behind the arc. The run continued and became a 25-4 streak at the 11:22 mark, and in less than nine minutes a 14-point deficit was a 7-point lead.

Nice.

That 7-point lead was the high-water mark. For the rest of the second half, the game was extraordinarily tight with Creighton holding perilous one-and-two possession leads the entire way. They fell behind for 17 seconds at the 6 minute mark, 66-65, but a three by Isacc Miles gave them the lead right back, and they held it the rest of the way.

Ultimately, a 79-74 lead was the final. In the Valley this year, this game has played out in every arena, with seemingly inferior road teams stealing wins from better home teams. This was the night for that to happen to Creighton, and somehow, they cheated fate. They got a win in a game they easily could have lost. And perhaps most importantly, they won so I am not banned from eating delicious Mini Donuts at future games.

That's the bottom line. Win and move on. Specifically, move on to Showdown Saturday -- a battle of 11-3 first-place teams in Carbondale on ESPN2. I can hardly wait.

You bet.

***

Its a hard task to pick the Heee-Haw Player of the Game tonight. I'm giving it to Manny Gakou, and you can't stop me.

For the Jays to win close games, they need someone outside of the usual stars to give them points. At Evansville, it was Nick Bahe. At Bradley, it was Isacc Miles. At Drake, it was Pierce Hibma. Tonight, it was Manny Gakou. He played solid, solid minutes in relief of Tolliver, getting two huge buckets and drawing a charge. On a night when Funk played an astonishing 39 minutes, Tolliver was only able to give them 29 because of foul trouble. Gakou gave them the ability to win this game. You sir are the Heee-Haw POTG.

You bet.