WHEW. Another wild Creighton-Bradley game, featuring yet another huge blown lead and yet another clutch finish. More importantly, it did not feature overtime. Most importantly, it ended in a Creighton win.
After blowing an 18-point lead, the Jays simply made the plays down the stretch, and Bradley didn't -- a shock considering that Bradley's key players are veterans and Creighton's key players are underclassmen. In a tight game in March, you'd figure the veteran team would make the plays and the young team would wilt...but the exact opposite happened. Senior Daniel Rough-in, er, Ruffin was the one missing a key free throw. Sophomore Cavel Witter was the one making two key throws.
All of the Jays underclassmen played unbelievably well. Make no mistake: this is now Cavel Witter's team. P'Allen Stinnett is the most dynamic offensive player and Booker Woodfox is the most consistent shooter, but Cavel Witter is the Reggie Jackson of this team: the straw that stirs the drink. After a 42-point performance where he put the team on his back and carried them to a win, he followed it up with a game where he officially supplanted Josh Dotzler as THE point guard for this team.
15 points on 5-11 shooting, 4-4 free throws, and most importantly, 8 assists against only 3 turnovers. Witter played 28 minutes, while starting PG Dotzler played only 13. Witter scored the final six points for the Jays, including a huge driving layup that erased Bradley's brief 69-68 lead -- their only lead of the second half, which lasted all of nine seconds thanks to Witter.
Also growing up before our eyes: Kenny Lawson. The big man played 21 minutes and pulled down 8 tough rebounds, and was 4-7 from the floor including a pair of sweet fadeaway jumpers. And in a sign he's earning Dana Altman's trust on defense, he saw the floor in the last 10 minutes of a close game.
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Dana Altman's team brought their fastball today, although when you consider his success in St. Louis over the years, is it all that surprising that perhaps their best half of basketball came in Arch Madness? Here was the key to that first 20 minutes: Creighton employing a so-called "junk" defense. That term has always killed me. In football, an unconventional defense is lauded and praised as long as it works. In hoops, an unconventional defense is called "junk."
The Triangle-And-One certainly qualifies as unconventional, and Bradley never figured it out. It took away their slashing, dribble-penetrate-and-pass offense, and time after time they took bad shots. Three defenders played zone, and the other two went man-to-man on Ruffin and Crouch, effectively forcing other players to beat them.
Creighton rightly assumed the Braves would eventually crack it, so they went away from it in the second half. I wish they'd stuck with it, though, because man alive did it frustrate the Braves.
What's that old saying? One man's junk is another man's treasure? You bet.
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Sometimes stats lie. Sometimes they don't.
1st Half:
Creighton 53% FG%
Bradley 40%
Creighton 7-15 (46%) 3 Point %
Bradley 2-12 (16%)
2nd Half:
Creighton 32%
Bradley 49%
Creighton 1-11 (9%)
Bradley 3-12 (25%)
Hmm. Jays lead by 13 at the half while shooting really well, blow the lead while shooting really poorly. Obviously there's more to it than that, but is there? Rebounds were even in both halves -- 16-16 in the first, 23-22 Creighton in the second. Turnovers were low for both teams -- 8 for Creighton, 6 for Bradley.
The defense was good at times, and when it wasn't, for the most part Bradley missed their shots. Daniel Rough-In and Jeremy Crouch are the guys who can hurt you with threeballs, and the Jays almost entirely took them out of the game. Where they got hurt was in the paint, as Theron Wilson killed them for 21 points and 8 rebounds, and Matt Salley got 10 points and 13 rebounds.
As for Rough-In and Crouch? Pierce Hibma, for all of the unwarranted abuse he takes, absolutely LOCKED DOWN Daniel Rough-In. LOCKED DOWN. The preseason Valley POY, the guy who torched Creighton for 30 points six days ago, turned in this line:
2-11 shooting, 1-7 from three, 3 boards, 3 assists, 6 points in 37 minutes. That was a horrible game for Rough-In, because not only did he not score, he didn't get his teammates good looks so they could hit shots. A lot of that was the 9 minutes of lock-down defense Pierce Hibma turned in on him in the first half.
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And that brings us to our Polyfro Player of the Game, brought to you today by another great imaginary sponsor that paid zero dollars for the advertisement. One-Eyed Willie's Big Bonanza of Seafood was started in 1986 by the famed pirate after his ship was discovered by a group of teenagers from Oregon, and he found he needed a new hobby to occupy his time since he no longer had to construct booby traps to protect his gold. And with that, One-Eyed Willie's Big Bonanza of Seafood was born.
Today, Cavel Witter takes the honor for the second consecutive game. His 8 assists were huge in getting other Jays involved, and his 15 points included the clinching free throws in the final seconds.
You bet. And bring on the Bullpuppies.
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