Some wins don’t come easy, but they come when a team most needs it. That’s what happened in Creighton’s thrilling 69-68 victory over Seton Hall at CHI Health Center on Feb. 7.
After trailing by nine with 1:27 left on the clock, and on the ropes for most of the second half, the Creighton men’s basketball team pulled together a comeback on their home floor, delivering a spectacle of a final two minutes that ended with a buzzer-beater 3-pointer from senior guard Nik Graves.
But when the buzzer went off, the members of the crowd began to filter out of their seats and the jumbotron turned off for the night, the winning feeling in the locker room was a little different, a little heavier. This win was more than just a nail-biter that ended Creighton’s three-game losing streak. It was a statement of solidarity, a representation of the unbreakable bond that glues the 16 Bluejays together as one unit, even as a sobering truth knocked the wind out of them just days before.
On Wednesday, Feb. 4, senior guard Josh Dix lost his mom to cancer. Then, just three days later, Dix and his teammates returned home and powered through for a win in dramatic fashion.
“You couldn’t draw it up better, because … it’s been a really hard week on a level I’ve never experienced before as a coach,” head coach Greg McDermott said. “Many of them [the players] dealt with something they’ve never had to deal with before and not knowing what to say to a teammate, not being able to help somebody you really care about. They were there for Josh and I couldn’t be happier for them because … they’ve navigated it like the true character that they all possess.”
But that unity was present long before the final minutes, beginning with junior forward Isaac Traudt jumpstarting the Creighton offense from the opening possessions.
The sharpshooting Omaha native scored 12 of Creighton’s first 13 points, all from range, in the first five minutes of the half. Over the course of Traudt’s 25 minutes, he scored a team-high 18 points on 6-10 from the field, with all six of his successful shots from the 3-point line.
“I’m really proud of Isaac,” McDermott said. “He stuck with himself, his teammates have stuck with him. … It was good to see the basketball go in for him tonight.”
Though 15 points in eight minutes — all 3-pointers — sounded like a recipe for a comfortable lead throughout the first half, the Seton Hall Pirates weren’t going to make it easy.
After the Bluejays took an early 7-2 lead, the Pirates countered 30 seconds later with two quick shots to knot up the score at seven apiece.
Then, when Creighton reached a seven-point lead, 22-15, two untimely turnovers for Creighton gave the Pirates the opportunity to close the gap again just two minutes later.
This push and pull continued late into the half, but while one story of the first 20 minutes was Traudt’s dagger shooting, the other story was Creighton’s troubles with the pressure in the back court.
By the 6:30 mark in the first half, Creighton already collected seven turnovers.
“We certainly weren’t our best. We had some turnovers that were very uncharacteristic for us,” McDermott said.
It was, in part, due to these unfavorable turnovers — 12 by the end of the half — that the Pirates held a slight 34-32 lead over the Bluejays at halftime. Those 12 turnovers resulted in 14 points.
Despite the turnovers, Creighton stayed close behind, with seven of its 12 first-half makes coming from deep as the defense struggled to slow Seton Hall.
Seton Hall shot 48.28% from the field and 71.43% from beyond the arc in the first half. Meanwhile, Creighton shot 44.4% from the field and 43.75% from three.
Traudt led the team with 15 points, while Dix’s steady presence once again graced the floor at CHI Health Center, providing his team with 10 critical points on 4-of-7 from the field after three games scoring under 10 points.
Opening second half scoring was Traudt, who got his sixth and final triple of the night to begin second half scoring, giving his team the lead back, 35-34, thanks to an assist from Dix. Then, the senior guard followed the dish with two made triples with 16:33 left to play.
But just three minutes later, helped by a three-minute scoring drought from Creighton, Seton Hall pulled together a 10-0 run over two minutes for a 48-41 lead.
Fast forward five minutes and nearly the same thing happened, as Creighton clawed its way back within three just to have a 7-0 run for Seton Hall create another 10-point lead.
By the time the clock ticked below seven minutes, Seton Hall amassed a 57-47 lead.
When the clock hit 1:27, Creighton trailed 67-58.
It seemed that any time the Bluejays would get close, the Pirates would sink just one more shot to keep the game firmly in their hands.
“We were trailing by … maybe nine or so with like three minutes to go [and then one minute to go]. It’s easy to just fall apart at that moment [and] give up, but I think we’re a bunch of guys that are always going to fight until that clock says zero,” Graves said.
The 1:27 showing on the clock was no match for that mentality, which fueled yet another fast-paced comeback at CHI Health Center, the third one in the building this season.
With time running low, the Bluejays cued the 8-0 run.
First, Zugic sank a triple with 1:26 to go on a dish from Dix, putting the Jays within striking distance, 67-61.
Then, Seton Hall’s Adam Clark missed his jumper attempt. Dix missed his triple, but Green was ready for the put-back, tipping the ball in for the score.
With 32 seconds remaining, the Pirates’ lead was just four, 67-64.
On the next play, Seton Hall lost the ball, and a scramble on the Bluejays’ end of the floor ended with the ball in Nik Graves’ hands, who found Zugic for another 3-pointer.
Only 17.2 seconds shone on the clock, but the Bluejays were in the game, trailing by just one, 67-66.
Creighton’s only choice was to foul the Pirates. With students and fans reaching fever pitch, Pirates guard Trey Parker stepped up to the charity stripe, and hit just one of his two free throws, pushing the lead to 68-66.
“The crowd was a huge boost, especially late. It was really good to get CHI rocking again. It was really fun, especially when they were shooting free throws, that place was really loud,” Traudt said.
Ripping down the rebound, the next 14 seconds of the game seemed to unfold in slow motion.
“I was supposed to get a handoff — [I was] trying to get a paint touch really — and look for anybody coming off screens, stuff like that. But they [the Pirates] ended up blowing it up a little bit and we got a little scrambled. [I] saw the shot clock at like six and … instincts kicked in a little bit,” Graves said.
Seeing no open looks at the basket, Graves stepped back on the left side, letting it fly and swishing the triple with three seconds remaining.
The Bluejays went ahead 69-68. Seton Hall looked to get up the last-second shot, but it didn’t fall, and CHI Health Center erupted in cheers. The Bluejays pulled out the win, 69-68.
“Wow,” McDermott said in the postgame press conference. “We’ve got some interesting finishes in this building and that one certainly takes the cake.”
In the game of basketball, one shot can change a lot. In some, it means the difference between a win and a loss. In some, it means a career night for a player. But for the Bluejays on Feb. 7, it meant a light in what has been a dark week.
“That was pretty awesome, what just happened there, especially with what we went through this week. One of our brothers obviously lost his mom and that was one of the hardest days of my life and I can’t imagine what he was going through,” Traudt said. “For [Dix] to still play that game and play today and keep practicing and being with us, I don’t know if I’ve ever respected somebody so much. To win that game today was absolutely huge for us.”
By the end of the night, Dix logged 38 minutes on the floor and scored 16 points, draining four triples to pair with 6-of-10 shooting from the field and three assists.
“He had one of the best games he’s had in this building,” McDermott said of Dix. “[To] play 38 minutes [tonight] when he was out with the flu Monday, Tuesday and then you take Wednesday’s events and he didn’t practice Thursday … [and then not] turn it over against that pressure, I mean, come on. That’s superhuman stuff given what he’s had to go through this week.”
With Dix’s presence despite everything he carried, and the group united around him, that moment sparked belief that this team could build something moving forward.
“Hopefully this provides a little momentum and lifts their shoulders, lifts their chins a little bit,” McDermott said. “Maybe they can smile a little bit. There hadn’t been many smiles since Wednesday morning because it’s tough to celebrate stuff in practice and outside of practice when reality slaps you in the face like that.”
That belief carried into the locker room.
“I think [the shot] can be a change in momentum for us,” Graves said of his buzzer-beater. “Coach Mac mentioned before that I think tonight we had an angel watching over us. … We’ve been through a lot … this past week, so just coming together, fighting hard, playing together, I think we can build off of that.”
After facing the DePaul Blue Demons on the road, the Bluejays return to their nest to take on visiting Villanova, on Saturday at 1:30pm.
