Villanova falls to 10th-ranked Creighton in the final seconds
After a disastrous start for the Villanova Wildcats — for a moment — none of that seemed to matter. Creighton’s Trey Alexander fouled one of the Wildcats’ top scorers and shooters in Eric Dixon, giving him a free opportunity for three free throws to tie the game.
Somehow, someway, the Wildcats managed to rumble all the way back and salvage the game in the closing seconds.
Unfortunately, they would not snatch another come-from-behind victory against the Bluejays, as Alexander redeemed himself in the closing seconds and hit a step-back game-winning jumper to lift Creighton to a 69-67 victory in Saturday’s regular season finale at the Wells Fargo Center.
“Fortunately for us, we got off to a ridiculous start on both ends of the floor,” Creighton coach Greg McDermott said. “We’re fortunate that we did, because we needed every single one of those points. We knew Villanova would not quit. … We made some mistakes down the stretch that we will learn from. Breaking the press, jump ball foul, fouling the three-point shooter. Those are things moving into the postseason that you can look back at on film and grow from it. These guys will grow from it.
“The good news is the guy that fouled the three-point shooter didn’t think about it for too long. We elected to not take the time out so we knew what defense they would be in and we wanted to put the ball in the guys’ hands who would get a great shot for him or his teammates.”
The clutch heroics saved the 10th-ranked Bluejays (23-8, 14-6), while breaking the hearts — and possibly the case for an NCAA Tournament bid — for the Wildcats.
Villanova (17-14, 10-10 Big East) needed a win to virtually clinch an NCAA Tournament bid, while Creighton is comfortably in the field. Despite that, the Bluejays came out with greater efficiency, tenacity and energy, especially in the opening minutes.
As they have done plenty of times this season, the Wildcats gave up a huge run to their opponent to start the game. Creighton got out to a 32-8 lead in the first few minutes of the game.
“They came out and really set the tone for the game.” Villanova coach Kyle Neptune said. “They made a lot of shots to start that game. They really executed and got us on our heels a little bit.”
Creighton hit eight of their first 11 threes to start the game, with most of them seemingly wide open.
“They kicked it ahead and just moved the ball really quickly, unfortunately and got some open looks we didn’t want them to get,” Neptune explained postgame. “They crossed the middle and I thought they just had a little pop to them. They made some extra passes and we were a little late to recover. This is what they do. Some of them were contested, some of them were not, but they made them. They were 8-for-11 to start — that’s tough. Even if they’re open, that’s tough.”
Justin Moore reiterated that Villanova’s issue in the first few minutes was lack of transition defense.
“I think just getting back in transition,” Moore said. “They were kinda hitting everything in transition. So we were starting to sprint back harder and communicate and we started to limit them to half-court offense.”
“It’s definitely challenging. It exerts a lot of energy (to come back), trying to finish out a game, it makes it even harder since you fight back so hard. Very proud of the way we competed overall.”
Villanova trailed by as much as 24, before going on a big 21-5 run late in the first half to make the game respectable. Despite that, Creighton remained well in front, holding a 40-29 halftime lead.
In the second half, the ‘Cats used a 15-2 run to muster one last rally. Eric Dixon made back-to-back baskets to jumpstart ‘Nova, and Moore topped things off with a three to make it a one-point game, with the Bluejays clinging onto a 65-64 lead with 1:33 to go.
Villanova was able to scratch and claw their way back to tie the game with three Eric Dixon free throws with just over 20 seconds left but Trey Alexander hit a two-foot fadeaway with 0.2 seconds left to seal Creighton’s win. Creighton’s hot start, which ended with 13 made threes and interior defense allowed them to secure the 69-67 win.
“When you give up [32] points in the first six, seven minutes, that’s tough.” Neptune explained. “You’re going against a set defense every time, [we] couldn’t get going out in transition, so I think it was more in our inability to get stops.”
Villanova’s defense and effort led the comeback that ultimately fell short. If the Wildcats played like they did the last 30 minutes of the game for the entire game, it would have been a much different result.
“Not much was said.” Neptune said of the comeback efforts. “We just knew we had to come out much better and play with a sense of pride and urgency and I think our guys did that over the last 25-30 minutes of the game. I thought we played with a much higher sense of urgency.”
Despite the sloppy start, Neptune denies any lack of urgency from his team in the earlier portion of the game.
“They just got on our heels a little bit with the way they shot the ball,” Neptune said. “We practiced hard this week. We came out, I thought we warmed up great, guys were energetic. In the huddle, you look at our guys, we were ready to go. Sometimes guys make tough shots and I think they made some tough ones. We just got to learn from it move on. We still got a lot of basketball left and some opportunities.”
Leading the way for the Bluejays, was Baylor Scheierman, who finished with 18 points eight rebounds and six assists. Alexander, who hit the game-winner finished with 17 points and six rebounds. Ryan Kalkbrenner clogged up the paint all game and finished with 14 points, five rebounds and two blocks.
For the Wildcats, Eric Dixon and Justin Moore led the comeback effort. Dixon finished with 25 points and four made threes. Moore added 17 points, shooting 7-of-12 from the field.
Next up for both teams — the Big East Tournament. Creighton will get some added rest and take the court in Thursday’s quarterfinals, while Villanova’s 10-10 Big East record forces them to play on Wednesday. Opponents will be determined by the end of Saturday based on other results around the league.
Saturday’s game was very demoralizing. In a must-win game to lock up their tournament berth, the Wildcats were lethargic out of the gate — managed to fight all the way back — then have the game ripped away at the final buzzer with Alexander’s clutch play. Everyone in the building knew what was at stake.
“I get it, I understand, I think we all understand the situation.” Neptune said of the NCAA Tournament bid chatter. “I think everyone in this room, all our fans know it. But for us, it doesn’t really do us any good to focus on it. It doesn’t help us when we get in that 94×50 feet. We just gotta focus on what we can do each day to prepare ourselves to play Villanova basketball for 40 minutes.”
Hopefully, the Big East Tournament is a different story, as the Wildcats turn the page for the postseason.