Creighton 90, St. Joseph’s 84 (OT)
With A Little Help From My Friends
Tragic events such as the Von Maur Massacre do so much more than lead the average person to question the motives for and consequences of such acts of violence; often, such heartbreak reminds people to express their love and feelings for family and friends. I’m no exception, and the following weekend provided numerous opportunities to spend valuable time with friends and family.
It culminated on Sunday with Creighton’s game against St. Joseph’s, We filled the front of Section 123 with friend from Chicago and Omaha who braved bad weather to bond over Bluejay basketball. Those same friends, along with some others, gathered for brunch before the game, and my immediate family celebrated my mom’s birthday after the game. All in all, it was a Sunday spent with those closest to me, rounding out a week that was both painful because of the violence and uplifting because of the community’s support and the strengthening of relationships among those closest to me.
Oh, and the game Sunday was pretty uplifting, too.
More than 15,000 fans packed the Qwest Center to see how Altman’s Jays would bounce back from their first loss of the season. For the second straight year, Creighton hosted a team that had posted one of the more memorable “mid-major” seasons in recent memory (last year it was George Mason). In 2004, coach Phil Martelli led his St. Joe’s Hawks to a perfect record in the regular season and a #1 seed in the NCAA tournament before missing out on a trip to the Final Four by two points. They are as far removed from that success as the Jays are from their magical 2002-2003 season, but both teams remain among the elite non-BCS conference basketball programs.
This game belonged to the Jays who were either playing college basketball or preparing to be Bluejays during St. Joe’s remarkable 2003-2004 season. Pierce Hibma redshirted for the Jays that season, picking up the knowledge and valuable practice experience that would lead him to a starting position during this, his senior season. Nick Bahe was down at the University of Kansas, where he would spend the first two seasons of his college career before transferring to the Bluejay program. And Dane Watts was capping off his high school career with a senior season that saw him average 21 points, 12 rebounds and 3 assists per game.
Against the Hawks, Hibma controlled the first couple of minutes of action. He scored 10 of his career-high 17 points in the first half, including two three-pointers within a minute of each other that pushed the Jays’ early lead to 8-3 through just two minutes of action. After leading by as many as 8 points in the first stanza, the Jays would relinquish the lead due to some hot shooting by the Hawks. St. Joe’s hit 57% of their field goals in the first half, which was eerily similar to the percentage posted by Xavier in the Jays’ previous game. However, Creighton went to the locker room trailing by just 1 point instead of the 15-point deficit they faced as they walked to the visitors’ changing room in Cincinnati.
Watts was on his way to a nice game, too. He had 11 points at intermission to lead Creighton, and all of his scoring was coming from monster dunks and nice work inside the paint. However, the Jays had yet to really ratchet up the defensive pressure, and the Hawks made them pay by burying nearly 46% of their three-point attempts.
The back-and-forth nature of the game continued well into the second half, before Iowa State transfer Tashied Carr slammed home a dunk at the 10-minute mark for a 5-point St. Joe’s lead. Nearly two minutes of game time passed, and the Hawks hit another long-range shot near the 8-minute mark to regain the 5-point cushion, marking the largest lead at the latest time of the contest for the visitors.
The Jays would chip away at the deficit, finally bringing the crowd to its collective feet with numerous steals and defensive stops. However, with a tied game at 2:07 to play, Stinnett turned the ball over (a problem for him and the other Jays guards all day), the Hawks converted a three-point play off the turnover, and then a minute later opened a 4-point lead with 1:09 to play.
The Jays were 70 seconds away from a home loss to a decent opponent, until the seniors stepped up once again. With Creighton needing a big shot, Bahe delivered his third three-pointer of the half (and his first since the first 2 minutes of the second stanza) on an assist by Dotzler (who had 10 assists to go with 7 turnovers, both team highs). St. Joe’s came right down and went back up by 3 points on a nice lay-up by Carr, who also hit a career high in points, but senior Watts matched him with a quick lay-up (on another assist from Dotzler) to bring the Jays within one again. And after the Hawks’ Pat Calathes went 1-2 on a trip to the free-throw line, Watts nailed his 2 attempts at the charity stripe to tie the game at 70 and send the Jays into overtime.
The extra session belonged yet again to the Jays’ seniors. Watts scored the first four points in the overtime period, Bahe added the next two points, and after a big three-pointer by Chad Millard the Jays slowly but surely distanced themselves from the Hawks, the hard-luck losers of 4 close games this season.
And the best part about the win? Not the fact the Jays beat another solid team to start the season 6-1. Not the fact the seniors led the way, proving the doubters in the media and the coaches on the couches wrong. Nope, it was the fact I got to witness the win amongst some of the people I care about most in my life. In a week of tumultuous emotions, it is tough to describe in words what it meant to be surrounded by a large number of friends and family, all healthy and safe, cheering on a team we all love.
We are truly blessed.
Tragic events such as the Von Maur Massacre do so much more than lead the average person to question the motives for and consequences of such acts of violence; often, such heartbreak reminds people to express their love and feelings for family and friends. I’m no exception, and the following weekend provided numerous opportunities to spend valuable time with friends and family.
It culminated on Sunday with Creighton’s game against St. Joseph’s, We filled the front of Section 123 with friend from Chicago and Omaha who braved bad weather to bond over Bluejay basketball. Those same friends, along with some others, gathered for brunch before the game, and my immediate family celebrated my mom’s birthday after the game. All in all, it was a Sunday spent with those closest to me, rounding out a week that was both painful because of the violence and uplifting because of the community’s support and the strengthening of relationships among those closest to me.
Oh, and the game Sunday was pretty uplifting, too.
More than 15,000 fans packed the Qwest Center to see how Altman’s Jays would bounce back from their first loss of the season. For the second straight year, Creighton hosted a team that had posted one of the more memorable “mid-major” seasons in recent memory (last year it was George Mason). In 2004, coach Phil Martelli led his St. Joe’s Hawks to a perfect record in the regular season and a #1 seed in the NCAA tournament before missing out on a trip to the Final Four by two points. They are as far removed from that success as the Jays are from their magical 2002-2003 season, but both teams remain among the elite non-BCS conference basketball programs.
This game belonged to the Jays who were either playing college basketball or preparing to be Bluejays during St. Joe’s remarkable 2003-2004 season. Pierce Hibma redshirted for the Jays that season, picking up the knowledge and valuable practice experience that would lead him to a starting position during this, his senior season. Nick Bahe was down at the University of Kansas, where he would spend the first two seasons of his college career before transferring to the Bluejay program. And Dane Watts was capping off his high school career with a senior season that saw him average 21 points, 12 rebounds and 3 assists per game.
Against the Hawks, Hibma controlled the first couple of minutes of action. He scored 10 of his career-high 17 points in the first half, including two three-pointers within a minute of each other that pushed the Jays’ early lead to 8-3 through just two minutes of action. After leading by as many as 8 points in the first stanza, the Jays would relinquish the lead due to some hot shooting by the Hawks. St. Joe’s hit 57% of their field goals in the first half, which was eerily similar to the percentage posted by Xavier in the Jays’ previous game. However, Creighton went to the locker room trailing by just 1 point instead of the 15-point deficit they faced as they walked to the visitors’ changing room in Cincinnati.
Watts was on his way to a nice game, too. He had 11 points at intermission to lead Creighton, and all of his scoring was coming from monster dunks and nice work inside the paint. However, the Jays had yet to really ratchet up the defensive pressure, and the Hawks made them pay by burying nearly 46% of their three-point attempts.
The back-and-forth nature of the game continued well into the second half, before Iowa State transfer Tashied Carr slammed home a dunk at the 10-minute mark for a 5-point St. Joe’s lead. Nearly two minutes of game time passed, and the Hawks hit another long-range shot near the 8-minute mark to regain the 5-point cushion, marking the largest lead at the latest time of the contest for the visitors.
The Jays would chip away at the deficit, finally bringing the crowd to its collective feet with numerous steals and defensive stops. However, with a tied game at 2:07 to play, Stinnett turned the ball over (a problem for him and the other Jays guards all day), the Hawks converted a three-point play off the turnover, and then a minute later opened a 4-point lead with 1:09 to play.
The Jays were 70 seconds away from a home loss to a decent opponent, until the seniors stepped up once again. With Creighton needing a big shot, Bahe delivered his third three-pointer of the half (and his first since the first 2 minutes of the second stanza) on an assist by Dotzler (who had 10 assists to go with 7 turnovers, both team highs). St. Joe’s came right down and went back up by 3 points on a nice lay-up by Carr, who also hit a career high in points, but senior Watts matched him with a quick lay-up (on another assist from Dotzler) to bring the Jays within one again. And after the Hawks’ Pat Calathes went 1-2 on a trip to the free-throw line, Watts nailed his 2 attempts at the charity stripe to tie the game at 70 and send the Jays into overtime.
The extra session belonged yet again to the Jays’ seniors. Watts scored the first four points in the overtime period, Bahe added the next two points, and after a big three-pointer by Chad Millard the Jays slowly but surely distanced themselves from the Hawks, the hard-luck losers of 4 close games this season.
And the best part about the win? Not the fact the Jays beat another solid team to start the season 6-1. Not the fact the seniors led the way, proving the doubters in the media and the coaches on the couches wrong. Nope, it was the fact I got to witness the win amongst some of the people I care about most in my life. In a week of tumultuous emotions, it is tough to describe in words what it meant to be surrounded by a large number of friends and family, all healthy and safe, cheering on a team we all love.
We are truly blessed.
posted by Creighton Otter at 1:03 PM
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