PITTSBURGH — Steven Ashworth scored 21 points and ignited the game-winning, 15-point run to propel No. 3 seed Creighton to an 86-73 win over No. 11 seed Oregon in double overtime in the second round of the NCAA Tournament’s Midwest Region on Saturday night.
Trey Alexander tallied 20 points, seven rebounds and five assists while Ryan Kalkbrenner had 19 points, 14 boards and five blocks for the Bluejays (25-9), who escaped a tough second half and will play No. 2 seed Tennessee in the Sweet 16.
Baylor Scheierman, who had 18 points, nine rebounds and five assists, scored Creighton’s final four points of regulation in a duel that ended past 12:20 a.m. local time.
“Epic game,” Bluejays coach Greg McDermott said. “Not sure if I’ve been part of one quite like it in 35 years.”
Oregon’s two-man wrecking crew of Jermaine Couisnard and N’Faly Dante ran out of gas in the second overtime. Couisnard finished with 32 points and eight rebounds, and Dante racked up a career-high 28 points and 20 rebounds for the Ducks (24-12).
The duo combined for all 28 of Oregon’s second-half points, but Dante missed the front end of a one-and-one in the closing seconds of regulation that could have extended the Ducks’ lead.
“I would not say it was the best game of my career, because we didn’t win,” Dante said. “I wish I could have made that last free throw. That would be the game. But that’s on me. There’s a lot of things I could do to help my team, but I didn’t.”
Oregon was down three in the first extra session when Couisnard, with a hand in his face, drilled a 3-pointer with 16 seconds left.
The Bluejays couldn’t break the tie before the buzzer, and McDermott looked at Oregon coach Dana Altman — his predecessor at Creighton — in disbelief.
“We caught each other’s eye at that point,” McDermott said. “Baylor making the big plays at the end of regulation and Jermaine making the play at the end of the first overtime to send it to second overtime. And Trey gets a great look on the baseline after he fumbled it. He makes that shot 19 out of 20 times, but he misses it. So I think we were both in disbelief about what was transpiring in front of our eyes.”
Ashworth made his fifth 3-pointer to open the scoring in the second OT, and he fed the 7-foot Kalkbrenner for a triple 35 seconds later. Jasen Green added a putback slam to electrify the anxious Creighton crowd that stayed till the end.
Oregon shot 0-for-7 from the floor in the period, including six misses by Couisnard.
Amid a game with 14 lead changes and nine ties, Couisnard lofted an alley-oop pass that Dante dunked for a 60-58 lead with 2:10 left in regulation. Oregon got a stop, and Couisnard ran into a wall at the basket on the ensuing possession, but Dante ate up the offensive rebound and slammed it home.
Scheierman got to the line and made two free throws with 27 seconds, and after Dante’s foul shot rimmed out, his midrange fadeaway with eight seconds left forced overtime.
“Like (McDermott) said, we were down four so I wasn’t going to be able to get it all back at once and there was time left on the clock,” Scheierman said. “So just decided to try to get downhill, get a foul and go to the free-throw line. …
“And the guys had the confidence in me to give me the ball there at the end, and so did the coaches and I’m just happy I could deliver for them.”
Scheierman and Alexander each made four 3-pointers. Ashworth missed his first five attempts from the arc, but he finally made one with two seconds left in the first half to put Creighton ahead 36-34.
Creighton was up 52-49 midway through the second half when it hit a six-minute scoring drought, while Dante went to work in the post. Nearly two minutes after a putback dunk, he bullied his way around Kalkbrenner to score a layup for a 53-52 lead.
Couisnard followed Dante’s personal 6-0 run with a 3-pointer for a six-point Oregon lead with 5:20 left.
Dante dominated his matchup in the second half. He scored 16 points on 8-of-11 shooting and 11 rebounds while limiting Kalkbrenner to two points (0-for-1 from the floor).
It was all in vain for Oregon, which made a surprise run through the Pac-12 tournament to earn an NCAA bid. Altman said he made coaching mistakes and was as much to blame for the loss as anyone.
The game took on extra emotion for Altman, a Nebraska native who coached Creighton for 16 years before leaving the program in McDermott’s hands.
“I hope they get to the Final Four,” Altman said. “It’d be great for that program. I’d love to see it. They’ll swing away. They’ve got a lot of shooters, and they hit some big threes tonight.”
–Adam Zielonka, Field Level Media
