Bluejays Hang Tough Nova Wins 5th Title

By Andrew Rosario

 

 

You would be hard pressed or have to be a basketball savant to know where Creighton University is located. You would also have to Google the school to find out when they joined the Big East. The Bluejays (24-10 and 12-7 conference) are located in Omaha, Nebraska and joined the elite conference in 2013. Creighton has never won a Big East title. The Wildcats have been a staple in the Big East for years coming from the city of brotherly love, Philadelphia. They finished the regular season (23-7 and 16-4 conference) and were looking for their 5^th Big East title. 

 

 

 

Jay Wright took over as head coach for Nova in 2001 and has complied a 513-197 Big East record and a 635-281 overall record. His NCAA tournament record is 30-15. His counterpart, Greg McDermott has been in charge since 2010 and his record, 274-135 in the Big East and 554-330 overall. His team is coming off an impressive, dominating semi-final win over Providence 85-58. Villanova had a tougher time getting to the finals taking out the Connecticut Huskies 63-60. It was the first time the schools faced each other in the Big East finals. They split their regular season games both winning on their home court.

 

 

 

 

Villanova showed why they have had overall success in the Big East. They scored the first 7 points after a Justin Moore  lay-up and 3-pointer. The Bluejays missed their first five shots before getting on the board with a Ryan Kalkbrenner’s lay-up. Both teams continued poor shooting with Creighton creeping closer (12-11) after a Trey Alexander basket. Villanova’s Brandon Slater extended their lead (15-11) with a 3-pointer of his own with 7:50 left in the first half.

 

Creighton’s Arthur Kaluma continued his stellar play as his lay-up with 1:43 got the Bluejays within 1 (19-18) giving him 5 points for the first half. Trey Alexander’s shot at the buzzer hit the front of the rim as Villanova took a 1-point lead into halftime. The Bluejays shot 8-25 (32%) only getting to the free throw line 4 times converting 2. Nova was worse taking 27 shots making 8 (30%) and making 1 of their only 2 free throw attempts. Moore led Villanova with 6 points.

 

Creighton took their first lead of the games (23-22) to start the second half after a Kalkbrenner lay-up with 16:45 left. The Wildcats responded by going on a 11-4 run giving them their biggest lead (8 points) 33-25. The Bluejays then went on a run of their own with that man Kaluma sparking them. He converted 2 lay-ups and assisted on another and with 8:06 remaining, the score was tied at 36.

 

Coming out of the break, both team’s traded 3-pointers with Kalkbrenner adding a dunk as the Bluejays took a 4-point lead (43-39). The pro Nova crowd erupted after Caleb Daniels connected on a 3-pointer and was fouled by Kaluma. He failed to convert the free throw. Kalkbrenner converted an offensive rebound for the lay-up putting Creighton up 45-44 with 3:46 on the clock.

 

Villanova’s guard Collin Gillespie then brought the crowd to it’s feet as he nailed 2 consecutive 3-pointers. The first with 2:49 gave them a 47-45 lead. Kaluma missed his 3-point attempt as Gillespie took the rebound and calmly dribbled up court, pulled up and hit the second with 2:09 extending the lead to 50-45. Both teams traded 2 free throws. Alexander converted 2 free throws, Moore added a lay-up and Gillespie’s 2 free throws iced the 54-48 title.   

 

Kalkbrenner led all scorer’s with 19 points. Gillespie finished with 17 with Moore adding 16.

 

Wright talked about playing at The World’s Most Famous Arena. “I want to say how blessed we all think we are to play here, be part of the Big East in Madison Square Garden. You guys were here, you watched it. There’s nothing like this. Playing here is awesome but doing it here, with these fans and at this storied arena, it’s just off the charts.”

 

McDermott liked the direction and the future of his team. “This isn’t the end. This is just the beginning. We have good stuff awaiting us next week.”

 

Both teams will find out tonight what their seed will be, what region they will play in and who will be their first round opponent when the NCAA tournament kicks off next week.