With just 17 seconds left in their game at Creighton, sophomore guard Trey Parker had a chance to give Seton Hall men’s basketball, leading 67-66, a three-point cushion from the line.
Parker made the first, but missed the second, leaving the door wide open for the Bluejays to tie or win with the final possession of the game.
Creighton’s Nik Graves chose the latter.
With the ball on the wing, Graves jabbed left, then side-stepped right for a deep, all-net three-pointer with just two seconds left that gave the Bluejays a 69-68 lead, and the win after the Pirates were unable to score on the other end with the last shot of the game.
Up by nine points with just 1:35 left, the Pirates (16-8, 6-7 BIG EAST) conceded a 11-1 run—including Graves’ go-ahead shot—in the time remaining to suffer a heartbreaking 69-68 loss to Creighton (13-11, 7-6 BIG EAST) at the CHI Health Center Omaha in Nebraska on Saturday night.
With the win, the Bluejays snap a four-game losing streak and move into sole possession of fourth place in the conference, while The Hall drop their second-straight on the road and to fifth in the standings.
Graves finished with just seven points, but his decisive three-pointer was the 13th of the game for the Bluejays, who entered the contest leading the BIG EAST in both three-point attempts (29.2) and makes (9.9) per game.
Meanwhile, SHU shot 5-of-9 (55.6%) from beyond the arc, a great mark considering how poorly they have shot from that distance this season (they rank in the 300s nationally across all major three-point metrics), but still not enough for them to come away with the win.
Perhaps a harbinger of the Pirates’ loss was the injury of senior forward Stephon Payne, who suffered what appeared to be a lower left injury, potentially a rolled ankle, while defending a Creighton drive underneath midway through the second. He was helped to the locker room by his teammates, and although he later returned to the game—even catching a lob for a nasty one-handed dunk off a pass from junior guard Tajuan Simpkins—the loss of their starting center for any amount of time would be another huge blow to The Hall.
Before their collapse in the last 90 seconds of the game, it was a strong second half showing for the Pirates. With just 3:30 left, SHU matched a 6-0 run from Creighton with a 6-0 run of their own to gain their second 10-point lead of the half. Junior guard and reigning BIG EAST Player of the Week Adam “Budd” Clark—who finished with a game-high 20 points—found senior guard Elijah Fisher cutting on the baseline for an easy layup to cap off the run, SHU leading 63-53.
Through the second half’s first 12 minutes, the Pirates were outscoring the Bluejays 23-15, with a 7-0 run from 10:34 to 7:18—notably without Clark on the floor—gave them their first 10-point lead at 57-47.
The Hall got off to an even bigger run earlier in the half, when they scored 10 unanswered points from 15:57 to 12:55, with Clark scoring half of them, including the 10th point via his signature elbow jumper.
With five three-pointers made already in the contest, Creighton’s Isaac Traudt hit his sixth three pointer of the game for a new career high in that statistic to open the second half.
At 34-32, the Pirates held a halftime lead for the first time since their loss at St. John’s on Jan. 20, four games ago. At the break, Clark led the Pirates with 11 points on 4-for-9 shooting, while graduate guard AJ Staton-McCray followed with nine of his own on 4-for-8.
It was a three-point shootout in the first half, with SHU and Creighton hitting five and seven three-pointers, respectively, through the game’s first 20 minutes of action. Five of the Bluejay’s seven first-half threes came from Isaac Traudt, who hit three-straight in the game's opening three minutes alone. He had a career-high 15 points, all on shots from beyond the arc, at halftime. Clark was also lethal from distance, shooting 3-for-4 from range in the first half as well.
With the loss, SHU may have just watched their chances of being in the NCAA Tournament slip right through their fingers.
Originally a Quad 1 game, with Creighton’s loss to Georgetown earlier this week, Saturday’s game became a Quad 2 game instead. This not only makes the loss even worse for the Pirates, who are now 4-3 against such opponents, but means that their only remaining opportunities for a Quad 1 win that would boost their tournament resume greatly are at Butler on Feb. 15, at No. 3 UConn on Feb. 28th and when they host No. 22 St. John’s for the regular season finale on March 6. Every other game in-between is a must-win now, as well.
The Hall will try to avoid a three-game losing streak on Feb. 11, when they return to the Prudential Center to host the Providence Friars (11-13, 4-9 BIG EAST), who they defeated 72-67 on the road in their first game of conference play earlier this season.
“We need the Rock rocking. Every single game we need The Rock rocking,” Clark said as a special guest on WSOU 89.5 FM’s Pirate Primetime on the evening of Feb. 1. “We cannot do it without the fans. We need the fans—please! Get The Rock rocking!”
Zachary Mawby is the head editor of The Setonian’s Sports section. He can be reached at zachary.mawby@student.shu.edu.
