Creighton prevails in double overtime thriller to beat Oregon, advance to Sweet 16

The finale played at PPG Paints Arena Saturday as part of the NCAA Tournament’s slate of first-weekend games in Pittsburgh proved to be a March Madness classic, with Creighton and Oregon duking it out in double overtime before the Bluejays came out on top, 86-73.

In the first game of the tournament this year to require double overtime, the No. 3-seeded Bluejays edged the No. 11 Ducks by outscoring them 15-2 in the final five-minute extra period.

Creighton and Oregon followed another thriller Saturday, with No. 14 Oakland and No. 11 N.C. State needing overtime before the Wolfpack won the game 79-73.

“Epic game. Not sure I’ve been part of one quite like it in 35 years,” said Creighton coach Greg McDermott.

Creighton (25-9), which advanced to the Elite 8 last year, moves to the Sweet 16 with the win over Oregon (24-12).

The Bluejays will play No. 2 Tennessee on Friday at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, Mich.

Most of regulation, as well as the first overtime, was a neck-and-neck affair.

With 1 minute, 15 seconds left in regulation, Oregon led 62-58 after an emphatic dunk by N’Faly Dante.

But Baylor Scheierman hit a pair of free throws with 27 seconds remaining to bring the Bluejays within two.

Moments later, a foul on Ryan Kalkbrenner sent Dante to the charity stripe for potentially game-sealing buckets, but Dante missed the front end of his 1-and-1, giving the ball back to Creighton after a Kalkbrenner rebound.

“I wish I would have made that last free throw – that would have been the game,” Dante said. “There’s a lot of things I could do to help my team, but I didn’t.”

What Dante did do was contribute a double-double of 28 points and 20 rebounds.

Combined with fellow senior Jermaine Couisnard, who dropped 32, they ultimately scored 60 of their team’s 73 points (82%).

“They played their tails off,” Ducks coach Dana Altman said. “… We needed some more contributions from some other guys.”

After Dante’s miss at the free throw line, Scheierman drained a fadeaway jumper with Creighton’s season on the line to tie the score at 62 and send the game into overtime.

“The guys had the confidence in me to give me the ball there at the end and so did the coaches,” Scheierman said. “I’m just happy I could deliver for them.”

Toward the end of the first overtime period, with the battle between the Bluejays and Ducks still extremely tightly contested, Steven Ashworth sank two free throws to put Creighton up 71-68.

Then, Couisnard, coming off a 40-point performance vs. South Carolina in the Round of 64 on Thursday, drilled a 3-pointer, tying things up with 16 seconds to go.

Creighton wound up having the last offensive possession of the period, but a Trey Alexander jumper rattled off the iron, sending the game into double overtime.

In that decisive period, Oregon’s offense dried up almost entirely.

Dante’s free throws with 34.8 seconds left went for the Ducks’ first and only points.

Meanwhile, the Bluejays built a double-digit lead.

Back-to-back 3-pointers by Ashworth and Kalkbrenner put Creighton up 77-71, beginning what amounted to a 15-0 run before Dante’s free throws finally got the Ducks on the board.

By that time, the game was well out of reach.

“We switched our ball screen coverage later in the end of regulation and into overtime, so we were a little bit more aggressive, trying to make Couisnard give it up,” McDermott said. “ … Our guys executed when we needed to. He was on a roll, he was killing us, and I think that adjustment and their execution was able to knock them out of the rhythm they were in offensively.”

Creighton leaned on its big three of Scheierman (18 points), Kalkbrenner (19, 14 boards) and Alexander (20), while Ashworth came up clutch as the game progressed, scoring 18 of his 21 points in the second half and overtime periods.

Neither team was particularly lights-out offensively, with the Bluejays hitting 38.7% (29 of 75) of their shots, while Oregon converted 40.3% of its looks from the floor (31 of 77).

Creighton won the battle on the glass, 48-43, and defended cleanly, limiting the Ducks to just five total free throw attempts on the night.

By comparison, the Bluejays shot 15 free throws, making 14.

Defeating Altman, whom he succeeded in 2010 as head coach at Creighton, was doubtless bittersweet for McDermott.

During his time in Omaha, Altman elevated the Bluejays to regular NCAA Tournament contention.

But in seven trips to the Big Dance, his Bluejays couldn’t make it past the Round of 32.

McDermott, in Year 11 at the helm, has Creighton in the Sweet 16 for the third time in four years.

“This team has just been an absolute joy to coach. What you saw going into that second overtime, them being loose and them having fun – they love the game,” McDermott said. “They love each other. It’s obvious.

“ … It’s just been an absolute blast to be part of it. Selfishly, I’m obviously excited that I get to coach them at least another week.”