Tag it:

?

“This is a tough one. Our guys came ready to play and ready to win,” BG head coach Louis Orr said. “We didn’t want to see our season end.

“I’m so proud of our guys and the courage they played with,” Orr added. “It would have been a great win for our program ... Even though it wasn’t a win on the scoreboard, it was a winning effort.”

A 3-pointer with 1:40 left in the game from Justin Carter put Creighton ahead to stay, 70-69.

“Antoine (Young) penetrated and two or three guys collapsed on him, including my guy,” Carter said. “I shot it with confidence and knocked it down.”

P’Allen Stinnett added two free throws with 35.3 seconds left to increase the Bluejays lead to 72-69.

BG’s Nate Miller countered with a layup with 28.7 seconds left, cutting Creighton’s lead to one point.The Falcons then fouled and Young missed the free throw with Darryl Clements grabbing the rebound. However, Miller missed a layup with 17 seconds left and the Falcons had to foul again.

Kenton Walker was fouled, but he was removed from the game after his contact lens was apparently cut on the foul. Booker Woodfox, who ranks in the top 20 in the nation in free throw shooting, then came off the bench to shot the foul shots.

Woodfox made the first, but missed the second and Miller grabbed the rebound.

The Falcons took a timeout with 14 seconds left, but the Bluejays defended Miller well and when Clements’ 3-pointer from straight on didn’t fall, the Falcons’ season was over.

“In these kind of games it’s going to come down to the last couple of plays,” Orr said. “We wanted a play going to the basket or an open three. Creighton did a good job switching,” Orr said about the final play. “It was close. It was a tough shot.”

Dana Altman, Creighton’s head coach, was pleased with his team’s defensive effort in the final seconds.

Bowling Green started the game strong and aided by six 3-pointers grabbed a 32-18 lead with 8:27 left in the first half. During the run, Clements scored 13 of BG’s 31 points. The Falcons were 12-of-20 from the field during the run and Creighton was 5-of-21.

“Darryl got us off to a great start today. He came out with fire in his eyes,” Orr said. “It was big that he came out aggressive and confident because really everybody else feeds off of it.”

Creighton was able to cut BG’s lead to 39-31 at the break. Creighton, one of the better 3-point shooting teams in the nation, was 0-of-11 from beyond the arc in the first half.

The Bluejays kept pecking away in the second half and finally got the lead back at 67-65 with 4:40 to go when Stinnett found Woodfox on the 3-point arc, as part of a 14-4 CU run.

“We ended up going cold in the middle of the game and that kind of messed us up a little bit,” Clements said. After making 6-of-15 3-pointers in the first half, BG was only 1-of-8 from beyond the arc in the second half.

The teams then traded baskets until Carter hit his big 3-pointer and BG could never regain the lead.

“We just kept telling ourselves, there was no tomorrow,” Clements said. “We gave it everything we had.”

The Falcons got double-digit scoring efforts from each of their three seniors. Miller led the way with 22 points, Clements had 19 points and a game-high eight rebounds and Brian Moten added 12 points.

“Miller is a really good player, he is so versatile,” Altman said. “His big body gave us trouble. If you let him catch it and let him dictate things, he’s really good. He got to the rim and made plays.”

Stinnett finished with 18 points and six assists. Woodfox, the Missouri Valley Conference player of the year, was held to 10 points, six below his average.

NOTES: BG finishes 19-14 ... Creighton, now 27-7, hosts Kentucky Monday in a second-round game ... BG’s bench was shorthanded as Chris Knight (knee) did not dress for the game ... Creighton had eight players play 16 or more minutes ... Creighton had a strong night at the free-throw line, going 18-of-22 (81.8 percent) ... Dr. James Saker, a Bowling Green graduate, is the director of bands at Nebraska-Omaha. He put together a 30-member pep band that wore Bowling Green orange and played for the Falcons during the game.