Creighton University
Rhode Island
Witter Bomb Caps Remarkable Comeback For 74-73 NIT Thriller Over URI
3/18/2008 10:00:00 PM | Men's Basketball
OMAHA, Neb. -- Cavel Witter's three-pointer with 3.2 seconds left during first-round action of the 2008 MasterCard NIT gave the Bluejays a 74-73 come-from-behind victory over Rhode Island Tuesday night at Qwest Center Omaha. Witter's only field goal of the game completed a furious comeback from 17 down early in the second half.
Creighton improved to 22-10 with the win, while
Witter's basket, his only make in eight attempts, gave the Jays their first lead since Nick Bahe gave CU a 3-0 lead with a three-pointer to start the game.
Rhode Island then
Rhody reopened a 17-point lead early in the second half once again before Creighton's crowd helped fuel a comeback. Back-to-back triples from Woodfox and P'Allen Stinnett got the Jays within 11 with 11:42 to play. Stinnett drained a trey in transition and was then fouled on a driving lay-in to make it a six-point game. Cavel Witter then scored his first two points of the night from the line as the Jays got to 54-50 at the 9:20 mark.
URI used a basket from Jason Francis, then got a kickout that led by a trey from Baron to finish off a seven-point bulge and return the lead to 61-50 at the seven-minute mark.
The Bluejays trailed by 12 with 3:14 to go and were down six with 1:10 left on the clock. The Jays drew within three after Woodfox nailed a pull-up three-pointer with defenders on him to cut the score to 72-69 in favor of URI with just over a minutes left.
After Stinnett swatted a drive from Baron, Witter came down and was fouled with 13.3 ticks left. He made both to get the Jays within one, down 72-71. URI's Marquis Jones would hit one of two at the line to return the lead to two with 11.5 seconds left.
On the final sequence, Stinnett drew a double team, leaving Witter alone in the corner, where he buried his only field goal of the game with 3.2 seconds on the clock to send the crowd of 7,948 into an extended frenzy.
Stinnett and Woodfox tied for game-high honors with 22 points, while Stinnett added a career-high eight rebounds, three steals, an assist and a blocked shot. Stinnett, the MVC Newcomer and Freshman of the Year, scored 18 of his 22 points after halftime. Witter finished with 10 points, making 7-of-8 free-throws before knocking down the game winning shot to finish 1-for-8 from the floor. Dane Watts led the Jays with 10 rebounds to move into the top-10 in CU career history with 680 boards. Creighton shot 36.8 percent in the game and hit 12-of-30 from three-point range.
URI was led by 16 points from Will Daniels, but only two of those came after half. Baron had 13 points and five caroms while Lamonte Ulmer finished with 12 points and eight boards. Also displaying a solid all-around game was Kahiem Seawright, who had six points, 10 rebounds and eight assists. URI shot 42.9 percent for the contest and outrebounded CU 43-13 while dominating the paint to the tune of 38-18.
Creighton will await tomorrow's
NOTES: Creighton tied a school-record with its 18th home game of the season. The Jays also played 18 home games in 1983-84 and 1921-22 ...Junior Booker Woodfox scored in double-figures for an MVC-best 14th consecutive game ..Dane Watts played in his 129th career game, second-most in CU history (Nate Funk, 135) ...Dane Watts moved into the top-10 in Creighton history on the career rebounding chart. He had 10 boards and now has 680 in his career ...Creighton's crowd of 7,948 was the fourth-largest postseason crowd in Qwest Center Omaha history and extends the Jays MVC single-season home attendance record to 276,000 this year ...Six of Creighton's last seven postseason trips have included a game decided in the final seconds ...Creighton improved to 2-1 this year against Atlantic-10 foes ...The win was Creighton's first postseason victory since a 2006 NIT win over Akron, also at home ...Creighton is now 4-8 all-time in NIT games ...Dana Altman is now 6-6 all-time in NIT games ...This was the first meeting between Creighton and URI.
