Men's Basketball Advances to NCAA Second Round with Epic Comeback in 72-69 Overtime Win

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Down 62-53 with under three minutes remaining in regulation, the Creighton men's basketball team staged an epic 9-0 rally to force overtime and eventually earn a 72-69 win over San Diego State in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday, March 17.

The win moved Creighton on to the Second Round, where the Bluejays (23-11) will face No. 3 Kansas (29-6), on Saturday, March 19 in Fort Worth.The game will air on CBS and start at 1:40 p.m. Central. San Diego State, meanwhile, closes its season with a record of 23-9.

The Bluejay comeback began in earnest with 2:28 left on the clock as senior Alex O'Connell knocked down a pair of free throws (62-55). Following a defensive stop, O'Connell drained a three-pointer from the right win to make it 62-58 with 1:55 remaining. An Aztec turnover moments later led to a fast break layup by sophomore Ryan Kalkbrenner, getting the Bluejays within one possession at 62-60 (1:07).

Another San Diego State turnover gave Creighton the ball back with 1:01 on the clock, but a trio of close misses gave the Aztecs the ball with 34 seconds remaining. Freshman Arthur Kaluma, however, nabbed a critical steal to give Creighton one additional opportunity. Fellow freshman Trey Alexander made the most of the chance with a game-tying jumper from the left baseline to knot the game at 62-62 with 11 seconds left.

San Diego State had a chance to collect the win in regulation as Matt Bradley was fouled, but the Aztec guard missed the front end to force overtime.

Both offenses opened the extra session with precision as San Diego State scored on its first three possessions, while Creighton got to the foul line for four points.

The Aztecs held a 68-66 advantage with 2:06 left in the extra session after O'Connell drew his fifth foul. San Diego State hit one of two at the charity stripe, but Creighton found a way to rally its troops without Kalkbrenner, who left with a knee injury with 2:45 remaining. He did not return and left the arena in a wheelchair.

Alexander pulled the Bluejays back within one at 69-68 (1:47), then Creighton's defense denied the Aztecs once more. After senior Ryan Hawkins grabbed the rebound, Alexander pushed to the hoop for the bucket and the foul to give Creighton its first lead (70-69) since 8-7. Alexander went on to convert the traditional three-point play to put the Bluejays up 71-69 with 1:08 left.

Creighton secured the win with a pair of defensive stops down the stretch and a free throw from senior KeyShawn Feazell in the final second that was CU's only bench point of the night.

Early in the game San Diego State took a 21-10 advantage with a 9-0 run in the first half. Reserve Chad Baker-Mazara then took over for SDSU, scoring 16 of 18 Aztec points in a span of seven minutes to push the margin to 29-17. Down 35-21 at one point, the Bluejays rallied with a 9-2 run to end the half down 37-30. Baker-Mazara led all players with 15 points in just eight minutes before the half, while CU was paced by 10 points and eight rebounds (six offensive) by Ryan Kalkbrenner.

The second half saw the Aztecs seem to match every Creighton run for the first 16 minutes as the Bluejays closed to within 54-50, before falling behind 62-53 to set the stage for the Bluejays' dramatic finish.

Alexander led Creighton with a game and career-high 18 points in the win, while Kalkbrenner delivered his sixth double-double of the season with 16 points and 10 rebounds. Three other Bluejays closed the game in double figures, getting 15 points from O'Connell, 12 from Kaluma and 10 by Hawkins. The Jays shot 44.6 percent for the game and won despite shooting just 2-of-14 from downtown.

San Diego State's Baker-Mazara was limited to just two points in the second half, but led the Aztecs with 17 points in the game. Bradley finished with 16 points and Trey Pulliam had 14.

NOTES: San Diego State guard Adam Seiko is the brother of Creighton freshman forward Arthur Kaluma ... Ryan Hawkins made his 134th consecutive start ... After making a three-pointer before halftime in 316 straight games, the Bluejays had their second straight first half without one after shooting 0-for-7 from distance before the break .... Ryan Kalkbrenner had six offensive rebounds and now owns 134, which ranks second nationally to Kentucky's Oscar Tshiebwe ... Creighton has made a three-pointer in 947 straight games, with Arthur Kaluma sinking one with 4:33 to go after CU missed its first 10 attempts ... Creighton has won at least one game in 11 of its last 13 postseason appearances ... Creighton is now 15-23 all-time in the NCAA Tournament and has won games in consecutive NCAA Tournaments for the first time since 2012-14 ... CU is now 11-12 all-time in its first NCAA Tournament game of an appearance... Greg McDermott improved to 6-6 as Creighton's coach in NCAA Tournament games, twice as many victories as any other coach in program history ... Teams with Ryan Hawkins improved to 43-2 on neutral floors and 182-19 overall ... Creighton's last win when trailing at halftime of an NCAA Tournament game came on March 16, 2012, when the Jays were also down 7 (30-23) to Alabama before responding to post a 58-57 victory ... Creighton has won 25 straight games when five players score in double-figures.

NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: First Round - Creighton vs San Diego St.
Thursday, March 17, 2022
Fort Worth, Texas, USA
Dickies Arena
Creighton Bluejays

Head Coach Greg McDermott
Trey Alexander
Arthur Kaluma
Ryan Hawkins
Media Conference

Creighton - 72, San Diego State - 69
THE MODERATOR: We welcome the student-athletes and Head Coach Greg McDermott from the Creighton Bluejays. We'll start with an opening statement from Coach McDermott, then move to questions for him and our student-athletes.
If there are questions on Zoom, please raise your hand there and we'll get to you after we've exhausted questions here in Fort Worth.
Coach McDermott?
GREG MCDERMOTT: It's incredible. The mental fortitude of this group is like nothing I've ever experienced. There's a toughness and togetherness about them that allows what happened tonight to happen.
We were dead in the water the first half, down 14, 15, whatever it was, against a team that's really hard to come back on. I have tremendous respect for Coach Dutch and the job that he's done, the job that Coach Fisher did for him.
It's a program all of us would like to emulate because they're all about success and they're about doing it the right way with toughness and discipline. And that's makes this win even more gratifying because of who we beat. And we had to came back against a team that's very hard to come back against.
Our full court press regulation was really good. We stepped up and made our free-throws for the most part.
And then, you know, we had a devastating loss with Kalkbrenner going down. So this is a little bittersweet, I think, for all four of us at the table because of what he's meant to this team this year and has meant to the run that we went on starting in early February to get us here.
He's been a key component of that. And, you know, it's unlikely that we're going to have him on Saturday.
So couldn't be more proud of this group. It's been an unbelievable ride that I've had the pleasure of being part of watching these guys grow and learn, and do it together.
And we've talked about process all year long because we were so young. And as I told them in the locker room, our first three games of the season, we were down nine to Pine Bluff at halftime, we were down two to Kennesaw State, we were down 12 to Southern Illinois Edwardsville.
We found a way to win all those games. But from where we've come on November 10th, to where we sit on St. Patrick's Day is a transformation that I'm not sure I've ever been part of. And it has been one heck of a ride to be a part of, and an awful lot of fun.
THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you.
Questions for Coach McDermott, Mr. Alexander, Mr. Kaluma, or Mr. Hawkins. Let's start in the back on right-hand side.
Q. Trey you picked up your fourth foul with about 16 minutes left in the second half, didn't come back in until about seven minutes. What was kind of going through your head in that time that you spent on the bench and how did you take what you were thinking and apply it at the end of that game?
TREY ALEXANDER: So I mean, basically, I was trying to keep everybody into the game. I know that Rati stepped up. I know that we had a couple other guys step up.
But, mainly, I just wanted to make sure that I was encouraging people on the bench, not trying to get my head down, make sure that everybody is staying into the game and making sure that everybody knew that we could win a game that was very winnable, and go on a run that I felt was bound to happen throughout the game because I don't think we were on very many runs until the end of the half. But just trying to keep myself engaged and my teammates engaged and just trying to stay in the game.
THE MODERATOR: On the left-hand side.
Q. Mac, what can you say about what Trey showed you down the stretch today?
GREG MCDERMOTT: I could say that I've seen it before. You know, anybody that was in Hartford, Connecticut in early February saw it at the end of that game in a very similar circumstance against a great defensive team that applies a lot of pressure. And he just found ways to make plays.
And it's especially hard tonight when your rhythm is upset so much by foul trouble. And, you know, we had hoped -- I was trying to get him to the ten-minute mark, if it got out of hand, the eight-minute mark, and then we were able to get him to seven and then he played the rest of the time.
But he's -- he's been put into a very difficult role at mid-season and what we're asking him to do, and what teams are trying to do to take him out of what we want to do. And he's handled not like a freshman. He's handled it like a veteran.
And he's a pretty incredible young man. He gets it. He understands the game. You can tell he's a coach's son. Very high basketball IQ. And as you see, the expression doesn't ever change, and that's a sign of being mature beyond your years.
Q. Hawk, was there a point in the second half where you decided that it wasn't going to happen today, this wasn't going to be your last game here at Creighton for the team?
RYAN HAWKINS: I feel like we decided that well before the game. We weren't ready to go home as a team. I'm not ready to be done playing yet. I still love it. I still love these guys. And, you know, obviously, as a spectator, I'm sure you want that game to be easier on your heart. But those are his games that you remember the most.
And I'm just very fortunate that I get to play with this group. I'm very thankful that our freshmen don't play like freshmen anymore. The maturity that this group shows for being such a young group is really cool to see. I think that was on display for the last six minutes of that game.
Q. Greg, you said Ryan's unlikely to play Saturday. Do you have any idea right now what the extent of the injury is?
GREG MCDERMOTT: We won't know until we do further testing. But it was a knee injury. So it doesn't appear to look great but, you know, we'll wait and see what the tests show.
Q. After Kal goes down, you guys were still down, a couple minutes to go, what do you say to the group to keep them motivated?
GREG MCDERMOTT: Well, again, I was with Ryan on the floor, so these guys were talking to my staff. And just like at St. John's when Ryan Nembhard went down with a season ending injury. By the time I got back to the huddle, my staff and this group had themselves ready to go and they were refocused. And they did it again tonight.
When I went over there, they knew exactly what they needed to do. They understood the role and Keyshawn understood the role that he needed to play in Ryan's absence. And, you know, we fought and clawed and grabbed and held and did everything we could and, you know, found a way to come out of there with a win.
So, you know, once again, my coaching staff has done an unbelievable job all year. To have Al Huss and Ryan Miller and Jalen Courtney-Williams and the rest of my support staff, they've just done an unbelievable job preparing these guys starting back in late June.
And in a situation like that, when the head coach is where I needed to be with a player that was hurt and was struggling, they got the team focused and ready to go.
Q. Arthur, have you had a second to kind of just process what just happened, the way you guys came back? And, you know, it's called survive and advance. Has it set in what you guys were able to accomplish?
ARTHUR KALUMA: I mean, yeah, I love my guys. I love this team. I love how we come together in tough times and how we're able to work through a lot of things, a lot of the adversity. And, like, we don't splinter off. Like, we're always connected and you can see it on our faces, you could see in our style, you could see it in our eyes when we hoop. Just on to the next play.
THE MODERATOR: We have a question from -- we'll get back to the room in a moment. We'll get to Matt Demarinas on the Zoom. Matt, go ahead.
Q. Mac, Keyshawn, you know, he checks -- and takes him all the way and blocks that shot.
(Audio cutting out.)
TREY ALEXANDER: I mean, there's so much to say about Keyshawn, I don't really have time. You know, Ryan Kalkbrenner played 12 minutes a game last year and had a hard time with conditioning. And I think our hope was that he could be a guy that could get to 20 to 22, 23 minutes a game. And we recruited Keyshawn with the expectation that he would be playing 15 to 20 minutes a game. Not knowing that Ryan Kalkbrenner was going to make this monumental leap in his conditioning, in his game and play like a -- you know, he's played like an All-American the last six or seven weeks.
So I didn't really lie to him in the recruiting process, but what I thought was going to happen didn't happen. And it would be easy for Keyshawn to be bitter because of that. It would be easy for him to try to pull guys down in a negative way because what his expectations was, has not matched up to reality. And he's done exactly the opposite.
He's embraced his role. He's helped these young guys grow as a mentor to them. And he's enjoyed every second of this ride. And, you know, sometimes when you -- I've always believed that good things happen to good people. And Keyshawn's acted the right way all season long.
And when you do that, I think nights like tonight just have a tendency to happen, where he makes a big defensive play to ice the game, makes a big free-throw to make it three points. And, you know, obviously, he's going to play a huge role on Saturday, and he's ready for it.
THE MODERATOR: In the back on left side.
Q. Greg, two questions for you. First, were you purposely fouling Arop and Bradley in overtime? It looked like you were.
GREG MCDERMOTT: We did on the first foul, yes. We did not purposely -- Alex O'Connell is not here, but we did not purposely foul him. That was not supposed to take place, especially his fifth foul. But we just decided to roll the dice on the other one.
We had three guys out there with four fouls. And we just played kind of the analytics game. And I'm not a huge analytic guy, but I felt like that one was worth a risk.
Q. You left your guys in, didn't go to your bench. You know, is that just trusting them, that they're not going to pick up a fifth? I mean, that was a lot of time.
GREG MCDERMOTT: Part of it is we don't have any bench. You know, we got -- I don't know how many guys are hurt with a season-ending injury. There's a bunch of them.
And, you know, some of the guys that -- Modestas Kancleris is the only scholarship player that didn't play tonight. That's the only guy. Everybody else that we had available scholarship-wise played. So we're down to seven on for Saturday night.
So, No. 1, I trust him. No. 2, I didn't have a whole lot of choice in the matter.
THE MODERATOR: One more in the room here and then we'll go back to the Zoom.
Q. Trey, how do you, in the late moments of those games, keep yourself from letting the pressure overcome you?
TREY ALEXANDER: I think it has a lot to do with, first off, Mac trusting in me and then also my teammates. I feel like my teammates have, throughout the season, trusted in me with the ball in my hands and that I make good decisions.
And, I mean, from then on, I just had to make the right decision. I feel like after that it's just kind of what you do every day after practice, before practice, whatever you want to say, the extra work that you put in, I feel like it just takes over in the late moments. And it's not really you thinking about it, it just happens.
THE MODERATOR: We'll go back to Matt on the Zoom for one more question.
Q. Yeah, for any of the players: Can you divulge anything that you guys were talking about while Mac was checking on Kalkbrenner just in terms of what you guys said to get yourselves ready for the stretch run?
TREY ALEXANDER: First off, we kind of got ourselves together. I feel like Hawk was the first to initiate it. But, obviously, having somebody go down like that, it's pretty hard on the team. Especially a guy that has been such a big presence on and off the court.
If you guys don't know Ryan Kalkbrenner, he's one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet. One of the best teammates I've ever had in my basketball career.
But we just brung ourselves together and we were just saying that we were going to be able to win this game for him and we were going to play for him.
Because we've had a lot of situations where we had to face adversity. And we were telling ourselves, It's not new to us, we have another chance to face adversity and make a big statement throughout the whole bracket play and everything.
And March, it's just so fun to play with these guys and be able to play for the guy next to you. It's just been a blast this whole season in being able to play for these people.
THE MODERATOR: Arthur, anything you want to add to that?
ARTHUR KALUMA: Yeah, to build off what Trey said, Ryan Kalkbrenner is a great teammate. I feel like unfortunately -- fortunately, but unfortunately we played some of our best basketball after someone goes down. But we stuck together and we pulled it out.
THE MODERATOR: Okay. Ryan?
RYAN HAWKINS: The biggest thing was making sure we were all comfortable with what we were going to do. That's what I was trying to talk to these guys about, just made sure we had everything, like, no miscommunications on defense.
Because our ball screen coverage had to change a little bit. So we were making sure we were all matched up. Just the little stuff like that, instead of sitting there staying at him.
They both said, but you cannot explain how good of a teammate Ryan Kalkbrenner is. So for that to happen, our hearts go out to him. But we had to make sure that we fished that game out for him.
And so, that was the biggest thing, just getting everybody together, talking about what we were comfortable offensively. And then making sure defensively we had everything buttoned up.
THE MODERATOR: All right, guys. Thank you very much. We'll see you back here tomorrow, and then again for the round of 32.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
_{118166-1-1839 2022-03-18 02:58:00 GMT}

NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: First Round - Creighton vs San Diego St.
Thursday, March 17, 2022
Fort Worth, Texas, USA
Dickies Arena
San Diego St. Aztecs
Head Coach Brian Dutcher
Trey Pulliam
Matt Bradley
Media Conference

Creighton - 72, San Diego State - 69
THE MODERATOR: We welcome Head Coach Brian Dutcher and student-athletes for San Diego State, Mr. Bradley and Mr. Pulliam.
We'll start with an opening statement for Coach Dutcher, then move to questions for Coach and the student-athletes.
BRIAN DUTCHER: Just a really good college basketball game. Unfortunately, we ended up on the losing end of it. But that's March. It's the agony and ecstasy of March. And I thought we competed at a high level, put ourselves in a position to win. But to Creighton's credit, they closed the game and beat us.
So I couldn't be more proud of our team, how they prepared, how they fought. And it's just part of life. It's -- you're not always going to get what you want. But that doesn't mean you don't work for it, doesn't mean you don't want it, sometimes you just don't get it.
We wanted to win, so did Creighton. And they made more plays than we did down the stretch to get the victory.
So happy for our effort, proud of my team, proud of the seniors that played their last game at San Diego State. But congratulations to Creighton and good luck moving forward.
THE MODERATOR: Questions here in Fort Worth?
Q. Just for Trey and Matt, just can you take us through what happened the last few minutes of regulation there?
THE MODERATOR: Trey, you can start.
TREY PULLIAM: I think they just turned up the pressure on us. They just made plays when they needed to make plays. Yeah, they just made the plays that they needed to make, really. Took it into overtime and just kind of ran with it.
MATT BRADLEY: All I can really remember is, you know, it was a tied game. I don't know how many minutes left. I was at the free-throw line and I ended up missing the one-on-one and that sent us into overtime. Just wish I could have made those free-throws.
THE MODERATOR: Next question for the student-athletes or Coach Dutch?
Q. Dutch, I think you guys were up nine with like 2:29 left in regulation. Was there any single moment in there that you thought really turned it and changed it down the stretch?
BRIAN DUTCHER: You know, I don't know how many turnovers we had against the press. I think maybe one. You know, the one where three guys were on Lamont and we tried to call a time-out, I asked -- you know, I asked one of the officials, I said, What happened? There were three guys there. I thought he was fouled. He said, I didn't see anything.
So what can you do? They got a steal on that. I think we threw the ball away one time. But we made enough plays where we have to finish with a layup, we have to finish with a free-throw, we have to finish plays. And we didn't finish enough of them.
So that's college basketball. I watch these games every day, watching all these teams go against Press at the end, and as much as you can say, well, geez they should be able to solve the Press. Every game I watch, teams have trouble with the press down the stretch.
So we had trouble, but still, we broke it, we got down to the floor, but we didn't finish at the other end. Once we broke it, we didn't get points out of those possessions a lot of times. Whether it was drive, miss a layup, miss a put-back, miss a free-throw, we had opportunities and we didn't close when we had those opportunities. And to their credit, they did.
Q. Just to get some clarification on this: Chad was so hot in the first half. I think he had 12 points -- or 15 points in 12 minutes. He only played five minutes in the second half. Why was that?
BRIAN DUTCHER: Just, he's got to become better defensively, you know? And we've got a lot of good players on this team. We got a deep bench. And so we had a six, seven, eight-point lead, back and forth most of that half, you know, fairly comfortable. And we felt we could close the game with good defense and good offense.
And, obviously, Chad had a magnificent stretch when he was there. But, obviously, we put the guys in the game we thought would win for us down the stretch, and we didn't make enough plays.
THE MODERATOR: More questions here in the room? Right-hand side again.
Q. Coach, there's a lot of talk today about the Mountain West's struggles and it's been nine games in a row. Obviously, you're worried about your own team. But is there anything that you can say to get over the hump there?
BRIAN DUTCHER: I just think that's the flavor of the week. Last year, it was the Big Ten. Right now, it's the Mountain West. And tomorrow after the games, it might be someone else. So that's March Madness.
So I said this earlier in the week, everyone was upset about how the Big Ten played last year, and turn around they got nine teams in this year. So hopefully our conference continues to play well, put teams in here, and we get on a run. We're more than capable.
THE MODERATOR: Any more questions here? Go to the left-hand side.
Q. Matt, after you missed the free-throws at Boise State, you talked about wanting another opportunity. You had one tonight. Were you thinking about that? Was that in your mind and, you know, how do you sort of process all that?
MATT BRADLEY: Yeah, most definitely. I was just, you know, I knew this was my second chance, you know, that me and Coach Dutch had been talking about.
Yeah, you know, Boise State didn't really go through my mind. But I knew this was my opportunity to close the game at the free-throw line. It doesn't come down to skill, it comes down to just belief, swagger, something that I've been lacking.
And it's been a theme towards the end of the game for, you know, pretty much this whole season. You know, during this offseason, definitely got to do some soul searching and, you know, figure out what it is with me mentally that's causing me to do that. Because it doesn't come down to skill. So yeah.
Q. Question for Trey. You talked last year about, you know, how rough that loss against Syracuse was. You weren't really in the game. Obviously, this one is a different way. Is this a worse way to lose? I know there's no great way to lose, but does this sting more than maybe that Syracuse game did?
TREY PULLIAM: Obviously, probably, yeah. Just because we were up with two minutes and I feel like we just gave them the game. Like, we had it in our hands. But like Coach Dutch said, that's credit to them. They made plays down the stretch. They made plays when they needed to. We just came up a little short.
Q. Dutch, I know it hurt to see. But to see a freshman point guard play the way that Trey Alexander did at the end of that game, what would you make of his performance tonight?
BRIAN DUTCHER: He played great down the stretch. He made important plays down the stretch. And I thought our defense was pretty good for the most the part. Didn't want to give up threes for Hawkins or O'Connell. And they had one for the game.
We wanted to pressure. Defense, we forced 20 turnovers. So I thought our defense played pretty good. But Trey broke us down at the end. He got in the paint at the end of the game.
And that's what it is. You have to make plays down the stretch. And they made more than we did. And he made his fair share down the stretch to help them win the game.
THE MODERATOR: Any more questions? If not, guys, we'll let you go. Thank you for being here.
BRIAN DUTCHER: Thanks, everyone.

Men's Basketball Advances to NCAA Second Round with Epic Comeback in 72-69 Overtime Win

Next Event

Team Stats

Trey Alexander

Ryan Kalkbrenner

Alex O'Connell

Arthur Kaluma

Players Mentioned

Trey Alexander

KeyShawn Feazell

Ryan Hawkins

Ryan Kalkbrenner

Arthur Kaluma

Modestas Kancleris

Ryan Nembhard

Alex O'Connell