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It’s almost comical how it happens.
It truly is.
Never in my wildest dreams have I witnessed a team play so convincingly well for 36 minutes and change in a ballgame and then completely fall apart when the tension ticks up a notch.
Against Marquette it was a miracle.
Against Villanova it was a regression to the mean.
Against Seton Hall the first time it was Myles Powell being Myles Powell.
Against Xavier it was pure ineptitude.
And now, against Seton Hall for the second go-around, it was a complete and utter collapse.
Creighton's ability to blow leads in the last 4 minutes is wild. Here are KP win probabilities for 5 losses this year, not including today's game.
— Paint Touches (@PaintTouches) February 17, 2019
XU 95.1% (1 min)
SH 90.7% (4 min)
VU 70.0% (3 min)
MU 99.9% (5 sec)
OSU 83.1% (3 min)
Defensively, Creighton has been playing well beyond their years. They took a porous and atrocious defense and scrambled it into something worthwhile.
Beyond that, the offense took a tumble. 11-for-61 from the field from Davion Mintz, Mitch Ballock, and Ty-Shon Alexander in the last three games.
The trio showed up today, at least. Ballock went 5-12 from the field and scored 13. Mintz went 5-10 from the field and scored 16.
Ty-Shon Alexander took 20 minutes to gather steam and then exploded for 20 points in the second half alone. He started the game 0-for-5 from the field in the first half and then started drilling threes, including 4 consecutive three pointers.
Unfortunately for Alexander, Powell was matching him shot for shot.
Powell finished the game going 5-10 from three and scored 19 points. His ‘Myles’ counterpart, Myles Cale, dumped in 20 points of his own. Seton Hall managed to find a way to keep the game close when it appeared that Creighton was throwing haymakers.
Creighton led 73-67 with 4:33 left. Davion Mintz had just hit two free throws to get that six point lead.
Sandro Mamukelashvili proceeded to hit a lay-up with 4:16 left to make it a four point ballgame.
The next time Creighton scored was with 14 seconds left on a floater by Mintz. That’d round the score out to 80-75.
Dismal.
FINAL: Seton Hall defeats Creighton, 81-75. Pirates ended the game on a 14-2 run.
— Big East Coast Bias (@becb_sbn) February 17, 2019
Stats!!!
SETON HALL
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Creighton
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