• Box Score: Northern Iowa 65, Creighton 62
• Photo Showcase: CU men's basketball, Feb. 4

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CEDAR FALLS, Iowa — Antoine Young hit a big shot Saturday to give Creighton a chance to save its winning streak.

Four-point-six seconds later, Northern Iowa's Anthony James hit a bigger one to sink it.

James' step-back 24-footer over Doug McDermott's outstretched arm settled through the basket as time expired to give the Panthers a 65-62 upset, snapping the No. 13 Bluejays' 11-game Missouri Valley winning streak and touching off the biggest celebration in the six-year history of the McLeod Center.

“He hit a hell of a shot,” Young said. “It was contested very well, and he just made a tough shot.”

The same could be said about Young, who put Creighton in position to send the game that drew a sellout crowd of 6,910 into overtime. James, who scored the Panthers' last seven points to finish off a 16-point performance, gave his team a 62-59 lead when he made the second of two free-throw attempts with 12.4 seconds left.

Creighton (21-3, 11-2) hurried the ball up court and called time with 8.6 seconds left to set up a play. Creighton coach Greg McDermott put three of his best 3-point shooters — Doug McDermott, Jahenns Manigat and Ethan Wragge — on the court along with Young and Grant Gibbs, who inbounded the ball.

Gibbs had to use Creighton's final timeout — which would prove crucial — to avoid a five-second call. The Bluejays went over their options, and Northern Iowa again jammed Creighton's attempt to get the ball to Wragge, McDermott or Manigat.

Gibbs passed into Young, who maneuvered into position to make a 23-foot jumper to tie the game.

“We had a couple of different plays and they did a good job of defending them,” Greg McDermott said. “When you're as good a defensive team as Northern Iowa is, they're probably going to take away options one, two and three and you're going to have to go to something else.

“Fortunately, Antoine made a great play and gave us a chance.”

McDermott would have liked to have had the option of calling time after Young's basket to set up the defense, but he couldn't. Jake Koch fired a 25-foot inbounds pass to James, who wheeled and pushed the ball up court.

After crossing center court, he veered to his left.

“The thing he did that doesn't happen all the time was that instead of shooting it from 30, 35 feet from the right sideline, he stayed on the dribble,” Northern Iowa coach Ben Jacobson said. “He got himself to a spot where he was closer to the basket and felt more comfortable. That was a big play.”

James broke off his drive near the 3-point line.

“He's coming at me with a full head of steam,” Doug McDermott said. “The last thing I wanted to do was foul, so I put my hand up.”
James took a quick step back and let the shot fly.

“It felt good as soon as I let it go,” said James, who scored all but two of his points in the second half. “Antoine Young made a great shot to tie the ballgame. I took a quick glance at the clock and saw we had enough time to get the ball up the court and get at least a decent shot.

“Fortunately, the shot went down.”

The Northern Iowa student section flooded onto the court after the shot fell, mobbing James and the rest of his teammates to celebrate the Panthers' first win over a ranked opponent since knocking off No. 1 Kansas in the 2010 NCAA tournament.

“That's the first time that's happened in my four years here,” Koch said. “I was just trying not to fall over and get trampled. It was something special.”

The win improved Northern Iowa to 16-9 and 6-7 in the Valley. One of the Panthers' losses came in Omaha on Jan. 10 in a game that played out strikingly similar to Saturday's.

Creighton dropped into a tie atop the Valley with Wichita State, a 71-66 winner over Indiana State on Saturday. The Jays and Shockers meet in Omaha next Saturday.

Northern Iowa, controlling the pace and tempo, led for most of Saturday's game, as it had in Omaha. The Valley's best defensive team held Creighton to what had been a season-low 63 points in the first meeting.

The Panthers bettered that by a point Saturday, and came up with the plays at the end of the game that had eluded them in the earlier game against the Bluejays.

The Panthers scored on their final five possessions, getting a runner from James with 2:06 to play, a 3-pointer from Koch with 1:06 left, a 3-pointer from James with 23.4 seconds remaining, a free throw from James with 12.6 seconds left and then the game-winner.

Creighton countered every point as Young, who finished with a game-high 23 points, scored on a drive and made two free throws before Manigat made his only basket of the game, a 3-pointer with 15 seconds to play that pulled Creighton within 61-59.

“We forced them to take some tough shots at the end, and they made tough shots,” Young said. “We can live with that when that happens.”

What wasn't as easy to swallow was that outside of Young and Doug McDermott, who finished with 18 points and 12 rebounds, the Bluejays failed to get the support that has made them one of the nation's most efficient scoring teams.

Gregory Echenique and Wragge each had eight points, but no other Bluejay scored more than three points. Gibbs played 34 minutes and failed to score for the first time this season. Josh Jones, who had 24 points in his previous two games, also was blanked.

“We weren't our best offensively,” Greg McDermott said. “We were stagnant, in particular, to start the game. We were slow in getting into our ball screens and our movement away from the ball wasn't what it needed to be.

“But let's face it, we had some pretty open shots from the perimeter that we didn't make. And UNI hit some really big shots at some critical times.”

Contact the writer:

402-679-2298, steve.pivovar@owh.com
twitter.com/PivOWH

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