Creighton Men's Basketball Drops Senior Day Game to Providence

OMAHA, Neb. -- The Creighton men's basketball team missed two game-tying three-point shots in the final seconds of a 79-76 loss to visiting Providence on Saturday, Feb. 28th. It was the fifth time in CU's last seven home games the Jays played in a game decided by three points or less, and came on Senior Day for Bluejay guards Nik Graves and Josh Dix.

Providence (14-15, 7-11 BIG EAST) guard Jaylin Sellers, held to four points on 0-for-7 shooting on Jan. 16 the first time these teams met, led all scorers with 27 points on 11-of-18 shooting. Twenty of those points came in the second half, including a hoop with 15 seconds left after CU had closed within 77-76 in a frantic rally in the closing minutes.

Creighton (14-16, 8-11 BIG EAST) got 18 points from Dix and Austin Swartz, in addition to 12 points, seven rebounds and a career-high eight assists by Jasen Green.

In a game featuring 13 ties and nine lead changes, neither team led by more than eight the entire evening. That lead came with 6:16 left in the first half when Oswin Erhunmwunse scored to give PC a 28-20 lead, but baskets by CU's Kerem Konan, Hudson Greer and Dix quickly tied it. The Friars took a narrow 39-37 lead into the half thanks to 53.3 percent shooting before the break.

The Bluejays took their first lead of the second half with 5:31 left when Swartz finished off an alley-oop from Green for his first dunk of the season, giving CU a 64-62 edge.  CU's final lead came at 67-66 on a three-pointer by Green, only to have Sellers answer seconds later with the last of his five three-pointers.

Providence led 77-71 after Ryan Mela's floater in transition after PC beat the press. Dix made both ends of a 1-and-1 with 1:04 to go. After a turnover in transition by PC, Swartz halved the deficit on a lay-up with 39.8 seconds left, and trimmed it to one on the foul shot to finish off the three-point play.

Rather than foul with a 9.8 second discrepancy between the game and shot clocks, Creighton elected to defend. Providence had other ideas as Sellers twisted around the defense for a lay-up with 15.0 seconds left to give PC the final 79-76 margin. 

After a timeout. Dix sidestepped around Mela but missed a three-pointer off the back iron before Swartz grabbed the offensive rebound, dribbled behind the arc and missed a contested three-point try of his own as time expired.

Creighton shot 42.6 percent for the game and connected on 9-of-27 three-point tries, in addition to 15-of-17 marksmanship at the charity stripe. CU won the rebound battle 37-31 and outscored PC 33-6 off the bench despite playing without Owen Freeman for a second straight game.

Providence won the paint points by a 40-26 count and shot 50.8 percent for the game, 42.1 percent from deep and turning the ball over just seven times.

Creighton closes the regular-season on Wednesday at 5 p.m. Central when it visits Butler.