Southern Illinois University
2-3,0-0MVC
Creighton
5-1,0-0Big East
Salukis fall at the buzzer to Bluejays, 66-64
11/22/2021 | 8:14:00 | Men's Basketball
St. Thomas, VI -Â The Southern Illinois University men's basketball team dropped a heartbreaker to the Creighton Bluejays, 66-64, as Creighton's Ryan Nembhard hit a runner as time expired to give the Bluejays the win.Â
Marcus Domask hit a pull-up jumper to tie the game at 64-all with five seconds left. Creighton used a full timeout and drew up a play for Nembhard, who raced down the length of court with the inbounds pass to hit a soft floater that hung on the rim and bounced in.
"We practice that situation all the time," head coach Bryan Mullins said of the last play of the game. "We've got another guy to the right and we're suppose to force the ball handler to the middle of the court but we weren't able to do it. (Nembhard) made a tough floater at the end, so give him credit for that."
Nembhard's heroics were, however, made possible by Southern's late game miscues. After taking their largest lead of the game, 62-54 on a put back by Dalton Banks with 3:51 to go, SIU's offense stagnated. The Salukis made just one of its five attempts from the field- Domask's game-tying basket- turned the ball over once and gave up a crucial offensive rebound that allowed Creighton to close the contest on a 12-2 run.
"Im proud of our guys effort tonight,"Â Mullins said. "For 37 minutes we played really well. We executed well. Offensively and defensively we stuck to the game plan. We made good decisions in the paint offensively. We got the shots we wanted. And then the last couple of minutes we had some uncharacteristic turnovers, gave up some easy baskets and obviously didn't execute the last defensive possession either."
The loss was particularly heartbreaking for an SIU team that did so many things well to put itself in position to win against a Sweet 16 team from a year ago. The contest played out very much like the head-to-head battles the two schools engaged in at the height of their rivalry back in the early 2000s, as the game was relatively even in nearly every statistical category. Both teams took and made the same amount of shots (25-of-51), they each snagged 26 rebounds and the Bluejays made one more three-pointer on the same amount of attempts.Â
"We fought hard enough to win the game," Domask said. "We just made mistakes down the stretch. We were up eight going into the last media timeout and we made mistakes. I let up an offensive rebound off a free throw that they cashed in for a three that was big. We also had a couple of turnovers. We have to close out games."
Domask led the way offensively, as he finished with 14 points to go along with four assists. Lance Jones added 14 points of his own while Kyler Filewich chipped in a season-high 10 points in 21 minutes.
And while the loss was a bitter pill to swallow, especially after the high of Friday night when Southern knocked off its first Power 5 Conference foe since 2007 with its win over Colorado, it doesn't change the fact that the Salukis went toe-to-toe with a pair of Power 6 conference opponents as well as a good Northeastern team during its trip to the Virgin Islands.
"I learned this week that I've got us against anybody," Domask said. "We beat Colorado and we lost a tough one to Creighton. We're right here and we've still got room to improve. Going 1-2 this weekend hurts but we could've just as easily gone 3-0. I learned I've got all the faith in this locker room and I believe in our guys."
The Salukis are back at home on Friday, Nov. 26 when they host Alcorn State. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m.
