Oregon's season ends with heartbreaking double-overtime loss to Creighton
Jermaine Couisnard and N’Faly Dante delivered a performance for the ages, but it wasn’t enough to save Oregon’s season.
The No. 11-seeded Ducks fell to No. 3 Creighton, 86-73, in double overtime Saturday at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Oregon, which reached the Big Dance by way of winning the Pac-12 Tournament, ends the year at 24-12.
In the final games of their respective Oregon careers, Couisnard and Dante almost singlehandedly carried the Ducks to an upset win.
Dante finished with 28 points and 20 rebounds on 12-of-20 shooting. Couisnard racked up 32 points and eight rebounds on 13-of-33 shooting.
The rest of Oregon’s players combined to score 13 points on 6-of-24 shooting over the course of 50 minutes.
Creighton star guard Baylor Scheierman hit a game-tying jumper with eight seconds left in regulation to send the game to overtime.
Couisnard, not to be outdone, drilled a game-tying three-pointer with 16 seconds to go in overtime to force a second extra period.
But the Ducks, who began the afternoon with just eight healthy scholarship players, lost standout freshman guard Jackson Shelstad to a knee injury during the game and ran out of gas down the stretch.
Oregon survived an up-and-down in the first half, in large part, because Creighton failed to knock down a flurry of open shots. The Bluejays shot just 14-of-37 (38%) from the field and 6-of-23 (26%) throughout the first half.
The Ducks also managed to tread water early in the game after Couisnard picked up his second foul. He headed to the bench with 14:20 to go and returned to the game at the 9:45 mark. While he was out of the game, Oregon outscored Creighton 7-4.
Oregon made it to halftime trailing 36-34 and stayed within reach of the Bluejays.
Once the second half began, Dante and Couisnard took over for UO. The duo of star seniors scored all 28 of the Ducks’ second-half points.
Meanwhile, the Bluejays suffered through a 5:13 scoring drought during a crucial portion of the game.
Dante put back a Brennan Rigsby miss with 6:15 to go to give the Ducks a 55-52 lead. Then, on Creighton’s next possession, Dante blocked a shot to give Oregon the ball back.
Couisnard immediately capitalized and drilled a three to make it a six-point game. But the Bluejays closed the second half on a 7-4 run and managed to stay alive thanks to Scheierman’s late-game dramatics.
Once the game reached double overtime, Creighton turned on the jets and cruised past Dana Altman’s exhausted Oregon squad. The Bluejays opened the second OT period on a 12-0 run over the span of two minutes, and the Ducks had no answer on either end of the floor.
Creighton will advance to the Sweet 16 to face No. 2 Tennessee, which notched a win over No. 7 Texas on Sunday.
