March 8th, 2016: Creighton at St. John's (Big East tournament)

Just the Facts, Ma'am: St. John's locked down on defense to take the Big East crown 50-37 over Creighton. Aaliyah Lewis led the way with 14 points and eight rebounds. Audrey Faber led Creighton with 12 points and seven rebounds.

For missed shots, sheer joy, relationships with trophies, plays for naught, missed shots, cutting down nets, and DOING THE DAMN THING, join your intrepid and euphoric blogger after the jump.
Here we are. Here it is. This is the big one. Win and you're in. This is for all the marbles. The Big East title game is here, red-hot Creighton and determined St. John's. The bubble's getting thinner with an upset in the WCC and trouble brewing in the Ivy. The Bluejays' backs are to the wall, and the Red Storm faces choppy waters. This isn't the SEC, the ACC, the Big Ten, the Big XII, the Pac-12. The only guarantee comes with a new t-shirt thrown over your jersey, with a cap rakishly tilted on your head, with a trophy raised to the rafters and a piece of net in your hand.

Does... does that little girl have Sonic/Shadow fanart in her binder cover? You go, girl.

Ow. Danaejah, I know this is a thing, but punching the trainer still looks like it hurts.

Okay, Creighton, it is not cool of you to send your student section to the kids' group sitting behind OUR bench and have them try to cheer for Creighton. One of our managers noticed and went up there to straighten things out. Go get the ones on the other side of the arena. I don't care if your responsible adult is a Creighton booster. Go sit behind the Bluejays' bench if you want to cheer for Creighton; there will probably be plenty of room back there. They moved further up in the section, which is somewhat more tolerable, but it's still not cool. We need cheer to be ready to snipe the next group.

Danaejah's family is a few seats over from us; her mom came over to introduce herself, and there's a guy with the same eyes she has. The shirt's a pretty good giveaway too. (He is, in fact, her dad. Which makes sense.)

Creighton likes to put on a show. I'd rather get the job done.

Lovely anthem by the DePaul a cappella choir. We even got color guard for this.

At halftime, it's 21-20 St. John's in a game with scores of missed opportunities for both teams. Way too many missed shots. Creighton's on their fourth game in four days and St. John's has had the nightcap both days, so I can't say I'm surprised. Officiating has been lousy- light contact called at one end, heavy contact not called at the other, and St. John's is convinced they can get those calls. Stop it, Aaliyah.

OH MY MY OH HELL YES! WE'RE DANCING, BABY! 28 YEARS! 28 YEARS AND HERE WE ARE! It wasn't pretty. It was, in fact, pretty hideous. But a defensive game favors the Red Storm, and our upperclassmen stepped up in a big, big way. Creighton threatened, but we shut the door and we did the damn thing!

I have to give the Bluejays their props. They didn't have enough left, but that's because they gave so much for three games and three quarters. This Creighton squad will be back in the Big East final, and probably more than once in the next four years, and it won't be an upset when they do it.

Jim Flanery went deeper into his bench earlier than he had in the previous games. Ali Greene saw time in the first half in relief of the posts, and she wasn't bad. She moves well to the hoop. Brianna Rollerson had questionable shot selection and missed shots at the rim. I was surprised that Flanery had lost so much confidence in her that she didn't play in the second half- she might have been a more effective counter to Sandra Udobi and Jade Walker. Olivia Elger came in in relief of the DQ'd Jade Owens, and took a highly questionable shot on a closely guarded drive. She was pulled pretty quickly, and the senior Tessa Leytem replaced her to try to calm things down. Lauren Works brought it on defense, but her drives were going off the rim.

This game sealed it for me- MC McGrory shoots better through contact than she does when you give her space. She got open looks from her teammates, with Norby and Lamberty and Faber setting screens, and those shots were going all over the place. On the other hand, when she took it inside into the teeth of the defense, she either hit the shot or drew the foul. I have to admire her toughness. Jade Owens brought a lot of energy, but the backcourt defense swallowed her up, and she wasn't able to penetrate with the same ease she had all tournament. Combined with her foul trouble, she was rendered a non-factor.

Sydney Lamberty can board, but her shot was nowhere near accurate. She was putting it up a touch too fast, and I think it showed in the arc. She had a beautiful boxout on Danaejah Grant early on that allowed Creighton to take the board. Bailey Norby had a very quiet game- she did the little things her team tends to rely on her for, but she wasn't able to get to the basket. Audrey Faber was a bright spot for the Jays, with a couple of big blocks, some nice rebounding, and good shooting inside and out. She was a mismatch on both sides of the floor, and if I had been Creighton I might have attempted to push that a little bit further.

So nice to see the deep reserves get some time! Jordan Agustus, Tamesha Alexander, and Kimberly Spruill didn't play much, but Tamesha came hard on defense against McGrory. I love that kind of passion. Akina Wellere kept getting called for nonsense fouls, but the one basket she came up with was absolutely huge. I'm so happy for her winning this in her hometown, in front of her family. Crystal Simmons brought the defense, though I question her shot selection- she was terrified at all the wrong times and trigger-happy at all the wrong times. Jade Walker was taking logner shots than she should have, but she was big when we needed her. She had a huge stop on Rollerson.

I can't say enough about the hard work that Sandra Udobi did on the inside. She had one of her best games of the year, and what a time to have it. She cleared the boards and hit the shots she took. And Imani Littleton did her job too- she was almost always in position on defense. She was solid. I feel like I'm short-changing the two of them, but what they did to anchor the paint was huge. It's hard to quantify statistically, but they were fantastic.

I spent much of the game questioning Aaliyah Lewis's shot selection, but the little bitty guard came up huge in the fourth quarter. She sneaked inside for rebounds, and everyone overlooked her on the inside- she made the cuts to the basket that we usually see from Liyyah, and Creighton never rotated to her. Danaejah Grant had double teams flying at her all night, so she wasn't able to get a lot of shots up, but she was able to find the open player on the cross-court skip pass. Aliyyah Handford sliced through the defense and created space for herself, though she wasn't as accurate as we would have liked. She made some amazing defensive plays- a great flying steal, a hustle save that left her tangled with the press table- but the offense couldn't turn them into points.

Was it pretty? No. Not until the final buzzer. But sometimes it doesn't have to be. Sometimes all you have to do is hit one or two shots at the right time.

Officiating was less consistent and less accurate than I would have expected from a crew that has both Dee Kantner and Denise Brooks. Lots of travels missed early, lots of contact missed later. The bad calls went both ways, though, and the ones that Creighton would have liked to have were probably more critical (they probably would have gone into halftime with the lead if Crystal had been called for the reach-in late in the second quarter).

Jade Walker had an idea, but unfortunately, we weren't allowed to have the Gatorade bucket out on the floor, so everyone had to settle for squirting Joe and the rest of the staff with their water bottles.

All-tournament team: Allazia Blockton of Marquette, Shakena Richardson of Seton Hall, Megan Podkowa of DePaul, MC McGrory of Creighton, and Danaejah Grant of St. John's, with Aliyyah Handford as tournament MOP. All good picks. McGrory made a case for MOP even in the losing cause.

I think Jade might be trophysexual. She certainly seemed reluctant to let it go.

My team, you guys. My adorable team. This couldn't have happened to a nicer bunch of people. There aren't enough words to describe how thrilled I am- for Liyyah, who is as sweet as she is talented; for Danaejah, who came home to make this happen; for Akina, who got to win the 'ship in front of her family; for Sandy, who has fought back from injuries and pain; for all our girls who I love so much. More- for Joe, who came in with Kim and helped build all of this from the ruins; for Da'Shena, who made the riskier choice when she could have been a Husky; for Jonath, who left and came back; for all the support staff who make the miracles possible. It's been a pleasure and a privilege to be the tiniest part of this.

Let's go dancing, ladies.