Arch Madness: Jays take tournament title
ST. LOUIS – The second seed in St. Louis was sweet again for the Creighton men’s basketball team.
The Jays defeated Southern Illinois for the first time since the 2003 Missouri Valley Conference tournament final 67-61. The win secures the conference’s automatic bid into the NCAA tournament for Creighton.
After a tight first half that saw no lead larger than seven points for either team and a 32-28 Jays’ halftime lead, Creighton used a 15-6 run in the first nine minutes of the second half to pull away from the Salukis.
The charge was led by senior center Anthony Tolliver, who scored eight points and grabbed three rebounds and a steal during the run. Tolliver finished with 15 points, 13 rebounds and two steals for the game.
Tolliver’s strong game inside was aided by junior center Randal Falker being limited to only 22 minutes for the game. Falker ended the game with three points, five rebounds, one block and five fouls. Both Tolliver and Falker were on the all-MVC first-team, but Tolliver got the better end of the matchup in the tournament.
The leading scorer for the Jays was senior guard Nate Funk, who dropped in 19 points and grabbed four rebounds and had four assists. Funk was the named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player and was joined on the all-MVC Tournament team by Tolliver and senior guard Nick Porter, as well as Matt Shaw and Jamaal Tatum for Southern Illinois.
“It’s an unbelievable feeling. This is my third experience, and it doesn’t get any better than this,” Funk said. “It’s a great feeling. I’m happy for these guys. I’m happy for my teammates, and it’s just fun.”
This was the third MVC tournament title for Funk, who won it in 2003 and 2005.
At times Funk appeared to will the team on to victory on his own, hitting shot after shot when the other team started to rally.
“I didn’t want to go out a loser, that’s for certain,” Funk said. “It hasn’t been picture-perfect this year for me, but to play this well towards the end of the year, put three games together the way we’ve played, especially on the defensive end, you know, for myself to have a decent tournament and a final showing here, it feels pretty good.”
The Jays were led throughout the tournament by the three star seniors – Funk, Tolliver and Porter. The three combined for 49 of the teams 67 points in the championship.
“It was a great game by our seniors, a great tournament by our seniors,” Altman said. “I feel really good about the way these three guys played. Southern’s really a good basketball team. They’ve given us fits over the last couple years.”
It was the first win for Tolliver and Porter against the Salukis in their ninth game and the first win for Funk since the 2003 MVC tournament final. SIU edged the Jays by one at the Qwest Center on Jan. 21 and by four at SIU in February.
“I felt that during the season they squeaked by us twice. We thought we had them at our house. They hit a tough shot during the game there,” Porter said. “We went up to Southern and played hard and just fell short. I just thought we had them, and to get another crack at them down here in this situation, with this much at stake just solidified a great feelings we had after we won.”
Now the Jays must wait a week to find out when and where the team’s next game will be. The Selection Sunday show will be on CBS at 5 p.m. Sunday. Although the wait will not be as tenuous as if the Jays did not have an automatic bid, Altman was not looking forward to the layoff.
“The only thing I don’t like is this long layoff. You play three games and now we’ve got a week until selection Sunday and then three or four more days before we play,” Altman said. “At this time of year, you know, 10 or 11 days off is an eternity. What do you do? You practice them all year, they’re tired of you, you’re a little bit tired of them, what do you do?”
