We’ve got second round action in The College Basketball Crown Tournament as we’re taking on the Creighton Bluejays, and while they aren’t as dangerous as they’ve been the last decade, they’re still too good to overlook. Their head coach Greg McDermott will be retiring at the end of this year and while I would HATE to send him packing with a loss, we have to do what we have to do.
When it comes to high pressure games I’ve been conditioned over the last 25 years to believe that we will somehow fumble it at the end. It doesn’t happen all the time but it does happen enough for me to be gun shy about it. As much as I dread that happening to my favorite team, it’s almost as unsettling when it doesn’t happen to us.
The story of the first half was a continuation of our last game in DJ Thomas’ play. He was the only constant in the entire half and further proved why we need him to be in Morgantown for the rest of his career. Everyone was chipping in when they could but DJ Thomas was truly unstoppable. The more he plays like this the more I consider giving up my one good kidney to keep him here.
We end the half up 43-37 and all of the fun team stats were in our favor: we shot 40% from 3, we had 8 assists, we were winning the rebounding battle 15-13, and we scored 22 points in the paint. Again, it is a little weird for me to see this kind of success without any real threat of pissing it down the drain, but we’ll just have to see how the second half holds up for us.
Still in shock, we continued to roll in the second half. We went up 14 at the 10 minute mark which was our largest lead of the game to that point. There were a couple of moments where Creighton cut it close, but for the most part we were able to cruise to a pretty easy victory.
DJ Thomas continued his dominance as he finished with 20 points and shot a hyper-efficient 9-14 from the field including shooting 40% from deep. He wasn’t alone as everyone else seemed to come alive in the second half: Eaglestaff finished with 16, Lorient finished with an efficient 15, Chance Moore chipped in 10 off the bench, and Honor Huff scored 13. We won the game 87-70 and this win gives us A TON of momentum heading into the Championship Game. It’s been a long time since we’ve been able to compete for a championship of any kind so I’ll be relishing in it the entire time. Hopefully the next time we talk we’ll be talking about a championship trophy and a banner instead of what could have been.
It’s a great day to be a Mountaineer. I love you, Dad. I miss you.
Round The Game 
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