Xavier's third-most clutch moment of 2014-2015

The setting:

The season being on the line is almost always an over-dramatic cliché, but when Xavier and Creighton came together in the Muskies' season finale on March 7th in Omaha, X was in a bad way. Sitting at 18-12 and 8-9 in conference, Xavier didn't need the win so much as they desperately needed to avoid another loss. Creighton's results were a lot worse than their play, and they were an especially dangerous opponent when defending their home court. Matt Stainbrook ended up going for 26 and 9, but a 7-17 performance from deep by Creighton and 15 Xavier turnovers kept the game close the whole way.

The play:

Dee Davis 2-2 FT with 6 seconds remaining, +25% win probability. Devin Brooks had just hit a stickback to put Creighton up one, but Davis drew an Austin Chatman foul to get to the line. Dee didn't have a particularly good shooting game, but he was 4-4 from the stripe in the final minute despite playing in one of the most hostile arenas in the conference, including hitting the pair that put Xavier up 74-73.

The outcome:

After Davis hit those FT, there was just enough time left on the clock for Creighton to make things interesting, and they did just that. Chatman got a fairly good look from 25 feet out and his shot looked for all the world like the game winner for about 23 of those feet. It ended up being fractionally short and bounced out, and Xavier escaped Omaha with a nail-biting victory heading into the Big East Tournament.

What we said at the time:

"Wow. Wow wow wow."

"Austin Chatman launched an NBA three that was in the air when the horn expired [ed. note: great writing there, me from the past], and it was within a barely meaningful margin of sending Creighton home winners."