NORMAN, Okla. — Without feeling a bit of pressure in practice, Nadirah McKenith will goof around and race to the rim, tossing up a wild shot on her way.
It turns out she can do it when her team’s season is on the line, too.
McKenith scored on a coast-to-coast layup with 0.1 seconds left, lifting third-seeded St. John’s to a dramatic 69-67 victory over Creighton in the first round of the NCAA women’s tournament last night.
After Carli Tritz hit two free throws to tie it with 5.4 seconds left, McKenith took an inbounds pass and zoomed up the left sideline and into the lane before lofting a high-arcing shot that splashed in for the game-winner.
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“She’s done stuff like this before. She’s kind of her own highlight reel,” Red Storm coach Kim Barnes Arico said. “We feel like when a game’s on the line, we can put the ball in her hands and she’s really been able to make plays for us.”
That’s exactly what happened with Missouri Valley Conference champion Creighton threatening to pull off one of the women’s tournament’s biggest upsets and become the first No. 14 seed ever to upend a third-seeded opponent.
“I was praying that it was going in,” said McKenith, who finished with 21 points.
“I practice that shot every day at practice. I joke around and take that shot every day. It just so happened to go in.”
Creighton coach Jim Flanery blamed himself for the final sequence, saying he felt he had to cover the possibility of his leading scorer missing the tying free throw.
So he put two players on the blocks in position to rebound, and that left the Bluejays (20-13) more vulnerable to McKenith speeding away for the game-winner.
The Red Storm (23-9) has won its tournament opener the past three years but has never made it out of the second round. It will play sixth-seeded Oklahoma, an 88-67 winner over No. 11 Michigan tomorrow night for a spot in the Fresno Regional semifinals.