If the shoes fit…
During No. 3 Creighton’s 77-60 victory over No. 14 Akron in the first round of March Madness 2024 in Pittsburgh on Thursday afternoon, referee Kelly Pfeiffer suffered a puncture in one of his shoes and wore a new one. I needed sneakers.
He made his way to the scorer’s box with one shoe on and only a sock on the other foot, but assistant referee Adam Flore saved the day.
It’s a coincidence that Pfeiffer and Flore wear the same shoe size.
There, Flore took the shoes off her feet, and, according to CBS sideline reporter Evan Washburn, both were a different brand than Pfeiffer’s and Pfeiffer didn’t want to mix the two different shoes. He gave it to Pfeiffer, who then made him wear it. It turned on and I resumed playing.
This is similar to when then-Duke University forward Zion Williamson blew out his shoe and sprained his knee during the team’s 88-72 loss to North Carolina on February 20, 2019. Ta.
However, Pfeiffer appeared to avoid injury and was able to continue the match thanks to the good officiating of his teammates.
It only temporarily halted Creighton’s dominance.
Ryan Kalkbrenner led all scorers with 23 points, Trey Alexander added 19 points and Baylor Scheierman added 15 points.
“We were able to get some stops and really took care of the ball offensively in the second half,” Scheierman said after the game. “We had a lot of turnovers in the first half. Against a team like that, when you take away their ability to get the ball and score, the game could be that close, and we had to do a good job taking care of the ball in the second half.” I think I did it. And of course, it’s just a matter of making the shot.”
Creighton, one of only three teams from the Big East to qualify for the NCAA Tournament, will next face the winner of the matchup between No. 6 South Carolina and No. 11 Oregon.
“I always say the first-round games are sometimes the toughest because of the emotion of being the first game of the tournament,” Scheierman said. “I think we stayed calm and did what we were supposed to do.”
