March 16, 2010

Creighton fights off South Dakota

Box Score


OMAHA, Neb. -- Creighton drained 12 three pointers, including four each from Ethan Wragge and Cavel Witter, as the men's basketball team topped South Dakota 89-78 Tuesday night in opening-round action of the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament at the Omaha Civic Auditorium.

Creighton improved to 17-15 with the win, while South Dakota had its 13-game win streak snapped to end its season at 22-10.

Creighton shot 50 percent in the opening half while scoring a season-high first half total of 50 points by intermission. After back-to-back scoreless games, Darryl Ashford had 11 points in 10 minutes for CU, including a pair of double-clutch lay-ins. Ashford sparked a Bluejay bench that outscored USD 27-5 in the first half.

USD was paced by a big first half from Great West Conference Player of the Year Tyler Cain, who had nine points, five rebounds and four blocks while playing all 20 minutes. He would finish with 12 points, nine rebounds, seven blocks and four assists.

After hitting 5-of-11 three-pointers in the opening half, the Bluejays stayed hot from beyond the arc after halftime, knocking down 7-of-12 triples to finish the game 12-of-23 (.522) from long range. The Creighton bench, coming off a season-low nine points in an MVC Tournament loss to Bradley, scored a season-high 56 points with three reserves finishing in double figures.

Witter equaled Wayne Runnels for team-high honors with 15 points, both efforts coming off the bench. Witter hit 4-of-5 three-pointers, while Runnels was 5-of-9 from the floor and 5-for-5 at the free-throw line for his 15. Ashford finished with 13 points off the bench. Wragge chipped in 14 points, making 4-of-6 three-pointers, the only starter in double figures. It was Wragge's highest scoring output since December 16th.

USD had five men with 12 points or more, a group led by freshman Jake Thomas' 18 points to go with seven rebounds. Louie Krogman had 14 points off the bench, while Roman Gentry (13), Cain (12) and Kendall Cutler (12) also pumped in double-figures. USD shot 42.4 percent from the floor and an impressive 12-of-25 (48 percent) from downtown. The Coyotes also blocked nine shots on the night.

The opening 10 minutes featured four lead changes and four ties before Creighton took control for good. A 15-4 run late in the first half gave CU a 40-26 lead, and the Jays maintained that margin while building a 50-36 intermission advantage.

Creighton would open the second half with five quick points to go ahead by 19 at 55-36. USD fought back with a 9-0 run to climb back to within 57-47, but would come no closer. The CU lead reached as large as 22 (79-57) with 8:02 left on Kaleb Korver's third trey of the night. USD would score 10 of the last 12 points to make the final margin 11.

The Bluejays move on in the CIT, hosting a quarterfinal game next Monday at the Omaha Civic Auditorium, against an opponent still to be announced.

With Creighton's normal home of Qwest Center Omaha booked by the NCAA Wrestling Championships, the game was played at the Omaha Civic Auditorium, the first men's games there for the program since ending a 48-year run at the building in 2003.