Creighton University
Evansville
Evansville's Ely Leads Aces Past Men's Basketball, 60-56
2/13/2008 9:45:00 PM | Men's Basketball
EVANSVILLE, Ind. -- Shy Ely had a career-high 28 points, including 18-of-18 shooting at the line, to lead Evansville to a 60-56 win over visiting Creighton on Wednesday night at Roberts Stadium. Ely scored 17 of his points in the final six minutes, with his final 14 points coming at the free-throw line.
Evansville improved to 3-11 in the MVC and 8-16 overall. Creighton dropped to 17-7 and is 8-6 in the MVC, good for a tie for third place with Southern Illinois.
After falling behing 7-2 in the opening minutes, Creighton would reel off 10 straight points to take a 12-7 lead. The surge included a three-pointer by Nick Bahe, a three-point play from Dane Watts and a alley-oop in transition from Bahe to P'Allen Stinnett. Stinnett had eight of CU's first 16 points.
Creighton broke an 18-18 tie with 13 seconds in the first half on Bahe's second three-pointer of the half. After two UE free throws, Watts his two at the line with 1.2 seconds to go in the first half and give CU a 23-20 halftime lead. Despite getting just two bench points in the first half, Creighton held a narrow lead at the break thanks to UE's 23.8 shooting from the floor.
Nick Bahe hit a trey and long two-pointer to give CU a 28-20 lead just 46 seconds into the half, and Booker Woodfox hit a 17-footer to give the Jays their first double-digit lead at 30-20 with 17:20 to go. Senior Pierce Hibma added a reverse lay-in with 15:09 to play to give the Jays a 32-20 lead and cap an 11-0 before UE finally scored at the 14:43 mark on a eight-footer by Kavon Lacey.
Evansville continued to fight back, steadily scoring as Creighton could manage just one field goal from 14:35 to the 2:45 mark. The Aces took their first lead of the second half with 1:56 to play on a transition basket by Lacey. The Jays answered with a basket by Woodfox to go up 50-49 with 1:32 to paly, but Ely scored the next six points at the line after back-to-back Bluejay turnovers. Twice Bahe would hit three-pointers to draw CU within two, but both times UE responded with 2-of-2 shooting at the line to make it a two-possession game.
Creighton was led by a career-high 17 points from Bahe, 14 points from Stinnett, and Woodfox scored a dozen. The Jays won the rebounding battle 34-28, led by eight boards from Kenny Lawson Jr.
Evansville hit 30-of-32 free-throws on the night. In addition to Ely's career-high 28 points, Lacey scored a personal-best 13 points. UE shot just 30.2 percent from the floor, but scored 18 points off the 23 turnovers it forced.
Creighton returns to action on Saturday afternoon with a 1:05 pm game at Bradley (14-12, 7-7 MVC). The game will be broadcast on KXSP (Big Sports 590 AM) and be telecast on Fox Sports Net Midwest.
NOTES: Creighton's P'Allen Stinnett reached double-figures in the scoring column for the fifth-straight game. He is the first Bluejay freshman to do that since Ryan Sears did six straight from Jan. 4-21, 1998 ...Cavel Witter had career-high with eight assists ...Booker Woodfox shook off a scoreless first half to score in double-digits for a sixth-straight contest.
