Creighton University
Illinois State
MBB Regular-Season Title Clinched With 74-70 Win Over Redbirds
2/28/2009 4:00:00 PM | Men's Basketball
OMAHA, Neb. -- Seniors Josh Dotzler and Booker Woodfox combined for 10 straight points midway through the second half to help lead the Creighton men's basketball team to a 74-70 Senior Day victory over Illinois State on Saturday. The win, CU's 10th in a row, clinched a share of the school's 14th all-time Missouri Valley Conference regular-season championship.
Creighton (25-6, 14-4 MVC) will be the No. 2 seed in next week's State Farm Missouri Valley Conference after sharing the title with fellow Saturday victor Northern Iowa.
Creighton shot 60.6 percent in the first half, hitting 20-of-33 attempts from the field while building a 45-38 halftime lead. P'Allen Stinnett made 6-of-7 attempts to score 13 first-half points in 10 foul-plagued minutes. Illinois State owned its final lead at 19-17 with 12:16 left in the high-scoring affair before Stinnett scored five straight and freshman Antoine Young two more during a 7-0 Bluejay run. CU led by as much as nine points in the first half on two occasions, and led 45-38 at the break after Redbird Emmanuel Holloway's jumper beat the halftime buzzer.
The Redbirds (22-8, 11-7 MVC) cranked up their offense to tie the game at 52 before CU answered with a 10-0 run, with all the points scored by its seniors. It started with three-point baskets by seniors Josh Dotzler and Booker Woodfox. Woodfox followed with an offensive stickback before a steal and breakaway lay-up gave a 10-point cushion with 9:54 to play.
ISU steadily trimmed the margin to make for a tense finish. Preseason Valley Player of the Year Osiris Eldridge finished a three-point play to cut CU's lead to 68-63 with 3:32 remaining. After two free throws from Stinnett, Phillips drained a three-pointer to make it 70-66. Eldridge would then hit one free throw to make it 70-67 with 1:20 left. His second attempt would miss but ISU grabbed the rebound. Holloway had a pair of three-point looks miss that could have tied the game before CU's Kenton Walker hauled down the defensive rebound.
Creighton's Casey Harriman would miss a trey with 36 seconds left, giving ISU the ball down three. Holloway would be fouled with 22 seconds left and hit his second attempt, drawing the 'Birds within two. Valley Player of the Year candidate Woodfox drained two pressure-packed shots from the line with 17.8 seconds left to up CU's lead to four before a dunk by ISU center Dinma Odiakosa returned CU's lead to two. After burning its final timeout, Woodfox, the Valley's free-throw leader, would sink two more shots with 7.4 seconds left to ice the game and championship.
Woodfox and Stinnett each scored 20 points to pace the Bluejays, which shot 49.1 percent for the game. CU also made 61.5 percent of its shots at the line (16-26) and 30.8 percent from three-point range (4-13). Walker was Creighton's only player with more than three rebounds, snaring eight caroms in 17 minutes while also adding three blocked shots. Justin Carter had a career-high five assists for CU, while Woodfox tied his career-high with three steals.
Illinois State placed five men in double-figures, including 14 each from Champ Oguchi and Emmanuel Holloway. The Redbirds shot 43.9 percent from the field, and 41.7 percent from three-point territory (10-24). Eldridge had 13 points and a game-best nine rebounds to go with his team-best four assists. ISU owned a 42-26 lead on the boards.
Creighton returns to action next Friday in the quarterfinal round of the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Tournament. Creighton will play at 6:05 pm against the winner of Thursday's Wichita State/Missouri State contest.
NOTES: Creighton has won six of the previous 10 MVC Tournaments (1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2007) and is 20-4 in the past 10 MVC Tournaments ...Creighton's 25 wins are second-most in school history, trailing only the 2002-03 squad that won 29 games ...The crowd of 17,116 was eighth-largest in school history ...Creighton attracted an MVC single-season crowd of 276,115 fans at home this season ...The average attendance of 16,242, which ranks 10th nationally, is also an MVC record ...Creighton's regular-season title is its first since the 2001-02 campaign ...Creighton's four three-point baskets were a season-low and snapped a streak of 30 straight games with five or more buckets from downtown ...Booker Woodfox has made at least one three-pointer in 27 straight games ...Other consecutive game streaks that were continued by the team on Saturday were games with one three-pointer made (497), games with four or more three-pointers (64) and wins when scoring 72 or more points (63) ...The game was televised nationally on ESPN2.
