Creighton University
North Carolina A&T
Men's Basketball Opens With Lopsided Win, 97-65
11/11/2011 10:44:00 PM | Men's Basketball
OMAHA, Neb. -- Six men scored in double-figures and Creighton men's basketball assisted 28-of-33 baskets in a season-opening 97-65 win over North Carolina A&T on Friday night before 15,228 fans at newly-renamed CenturyLink Center Omaha.
Creighton raced to an 11-0 lead after four possessions and never trailed, though the visiting Aggies did even the score with an 11-0 run of its own to knot the score at 11-all on 11-11-11.
Creighton (1-0) led 46-28 at the half behind 12 of Jahenns Manigat's career-high 18 points, outrebounding the smaller Aggies 27-15 in the opening 20 minutes.
The Jays led by a dozen or more points the entire second half, building a lead as large as 93-54 in the final four minutes, and capped the win on Taylor Stormberg's assist to a streaking Avery Dingman on a 2-on-0 breakaway in the final 15 seconds.
Manigat had a career-high with 18 points, while Grant Gibbs had career-highs with 10 points and a team-best nine rebounds in 25 minutes of action in his Bluejay debut. Also in double-figures with 13 points each were Doug McDermott and Will Artino, 11 points each from Dingman and Young. Gibbs led CU with nine rebounds, while Antoine Young had eight assists to go with his six rebounds.
Creighton shot 48.5 percent from the floor (33-68) while making 14-of-35 from three-point range and 17-of-26 at the line. The Jays outrebounded NCAT 50-34 and owned a 16-2 edge in fast break points.
North Carolina A&T (0-1), which returned four starters from a 15-win team a year ago, was led by nine points from Austin Witter. Jeremy Underwood had a team-best six assists, while Marc Hill had four assists. The Aggies shot 38.1 percent for the game (24-63) and hit 6-of-25 three-pointers and 11-of-17 at the line.
Creighton continues play in the Dale Howard Classic on Sunday with a 2:05 pm home game against Chicago State. The Cougars fell 96-53 at Iowa on Friday.
NOTES:This was the second meeting all-time between Creighton and North Carolina A&T, as the teams also met in the 2001-02 season-opener, also in Omaha ...Creighton improved to 79-15 all-time in season-openers, including wins in 14 of the past 15 contests ...Creighton improved to 83-11 in home openers all-time, including 17 straight wins ...Greg McDermott improved to 10-1 in season-openers as a Division I head coach, including 10 straight wins ...Creighton has won 36 straight regular-season home games played in November ...Creighton has won 23 straight home games against winless teams ...Creighton made a three-pointer for the 575th consecutive game ...Creighton did not trail in its exhibition win over Rockhurst either ... Creighton's bench scored 41 points ...Creighton's 35 three-point attempts tied a school-record set on February 1, 2011 at Bradley and were a CenturyLink Center Omaha record as well ...Creighton has still not lost a Friday home game since Dec. 12, 1975 and has won every Friday home game since 1988 by double-digits ...Creighton's 97 points were its most in a season-opener since a 106-50 win over Texas-Arlington on Nov. 17, 2011 ...Creighton's 28 assists tied a CenturyLink Center Omaha record, previously set on Dec. 22, 2009 vs. Houston Baptist ... Creighton has won 80 straight home games when scoring 68 or more points and 46 straight games at all sites when scoring 90 or more points ... Josh Jones tied a career-high with four assists, Ethan Wragge had a career-high seven rebounds and Derek Sebastian tied a career-high with two points.
