Creighton University
Houston Baptist
Men's Basketball Races Past Huskies, 97-62
12/17/2011 9:27:00 PM | Men's Basketball
OMAHA, Neb. -- Gregory Echenique had season-highs of 18 points, 14 rebounds and five blocked shots to help the No. 25 Creighton men's basketball team to a 97-62 win over Houston Baptist on Saturday night.
Creighton (8-1) raced to a 10-0 lead in the first four minutes and extended that margin to 16-3 by the second media timeout. Doug McDermott and Echenique muscled the smaller Huskies around to the tune of 14 points and nine rebounds in the first eight minutes.
Echenique continued his most productive half as a Bluejay, finishing the period with 13 points and 12 rebounds. McDermott had 15 points and four rebounds in 12 minutes of first half play. The Jays outrebounded HBU 31-18 in the stanza while also making 15-of-16 foul shots to lead 46-23 at intermission. HBU started just 1-for-17 from the field and finished the half 8-of-33 from the floor and 4-of-13 at the line.
Houston Baptist (4-7) scored the first hoop of the second half to get within 21 points, but got no closer, eventually trailing by as much as 74-35 with 10:37 to go.
McDermott finished with 25 points, the eighth straight game of 20 or more points for the nation's No. 2 scorer at 24.1 points per game. In addition to Echenique's 18 points, Ethan Wragge had 10 points for CU. The Jays outrebounded HBU 56-36 and had 27 assists on 31 field goals, paced by eight from Grant Gibbs. Gibbs also added a career-high four steals.
Houston Baptist was led by 16 points each from Anthony Hill and Art Bernardi. Bernardi scored all 16 of his points after a scoreless first half. The Huskies shot 37.3 percent for the game and had 19 turnovers converted into 26 points by Creighton.
Creighton returns to action on Monday with a 7 pm game at Tulsa (5-6). That game can be heard on KXSP (590 AM).
NOTES: Creighton is now 3-0 all-time against Houston Baptist and improved to 55-0 all-time at CenturyLink Center Omaha against teams that enter with a record of .500 or worse ...Creighton improved to 49-0 in regular-season non-televised games at CenturyLink Center Omaha ...Creighton has now won 35 straight non-televised regular-season home games against against non-conference schools ...This was the 32nd time in 142 games at CenturyLink Center Omaha Creighton never trailed, and third time this season ...Creighton has now won 15 straight home games ...Creighton's Antoine Young became the CenturyLink Center Omaha leader in minutes played. He played 23 minutes and now owns 1,543 minutes at home in his career. Dane Watts previously held the record of 1,521. Young was Creighton's only player to log more than 19 minutes of playing time ...Grant Gibbs played 19 minutes and had eight assists and four steals, but did not attempt a field goal ...Gregory Echenique's 14 rebounds tied his high in a Bluejay uniform, and were two shy of his collegiate high he set at Rutgers. It was Echenique's second double-double at Creighton and ninth as a collegian.
