Creighton University
Missouri State
Men's Basketball Falls to MSU in Valley Opener
12/28/2011 9:26:00 PM | Men's Basketball
OMAHA, Neb. -- Reigning MVC Player of the Year Kyle Weems scored 25 of his career-high 31 points after halftime as Missouri State defeated No. 21 Creighton, 77-65, in the Missouri Valley Conference opener for both teams.
Missouri State improved to 8-5, while Creighton dropped to 10-2. It was the sixth straight victory for MSU over the Bluejays, and fourth straight in that streak in which the Bears overcame a halftime deficit.
In addition to Weems' personal-high outburst, fellow guard Anthony Downing dropped a career-high 26 points for the Bears. The duo scored 40 of MSU's 45 points after halftime.
Creighton was led by 19 points and 12 rebounds from Doug McDermott, while Antoine Young (13) and Josh Jones (11) also scored in double-digits.
Creighton fell behind 14-8 in the opening minutes before its reserves drained four straight three-pointers to help the Jays to a 24-16 lead. Creighton led the rest of the half, taking a 34-32 lead into the intermission.
Missouri State and Creighton exchanged the lead seven times in the second half before the visiting Bears pulled away. After two foul shots from CU's Ethan Wragge knotted the game at 57-all with 6:54 left, MSU would score the next seven points. Weems scored the final five points in that spurt, and would go on to score 13 of MSU's last 18 points in the last six minutes.
The Bluejays closed to within three points twice, including with 1:48 left, but any hopes of a comeback were deflated when Downing's long three-pointer with 1:11 to play beat the shot clock and put MSU up six. Creighton would not score again, as MSU scored the final nine points behind 6-of-6 foul shooting from Weems.
Creighton shot a season-low 38.2 percent from the floor overall, though it did make 9-of-21 shots from three-point range (42.9 percent). Creighton outrebounded MSU 35-34 and outscored the Bears 24-3 off the bench in a losing effort.
MSU had 17 assists on 29 baskets for the game and turned the ball over a season-low seven times.
Creighton returns to action on Saturday at 5 pm when it visits defending NIT champion Wichita State (10-2, 1-0 MVC). The Shockers throttled Bradley in Peoria on Wednesday night, 90-51.
NOTES: The crowd of 17,665 was the third-largest home crowd in Creighton history ...Doug McDermott's streak of 10 straight games of 20 or more points was snapped, as he finished with 19 points and 12 rebounds ...Antoine Young had 13 points and two assists. He is the third player in CU history with at least 1,000 points (1,048) and 400 assists (401), joining Ryan Sears and Vernon Moore ...Creighton had won 18 straight home games when taking the floor as a ranked team dating to 1975, and had been a perfect 22-0 at home as a ranked team when facing an unranked opponent ...Creighton's 16-game home win streak, which tied a CenturyLink Center Omaha record, was snapped.
