Creighton University
Northern Iowa
Men's Basketball Outlasts UNI, 63-60
1/10/2012 10:58:00 PM | Men's Basketball
OMAHA, Neb. -- Antoine Young scored a season-high 21 points, including a clutch three-pointer with just over two minutes remaining, as No. 23 Creighton defeated feisty Northern Iowa on Tuesday, 63-60.
Creighton improved to 14-2 overall and 4-1 in MVC play with its fourth straight win. UNI dropped to 12-5 overall and is 2-3 in Valley action.
UNI started out on fire, making 7-of-9 three-pointers in the opening 12 minutes to move ahead 28-18 on the host Bluejays. Marc Sonnen led that charge, sinking his first five attempts from downtown, to quickly match his season-high. CU fell behind by as much as 11 (31-20) before answering with a 12-0 run featuring three-pointers by reserves Josh Jones and Ethan Wragge. UNI's Jake Koch hit two fouls shots with 1:17 left in the half to give the Panthers a 33-32 lead at intermission.
In the second half, UNI led 56-54 after a four-point play from Koch with 4:12 left, but Young and Grant Gibbs helped lead a comeback. Gibbs had back-to-back baskets to return CU's lead at 58-56. After Johnny Moran missed a three-pointer, Young delivered the dagger three-pointer with 2:07 left that put CU up 61-56.
Anthony James scored inside with 56 seconds left to trim UNI's deficit to three points, and the Panthers got within one on a Koch bucket after forcing a Bluejay turnover. But Gibbs iced the game with two free throws with 15 seconds left, and James missed badly on a deep three-pointer with less than 10 seconds left. CU's Doug McDermott got the board and was fouled with 2.1 seconds left. He'd miss the front-end of a 1-and-1, but Chip Rank's desperation heave from 70 feet was well off the mark as time expired.
Young made 9-of-14 shots and finished with 21 points while McDermott, on the heels of a 44-point game at Bradley, had 14 points, eight rebounds and four assists. Gibbs finished with all 10 of his points in the second half and also contributed five rebounds and three assists. Creighton shot 48.0 percent for the game, including 30 percent from downtown, and outrebounded UNI 34-33.
It was the third time this season the Bluejays have overcome a double-digit deficit to beat a top-50 RPI team, having also done it in road games at San Diego State and Wichita State.
UNI was led by 15 points from Sonnen, who made all five of his three-point attemptsbut did not score in the final 29 minutes of the game. James finished with 10 points, but was hounded into 4-of-17 shooting. UNI shot 37.3 percent for the game but stayed in it with 12-of-26 three-point baskets. UNI had just six turnovers on the evening. The Panthers were attempting to beat a ranked team for the first time since upsetting top-ranked Kansas in the second round of the 2010 NCAA Tournament.
Creighton will visit Illinois State on Friday in another 8 pm game that will be webcast exclusively on ESPN3.com.
