Creighton University
Wichita State
Men's Basketball Falls To Wichita State
2/11/2012 6:00:00 PM | Men's Basketball
OMAHA, Neb. -- Joe Ragland had 24 points and teammate Ben Smith tied a career-high with 22 points to lead Wichita State over No. 17 Creighton, 89-68, before the largest basketball crowd in Creighton history (18,735).
Wichita State improved to 22-4 on the season and is 13-2 in MVC play. Creighton lost its third game in a row to drop to 21-5 (11-4) on the campaign. The top two teams in the MVC standings split the season series, as Creighton won in Wichita on Dec. 31, 68-61.
Creighton owned an 8-4 lead at the first media timeout before the Shockers put together an 11-0 run to take the lead for good. The game-changing flurry included three-pointers from both Ragland and Smith, as well as a traditional three-point play from Carl Hall.
The Jays would close to within 33-28 at the final media timeout of the first half before the Shockers scored on its next six possessions to take a 49-36 lead into the intermission.
CU's Gregory Echenique scored the first three points after the break to trim WSU's lead to 10, but Joe Ragland answered with a four-point play and CU would get no closer the rest of the way.
WSU, which has won two straight in Omaha after a 17-year losing streak at Creighton, led by as much as 24 (87-63) in the contest. An Evan Wessel putback in the final seconds closed the scoring.
Ragland had 17 of his 24 points after halftime and also added six assists and four rebounds on 9-of-12 shooting. Smith made 8-of-12 shots and had 22 points and six rebounds while also limiting Creighton star Doug McDermott to 13 points. Also in double-figures with 11 points each were Demetric Williams and Toure' Murry. Reigning MVC Player of the Week Garrett Stutz was limited to 13 minutes due to foul trouble and had just eight points and one rebound. The Shockers shot 58.2 percent for the game, 8-of-16 (50 percent) from downtown and were perfect in 17 free-throw attempts. The Shockers outrebounded CU 37-23.
Creighton was paced by 16 points from Echenique, who made 5-of-6 field goal attempts and 6-of-7 at the line. McDermott had 13 points and a team-high six rebounds, while Ethan Wragge and Antoine Young each scored 11 points. The Bluejays shot 40.4 percent for the day, including 21.7 percent from downtown, and made 17-of-22 foul shots.
Creighton returns to action on Tuesday with a Valentine's Day match-up at Southern Illinois. The game tips off at 7:05 pm in Carbondale,
NOTES: The game was nationally-televised by ESPN2 ...Ethan Wragge's streak of 24 straight free throws was ended by a miss in the final eight minutes. It had dated to February of 2010 ...Creighton's streak of 90 straight home wins when scoring 68 or more points was snapped ...Creighton's crowd of 18,735 was also the largest basketball crowd in the state of Nebraska history and pushed the program's average home attendance to 16,692 on the year ...Wichita State forced just six Bluejay turnovers and did not have a steal ...Creighton had been 6-0 all-time in regular-season games at CenturyLink Center Omaha when trailing by 10 or more points.
