Men's Basketball Blows Past McKendree in Exhibition Win

OMAHA, Neb. – Christian Bishop scored 21 points to lead four men in double-figures as Creighton men's basketball team rolled to a 95-63 exhibition victory over McKendree on Friday night.

Ten out of 11 Bluejays to suit up scored, led by 21 points from Bishop and 17 points from Ty-Shon Alexander. Junior Mitch Ballock followed with 14 points on 3-of-5 shooting from downtown. Also turning in a double-double in his home exhibition debut was graduate transfer Kelvin Jones, who contributed 12 points with a game-leading 12 rebounds in 22 minutes as a reserve.

McKendree was led by Luke Hensler with 13 points, while sophomore Alexksa Popovic collected 10 of his own.

Bishop scored the first five points of the game and nine of the Bluejays first 16 points give Creighton an early lead. Freshman Jett Canfield give Creighton its first double-digit lead, 33-22, in the first half.

The Bluejays extended their lead to 40-26 with an and-one from Omaha native Shereef Mitchell as Creighton took 43-31 lead into the break.

Creighton shot 16-33 (48.5 percent) from the field in the first half, including 3-10 from behind the arc, while McKendree was 12-30 (40.0 percent) from the field and 3-13 from three. The Bluejay's collected four more rebounds then the Bearcats (20-16) and six more assists (10-4) by intermission.

Creighton started to heat up in the early minute of the second half, using an 11-4 run in the first four minutes, on a pair of baskets from Bishop and a deep trey from Ballock to extend their lead to 54-35.

The Bluejays took control of the game midway through the second half, as the margin grew as large as 37 with 1:45 left to play.

Creighton shot 52.2 percent from the field (35-67), including 8-25 from long range and were 17-19 (89.5 percent) from the free throw line. The Bluejays won the rebound battle 46-26 and dished out 17 assists.

McKendree finished shooting 37.1 percent (23-62) from the field, 6-27 from three-point, and 11-13 from the charity strip. The Bearcats handed out 10 assists as the Bluejays forced 10 turnovers.

Creighton opens the 2019-20 regular-season on Tuesday, Nov. 5 vs. Kennesaw State.

NOTES: Creighton never trailed in the win ... Greg McDermott improved to 28-0 in fall exhibition games as a head coach, including an 11-0 mark at Creighton ... All but one of his exhibition wins at all schools have been by double-figures ... Creighton has now won 20 straight fall exhibition games .. .Creighton has scored 89 points or more in nine straight exhibition contests ... The four Creighton newcomers to suit up for the first time combined for 25 points and 18 rebounds in 68 minutes ... Kelvin Jones' career-high in a regular-season game is 10 rebounds, and Christian Bishop's career-high in a regular-season game is 10 points ... McKendree head coach Chris Foster played for Creighton head coach Greg McDermott at Northern Iowa from 2001-05.

Men's Basketball Blows Past McKendree in Exhibition Win

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Players Mentioned

Ty-Shon Alexander

Mitch Ballock

Christian Bishop

Jett Canfield

Kelvin Jones

Shereef Mitchell