The men’s basketball team has won seven straight Missouri Valley Conference games for the first time since the 2001-2002 season, beating Evansville 89-84 Tuesday night before 16,697 fans at Qwest Center Omaha.
With the win, the Bluejays (22-6, 12-4 MVC) are now one-half game behind conference-leading Northern Iowa (12-3 MVC).
Creighton witnessed its 80-73 lead cut down on a four-point play from Jason Holsinger. Evansville got within one point of the lead with 21 seconds left on two Shy Ely free throws before Creighton junior guard Cavel Witter sunk two shots at the stripe, giving the Bluejays a three-point lead with 17 seconds remaining. Ely missed a game-tying three-pointer with 11 seconds left.
Then Creighton played its trump card: a dunk by freshman guard Antoine Young with two seconds remaining in regulation.
“I just tried to make plays for my teammates and when I had the chance to step up and make plays I just did,” Young said of his second half performance.
Creighton head coach Dana Altman had similar feelings towards Young’s play down the stretch.
“I know he missed four shots in the first half and he might have missed his first shot in the second half and then to step up and make some big shots and hit some free throws for us showed a lot of courage on his part,” Altman said.
Young and Witter led five other Jays in double figures with 15 points each.
“I thought Young and Witter—it was hard to keep them in front of us and they not only scored but they created opportunities for their teammates,” Evansville head coach Marty Simmons said.
Senior guard Booker Woodfox continued his three-point mastery, shooting a perfect 3-3 from beyond the arc and improving his nationally ranked three-point percentage to 50 percent. He finished with 13 total points.
Sophomore guard P’Allen Stinnett finished with 11 points and sophomore center Kenny Lawson had 10 points.
Creighton shot 45 percent for the game but were helped by a shooting clinic from downtown, draining 11 of 24 three-point shots en route to a five point victory.
On the other side of the ball, Evansville had several standout performances as well.
Holsinger led all scorers with 30 points and Ely was right behind him with 26 points on the night.
“We just did a poor job of breaking their rhythm on anything, taking a pass away, or making them do something they didn’t want to do,” Altman said of the Ace’s high-scoring duo.
Evansville shot 30-59 (50.8%) from the floor and 5-12 (41.7%) from beyond the arc. They also shot 19-22 (86.4%) from the free throw line in the loss.
With the loss, Evansville is now 15-11 and 7-9 in the Missouri Valley Conference.