The last time Creighton played in the Omaha Civic Auditorium was 2003, the Bluejays were headed for the postseason and Kyle Korver was hitting threes from everywhere in the building.
Fast-forward to March 16, 2010–the Bluejays were back in the Civic, however this time they were playing in the first round of the College Insider’s Tournament against South Dakota, and little brother Kaleb was the Korver raining threes.
Korver wasn’t the only Bluejay who was feeling it Tuesday night in Creighton’s 89-78 victory over the University of South Dakota; the Bluejays shot 12 for 23 from behind the three-point line. Head coach Dana Altman was happy to see his shooters step up on a night when his usual leading scorers, center Kenny Lawson Jr. and forward Justin Carter, had off nights.
“If someone would have told me before the game that J.C. (Carter) and Kenny (Lawson) were going to go 1-15, we would have really thought we would have been in trouble, but it was really good to have a lot of people step up,” Altman said. “We obviously shot the ball well from three, which has been a problem for us this year; we probably should play a few more games in the Civic.”
South Dakota hung tough throughout the first half before they were buried by the Jays’ shooting performance. Freshman Ethan Wragge, junior Kaleb Korver and senior Cavel Witter combined for 11 of the team’s 12 three-point baskets. Wragge and Witter each hit four and Korver added three of his own. The freshman Wragge, who extended his Creighton record for consecutive games with a made three-point basket, found the Civic Auditorium to be a comfortable place to shoot.
“The couple practices we’ve been having at the Civic, as a team we have been shooting it a lot better and I think we all put in a little more time of our own time shooting shots, and it paid off tonight,” Wragge said. “I thought it was pretty easy to shoot in here.”
The Bluejays are excited to have another opportunity to extend their season in front of their hometown fans. With a disappointing season coming to an end, forward/center Wayne Runnels said he is excited to have another opportunity to restore some fans’ faith in the program.
“We have been playing the game for so long it would be hard to end things now. I know things haven’t gone our way the whole year but we still love to play the game. We just want to try and gain some of our fans back by playing hard on our home court this postseason,” Runnels said.
Runnels had one of his best nights of the year with 15 points and 9 rebounds. Runnels also hit all five of his free throws on a night when the Bluejays hit 17 of 19 chances from the charity stripe.
The Bluejays will play their second round game Monday night at the Civic Auditorium. Their second round opponent is yet to be known, but should be announced later this week. The Jays entered the tournament as the fourth overall seed of 16 teams.
While it is obvious the Bluejays would rather play in the NCAA or NIT tournaments, they will have to make do with the CIT. Altman stressed the importance of giving his program extra games and practices in order to be better prepared when next season rolls around.
“We just needed to play, so I’m glad someone invited us because we needed a ballgame,” Altman said. “We are a young team, we have a long ways to go as a program and we still have a lot of work to do.”