The No. 23 Creighton men’s basketball team lost two straight games and dropped five of its last eight after falling at home to the Illinois State University Redbirds, 75-72 and then following it up by losing at the University of Northern Iowa Panthers, 61-54.

Creighton welcomed the Redbirds – who have won six of their last seven after starting out 0-6 in conference play – to CenturyLink Center Omaha on Saturday for a late night face-off between the top two teams in the MVC preseason poll. Despite the late tip-off, 18,494 fans showed up to welcome the Jays back to the Link, the second largest crowd in school history.

All-American junior forward Doug McDermott was aggressive early, scoring Creighton’s first five points and seven of their first 10. However, the Redbirds were able to keep pace and the two teams traded leads throughout the first half. Neither team was able to take control as the biggest lead of the half was just six by the Jays.

McDermott and junior guard Jahenns Manigat combined to shoot 7-14 for 25 points in the first half, but the rest of the team combined to shoot just 5-22. The poor shooting resulted in just a 39-36 lead at the break despite Creighton holding a 27-14 edge on the glass. Senior forward Jackie Carmichael and sophomore guard both hit double figures to lead the Redbirds in the first half, with 12 and 10 respectively.

The struggle continued into the second half. Illinois State staged an early 6-0 run, but Creighton answered with a personal 6-0 run by freshman guard Nevin Johnson showcasing Johnson’s athleticism with a couple of layups and a pull-up jumper.

“Nevin really gave us a boost,” Creighton head coach McDermott said. “I was pleased with what he was able to do. Obviously we got into some foul trouble … so it was good that Nevin was ready.”

Following the Jays’ run, the Redbirds scored the next two buckets to pull ahead and take a 52-50 lead, a lead they would never relinquish.

Creighton never got it going from deep and struggled to get the ball to McDermott, and consequently struggled to score. Even with their struggles, the Jays were able to stay in the game and within four points. Illinois State switched to a 2-3 zone defense, and for a while the Jays and senior guard Grant Gibbs were able to score against it, getting buckets on five straight possessions. Then the offense grew stagnant and the buckets stopped coming. The Jays went nearly four minutes without scoring, and the Redbirds were able to expand the lead to eight at 72-64 with 1:22 remaining.

“It threw our rhythm off, not that we were playing with great rhythm offensively anyway, but we practice that and we just didn’t execute the sets we put in our zone offense,” Gibbs said. “Give them credit. We didn’t attack it.”

Doug McDermott, who only took seven shots in the second half, echoed Gibbs’ thoughts

“We stood around a little too much, we didn’t get the ball moving as fast as we should have to put pressure on them,” McDermott said.

Creighton got two late 3-pointers by Gibbs and some missed free throws from the Redbirds to keep the Jays alive.

However, the third time was not the charm in this case as he had a chance to tie the game with 20 seconds left but could not connect from deep.

Gibbs led the Jays in the second half with 14 points, but he was overshadowed by Illinois State’s senior guard Tyler Brown who exploded for 23 in the last 20 minutes. McDermott only scored seven points after the break to finish the game with 24 points and a game-high 13 rebounds. Gibbs and Manigat were the only other Jays in double-figures with 16 and 11 respectively, but together they shot just 10-25 from the field.

Overall, the Jays shot 37.9 percent from the floor, and made just four of their 23 3-point attempts. Conversely, Illinois State shot 49.2 percent and hit six 3-pointers. Creighton dominated on the glass with a 48-29 edge and shot 18-21 from the charity stripe compared to 9-16 for Illinois State, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the disparity in shooting.

“I thought the guys competed,” Greg McDermott said. “We made a few too many mistakes on a night when we didn’t shoot the ball well at all from the 3-point line.”

The Jays hit the road looking to get back on track at Northern Iowa, but poor shooting again sunk Creighton on Wednesday night. Check out creightonian.com for a full recap.

Creighton will look to snap its three-game losing streak on the road at the University of Evansville on Saturday. Creighton knocked off the Purple Aces 87-70 in Omaha in December and are looking to complete the season sweep. Tip-off is set 2 p.m.

“We have to put our heads down and work be hungry to get back on track,” Gibbs said. “We don’t have to worry about rankings or anything like that any more. There’s a lot to play for and we have to value that.”