National Basketball Association
Creighton 57, Middle Tennessee St. 47
When: 6:00 PM ET, Saturday, November 29, 2014
Where: The Arena, Florida, Florida
Officials:
# Mike Eades, # Don Olson, # Mark Whitehead
Attendance:
1215
By SportsDirect Inc.
Creighton 57, Middle Tennessee 47: Austin Chatman
and Isaiah Zierden scored 10 points apiece, and the Bluejays survived a 16-minute
second-half field-goal drought to beat the Blue Raiders in the Emerald Coast
Classic third-place game in Niceville, Fla.
Will Artino added nine points and Toby Hegner had
eight for Creighton (5-1), which snapped a seven-game Sunshine State losing
streak that dated to a 1999 NCAA Tournament win over Louisville in Orlando.
The Bluejays hit 18-of-21 free throws to enjoy an 11-point advantage at the
line and weathered a 21-point second half in which they hit only 3-of-14 shots
from the field.
Jaqawn Raymond scored nine points, and DeVante
Jones had eight for Middle Tennessee (3-3), which scored only 15 first-half
points and finished with a season-low 47 points. Reggie Upshaw Jr. added seven
points for the Blue Raiders while Jacquez Rozier had six and a team-high six
rebounds.
Creighton, which led 36-15 at halftime, scored on
Artino’s layup 15 seconds into the second half but didn’t hit another field
goal until Zierden connected on a 3-pointer as part of a four-point play with
3:45 remaining. And even with the Bluejays subsisting on free throws, the Blue
Raiders could get no closer than eight over the final 20 minutes.
Middle Tennessee’s only lead of the game came at
4-3, but Creighton immediately answered with a 7-0 run, including five points
from Hegner, and the Blue Raiders never got closer than four points again. The
Bluejays connected on 14 of their 23 first-half shots (60.9 percent) while
Middle Tennessee struggled through a 6-of-23 (26.1 percent) period and only hit
1-of-4 attempts from the free-throw line.
GAME NOTEBOOK: Creighton has not lost on
consecutive days since the 2009 Old Spice Classic in Orlando. … Bluejays coach
Greg McDermott is now 6-0 all-time against current Conference USA schools. … Middle Tennessee's Darnell
Harris, who came off the bench to score a career-high 15 points on 5-of-7
3-point shooting in Friday’s semifinal loss, finished with three points on
1-of-3 shooting.
Top Game Performances
Middle Tennessee St. |
|
Creighton |
Jaqawn Raymond 9 |
Scoring |
Isaiah Zierden 10 |
DeVante Jones 3 |
Assists |
Devin Brooks 5 |
Jacquez Rozier 6 |
Rebounds |
Will Artino 4 |
DeVante Jones 3 |
Free Throws Made |
Devin Brooks 4 |
Darnell Harris 1 |
Steals |
Isaiah Zierden 2 |
Joshua Phillips 1 |
Blocks |
Toby Hegner 2 |
Team Stats Summary
Team |
Points |
FG% |
3PM-3PA |
FTM-FTA |
Assists |
Rebounds |
Blocks |
Steals |
Turnovers |
Middle Tennessee St.
|
47 |
39.1 |
4-14 |
7-14 |
9 |
27 |
1 |
6 |
10 |
Creighton
|
57 |
45.9 |
5-15 |
18-21 |
12 |
22 |
3 |
4 |
10 |