University of Northern Iowa
Creighton
UNI Makes It 6 Straight Victories With 71-66 Win Over Creighton
1/26/2011 7:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
CEDAR FALLS, Iowa - Behind a season-high 26 points from senior point guard Kwadzo Ahelegbe, the University of Northern Iowa men's basketball team won its sixth straight game with a 71-66 victory over Creighton.
UNI (16-6 overall, 7-3 MVC) moved into a tie for third place with Indiana State in the league standings with the win. Creighton (13-9 overall, 5-5 MVC) was led by Antoine Young's 23 points and Doug McDermott's 16 points and nine rebounds.
Ahelegbe scored 12 of the Panthers' first 14 points of the game. His back-to-back 3-pointers six minutes into the game helped UNI to a 14-11 lead. Chip Rank followed with a bucket to complete an 8-0 run and give UNI a 16-11 lead with 13:16 left in the first half.
Kerwin Dunham with 8:39 to go in the half. James then followed it up with a jumper to give UNI its biggest lead of the first 20 minutes at eight points, 26-18.
The Panthers kept the Bluejays in check midway through the first half by not allowing the visitors a made field goal from the 11:46 mark until the 3:36 mark. The Panthers had a 31-23 lead following a James 3-pointer with 1:31 left in the half, but could not enlarge the margin and Creighton was able to score the final three points of the half to trail 31-26 at intermission.
The Bluejays came out hot in the second half and took a 35-33 lead following a McDermott bucket with 16:32 remaining in the game. But the Panthers responded quickly with back-to-back 3-pointers from Rank and Dunham to open up a four-point lead with 15:24 to go.
The Panthers used a 12-3 run to open up a nine-point lead at 55-46 with 9:18 remaining in the game. Ahelegbe capped the run with a conventional 3-point play. But Creighton's Kenny Lawson Jr. answered with two quick buckets and the lead was back to five in less than a minute. McDermott hit two more free throws with 7:29 to go that cut the lead to three, but Moran and James drilled back-to-back 3-pointers to up the margin back to nine at 61-52.
Lucas O'Rear hit a clutch shot with one second on the shot clock with 3:04 left in the game to give UNI a 64-58 lead. Creighton's Young trimmed the lead back to three with a basket with 2:19 left but the Bluejays would get no closer than three the rest of the way and the Panthers made six free throws in the final minute to close out the 71-66 victory.
UNI will travel to Missouri State on Sunday to take on the Bears at JQH Arena. Tip is slated for 7 p.m. and the game will be broadcast live on ESPNU.
NOTES: UNI improved to 11-1 at home this season and has won 26 of its last 27 home games ... UNI moved to 56-15 all-time in the McLeod Center ... UNI is 29-16 in close games (decided by five points or less) in the Ben Jacobson coaching era ... it was the 11th 20-plus scoring game of Ahelegbe's career ... Ahelegbe has started 95 straight games, which moves him to No. 7 on the active list of consecutive starts in the nation ... the team holding the lead at the half has won seven straight games in the series - UNI led 31-26 at the break ... Ahelegbe moved into 7th place on the Panthers' all-time games played list with 121 games played in his Panther career ... UNI has won seven of its last eight games on either ESPNU or ESPN2 ... UNI committed only seven turnovers in the game and has committed 10 or less turnovers in 13 games this season ... Creighton won the rebounding battle, 34-23.
