University of Northern Iowa
Creighton
Creighton Records 60-57 Victory Over UNI at MVC Tournament
3/4/2011 7:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
ST. LOUIS, Mo. - Creighton's Kenny Lawson scored a game-high 18 points and Doug McDermott added 16 to lead the Bluejays to a 60-57 victory over the University of Northern Iowa Panthers in the quarterfinals of the 2011 State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Tournament.
"I thought our guys competed extremely hard and prepared very well this week," UNI head coach Ben Jacobson said. "We didn't play well enough at the offensive end of the floor in the first half, and put ourselves in a little bit of a hole. But we made it a very competitive basketball game and because of that, we had a chance to tie the thing there at the end."
The Bluejays (19-13 overall) outrebounded the Panthers, 39-24, and used a 21-10 scoring advantage off the bench to advance to the semifinals for a matchup against the top-seeded Missouri State Bears.
UNI (19-13 overall) got a team-high 15 points from sophomore forward Kwadzo Ahelegbe scored 14 and he was joined in double figures by sophomore guard Anthony James with 10 points.
For the second consecutive game, Creighton jumped out to an 8-0 lad against UNI before coach Jacobson called a timeout with 16:39 left in the first half. A Lawson Jr. dunk with 10:01 remaining in the first half gave the Jays another eight-point bulge, 17-9.
The Panthers clawed back with an 8-2 to cut the lead to 19-17 with 6:19 left in the half. But the Panthers failed to score the rest of the half and Creighton added a pair of 3-pointers in the closing 5:05 of the half to take a 25-17 lead into the locker rooms.
UNI came out bombing in the second half with a trio of triples from Koch and junior guard Johnny Moran. Moran's last 3-pointer pulled UNI to within 32-30 with 14:35 left in the game.
A pair of free throws from McDermott with 4:24 remaining gave Creighton a seven-point lead. Koch knocked down another 3-pointer with 3:31 on the clock to make it a four-point game, 54-50.
UNI eventually cut the lead to one at 58-57 following a jumper from Ahelegbe with 1:07 left in the game. Creighton's Antoine Young missed a jumper with 30 seconds left but Lawson Jr. got the rebound and scored on a putback to make it a three-point margin again with 26 seconds left.
Ahelegbe drove the lane with 16 seconds left and missed on a shot, Creighton got the rebound but amazingly Jahenns Manigat missed a layup on the other end and Koch grabbed the rebound. UNI called its final timeout with 7.2 seconds left with the game in the balance.
Ahelegbe got the final shot for the Panthers, but his 3-pointer came up short and the Bluejays advanced to the semis.
"It's so tough," Ahelegbe said. "I have some great teammates. I have one of the best coaches in the country coaching me. It's just so tough to know that there's just a couple things that you left on the floor that you can't get back. That's the toughest thing. It hurts."
NOTES: UNI head coach Adam Koch ... Kerwin Dunham moved up to No. 6 on the UNI games played with with 124 games ... Dunham set a career-high with four blocks in the game - he entered the game with four career blocks to his credit ... UNI committed only four turnovers ... UNI was 1-for-4 at the foul line - its lowest output of the season ... Moran saw his streak of 16 consecutive free throws snapped in the first half with a pair of misses ... UNI is 31-19 under coach Jacobson in close games (decided by five points or less).
