02.12.2010 / Creighton Faces Off with Indiana State. From the Creighton Athletic Office, The Voice of Billy Bluejay
The Jays will need short memories on Tuesday night against Indiana State, as they come off the most disappointing outing of the year in a 70-52 loss at Missouri State on Saturday night. Creighton never led in the game and, after MSU ran out to a 25-11 lead halfway through the first half, the Jays never were closer than 7 points the rest of the game.
Kenny Lawson’s 15 points and the young freshman Josh Jones’ 10 points off the bench were the only double digit scoring performances on the night for CU, in a game that was missing bright spots for the boys in blue. All year, though, Creighton has been a markedly different team at home and they will need to be on Tuesday night to handle the tough-nosed Indiana State Sycamores. ISU is in a tough place themselves with three of their top scorers being out with injury—including senior guard Harry Marshall, who is the top scorer in MVC games this year with a 16.3 average. Even with this, however, the Sycamores went into Koch Arena in Wichita on Saturday and led most of the way before falling to a Shocker comeback in the last three minutes of the game. In that game, the Sycamores were paced by 16 points from sophomore guard Jordan Printy as well as 14 from sophomore forward Carl Richard and senior guard Rashad Reed. The freshman Koang Doluony from Omaha led the team on the glass with six rebounds.
With the poor shooting from the field, the extended droughts without a field goal and the lackluster production on the glass, the Jays will certainly have no shortage of things to improve upon on Tuesday night. While Creighton has had to bounce back from tough losses at several points this year, how much the team is able to shake off the bad experiences in Springfield with such a quick turnaround will be vital. Indiana State has played us very touch since the arrival of Kevin McKenna. As we saw in exhibition games when McKenna was at Nebraska-Omaha, he knows Dana Altman’s system about as much as Coach does and that has always been an advantage that his teams have exploited, even in the face of deficiencies in raw talent. One can certainly expect the Sycamores to give the Jays all they want on Tuesday night.
Can the Jays still salvage the rest of season? The MVC Tournament is just around the corner, are you planning on going? Share your comments with other Jays fans.
Interesting Creighton Facts
- Antoine Young's father, Wilbert, played basketball at Georgia Southern.
- As a senior in high school, Josh Jones had surgery on his heart.
