Omaha, Neb. — At Wichita State on Saturday, the Indiana State men’s basketball team — backed into a corner by crippling injuries — fought as if its life depended on it and suffered a narrow defeat against one of the league’s top teams in the toughest arena in the conference.
At Creighton on Tuesday, the fight seemed drained out of the Sycamores.
ISU never summoned the verve it had at Wichita State in a close six-point loss. Instead, ISU let Creighton dictate the flow of the game from the opening tip as the Sycamores were never a factor in a 65-52 loss in front of 15,768 at Qwest Center.
“We didn’t play as hard as we did at the Wichita game. I don’t know what it was, it just didn’t seem like everyone was ready. We missed point-blank layups, we didn’t get to the loose balls,” ISU guard Rashad Reed said. “I just don’t think we were as focused as we were in the Wichita game. Everybody was fired up for that, I just didn’t think that we were as fired up for this game. I thought we had everyone mentally ready, but I guess we weren’t.”
Carl Richard led ISU with 15 points and had eight rebounds. Reed had 13 points, Aaron Carter had 11.
ISU couldn’t replicate much of what comprised an admirable performance on Saturday. Shooting fell off as ISU shot 37.2 percent from the field, down from a 54-percent performance against Wichita State.
ISU also wasn’t anywhere near as effective in its zone defense, a point driven painfully home by Creighton’s 21-to-5 assist-to-turnover ratio.
“We played with a lot less fire than the other night. Creighton did a good job of out-working us, out-hustling us and beat us to a lot of loose balls. Our zone didn’t have a lot of resistance. If you let a team have 21 assists to five turnovers, you’re getting picked apart,” ISU coach Kevin McKenna said.
But what really hurt the Sycamores (14-11, 6-8) was the inability to fight for rebounds and solve Creighton’s defense. The rebounding edge wasn’t vast — Creighton had a 38-31 advantage — but the Bluejays turned many of its 10 offensive rebounds into points. The Bluejays had 13 second-chance points to ISU’s five.
“They did such an outstanding job playing at Wichita State on Saturday night, it probably took a little bit out of them,” Creighton coach Dana Altman said.
Creighton’s defense also took the Sycamores out of any offensive rhythm. The Bluejays didn’t press as much as they have in the past and didn’t force an inordinate amount of ISU turnovers — the Sycamores had 11 — but they got hands in the way of ISU passes and kept ISU’s shooters from getting into a groove.
“Mainly, we didn’t handle the man-to-man pressure very well. We didn’t move the ball very well, we didn’t get into our offense, we just weren’t sharp all night. It was just kind of a lackluster performance, it’s disappointing,” McKenna said.
The die was cast in the opening minutes when Creighton (13-12, 8-6) took a 10-3 lead, eight of the points scored on second-chance opportunities. ISU’s offense struggled badly to start as it came up empty on 14 of its first 17 possessions as the Bluejays built an 11-point advantage.
ISU fought back and cut its deficit to four with five minutes left in the first half and cut it again to five with 18 seconds left when Aaron Carter converted a three-point play. But Kenny Lawson Jr. converted an easy layup with 2 seconds left to give Creighton a seven-point halftime lead and a bit of momentum going into the half.
Lawson loomed large as the Bluejays pulled away in the second half. On Creighton’s first possession of the half, Lawson posted up and missed his initial shot, but ISU didn’t track down the loose ball, Lawson picked it up and slammed it home.
He nor Creighton would look back from that point as the Bluejays went on a game-deciding 14-2 run. Lawson had another dunk and scored five in the run. Lawson went on to make 5 of 6 from the field in the second half on his way to a 17-point, 10-rebound night.
When the Bluejays didn’t find Lawson, Creighton swung the ball out to the perimeter and got key 3-pointers from Darryl Ashford and Ethan Wragge as Creighton’s advantage ballooned to 45-26.
ISU could get no closer than a 14-point gap the rest of the way. When ISU was down in past games, it could turn to Harry Marshall to generate offense, but the Sycamores on the floor now have not been thrust into that role yet.
“All our guys tried, but where we are with our team right now, we need eight guys pretty well to play well to win, especially on the road. We need all eight and we didn’t get all eight playing well on the road. We played tentative, we played back on our heels. We struggled for everything we got,” McKenna said.
The Sycamores next play host to Drake on Saturday.
Indiana State 52
Min FG 3P FT R A PF TP
Doluony 29 1-5 0-2 0-0 4 0 1 2
Richard 37 5-8 1-2 4-5 8 0 1 15
Leitnaker 19 1-3 0-0 3-6 0 0 2 5
Reed 36 4-8 3-5 2-5 4 2 1 13
Printy 30 1-7 0-4 0-0 2 5 2 2
Crawford 11 2-6 0-0 0-0 1 0 4 4
Martin 10 0-1 0-0 0-0 1 0 2 0
A.Carter 28 2-5 1-2 6-7 8 0 2 11
Totals 16-43 5-15 15-23 31* 7 15 52
Creighton 65
Min FG 3P FT R A PF TP
J. Carter 35 3-7 1-3 1-2 6 5 2 8
Harriman 16 2-7 2-6 0-0 4 2 4 6
Lawson Jr. 28 7-11 0-0 3-4 10 1 2 17
Ashford 20 2-3 2-3 0-0 2 5 1 6
Young 21 3-7 0-1 0-1 2 1 2 6
Jones 11 1-4 1-4 0-0 0 0 3 3
Witter 19 1-6 1-3 0-0 1 3 2 3
Millard 6 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 0 1 0
Korver 14 0-2 0-2 0-0 1 3 0 0
Runnels 12 3-6 0-0 1-2 3 1 1 7
Wragge 18 3-6 3-6 0-0 5 0 2 9
Totals 25-60 10-29 5-9 38* 21 20 65
Halftime score — CU 31, ISU 24. FG Pct. — ISU .372; CU .417; 3P Pct. — ISU .333; CU .345; FT Pct. — ISU .652; CU .556. Steals — ISU 2 (Reed, Printy); CU 6 (Carter, Harriman, Lawson, Witter, Korver, Runnels). Blocks — ISU 1 (Martin), CU 5 (Lawson 4). Turnovers — ISU 11 (Doluony 3, Leitnaker 3), CU 5 (Witter 2). Team rebounds* — ISU 3, CU 4. A — 15,768.
Next — ISU (14-11, 6-8) will play host to Drake, and Creighton (13-12, 8-6) plays host to Illinois State on Saturday.
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ISU men don't have fight to combat Jays
Undermanned Sycamores struggle at Creighton after Saturday’s strong performance in Wichita
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