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Men's Basketball

Morning After: Creighton 74, Missouri State 52

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Key Stats: Creighton decimates MSU on the boards 35-22. In the second half, Doug McDermott goes 10-11 from the field, 3-3 from behind the arc and 5-5 at the line — and the only shot he missed was his last one, as he made 14 straight field goals. For the game, Doug McDermott scores 39 points on 15-19 shooting, and adds 10 rebounds.

Favorite Moment: Coming out of halftime with a 32-27 lead after a chippy and physical first half, Doug McDermott went on a personal 18-5 run, showing the would-be-spoilers who was boss. He’d go on to outscore the Bears 28-25 all by himself in the second half.

Quick Recap: The first half of Friday night’s game went about as well as Missouri State could have hoped for — they more or less held Doug McDermott in check with 11 points, the rest of the Bluejays were missing tons of open looks, and they played just well enough themselves to keep the crowd invested. There were four ties and 10 lead changes, as neither team could pull away from the other.

Then the second half came, and like a buzzsaw, whatever hopes of an upset Missouri State had were chopped down by an All-American who put on the type of performance people will tell their grandchildren about decades from now. That’s only slightly hyperbolic. He scored all of Creighton’s points in an 18-5 run that pushed the lead out to 50-32, making an absurd 14 straight baskets without a miss. Doug’s 44-point game at Bradley last year might have resulted in more points, but this was something altogether different. The only performance in Creighton history that compares, at least that I can recall, would be Bob Portman’s 51 point game in 1967, and even that might be eclipsed by this one.

Quotables:

“Paul Lusk has done an unbelievable job with a young team. To have them competing as hard as they’re competing with the way they started the season is a great credit. They fought us that first half. So we made a few adjustments — we went to the triangle-and-two — and they started missing shots, we were able to get rebounds, and got Doug going.” -Coach Greg McDermott in postgame press conference

“Doug got on an unbelievable roll, one that you don’t often see in college basketball. When it happens with him, we just get him the ball and get out of his way.” -Coach Greg McDermott in postgame press conference

“I was just in a zone. Everything was going in, and my teammates saw that and kept getting me the ball. That’s what it’s like when you play with a bunch of unselfish guys, I have to give them credit.” -Doug McDermott in postgame press conference

“That’s one of the better games I’ve had in my life. But it just feels good to get the win against a good team.” -Doug McDermott in postgame press conference

“I was kind of like a spectator, especially on offense, I would just cross halfcourt and just pick a spot on the court and watch Doug do what Doug does.” -Jahenns Manigat in postgame press conference

What others are writing:

Lyndal Scranton of the Springfield News-Leader has a blog post with some classy comments from Missouri State players, who were still unsure what hit them.

Mid-Major Madness writes that Doug McDermott is a tease.

And now, here’s what you had to say:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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