Creighton University
Northern Iowa
Men's Basketball Drops Valley Opener, 60-52, to UNI
12/29/2009 9:00:00 PM | Men's Basketball
OMAHA, Neb. -- Northern Iowa won its ninth straight game, outscoring host Creighton 5-0 in the final 58 seconds, to defeat the Bluejays 60-52 before 17,152 fans at Qwest Center Omaha on Tuesday night.
The match-up, which featured last year's MVC regular-season co-champs and this year's favorites in the league's preseason poll, marked the first such occurences for each in 20 years.
Northern Iowa is now 10-1 on the year (1-0 MVC), while Creighton fell to 5-7 (0-1 MVC).
Creighton came out of the gates ice-cold, making just one of its first 16 shots from the floor while falling behind 13-2. That included a 9:10 span between field goals from Antoine Young. The Panthers would lead by as much as 12 in the first half on three different occasions. Down 23-11, Creighton outscored UNI 7-2 to close out the first half and draw within 25-18 at the break.
The Jays took their first lead since 2-0 with two free throws by Casey Harriman to go ahead 35-34 with 11:36 left. Creighton would keep up their fight, connecting on its first five three-point attempts of the second half to take a 41-37 lead and prompt a Panther timeout with 9:01 to play.The Panthers then methodically put together an 8-0 run to retake the lead for good at 45-41 with 6:49 left.
The Jays would narrow a 55-48 deficit to 55-52 with 58 seconds left, but Antoine Young missed a free-throw that could have brought CU within two points, and Panther 7-footer Jordan Eglseder knocked down two free throws with 35 seconds left that made it a two-score game.
After a pair of Bluejay misses, UNI guard Ali Farokhmanesh iced the game with two free throws before Johnny Moran hit 1-of-2 for the final margin.
UNI was led by 15 points from Farokhmanesh, while all-Valley guard Kwadzo Ahelegbe had 12 points and a game-best four assists. Also in double-figures with 11 points was Eglseder. UNI shot 35.3 percent for the game, but shot a near-perfect 90.5 percent (19-21) at the line to hold off CU down the stretch.
Creighton was led in scoring by Cavel Witter, who had 17 points off the bench. Witter made 5-of-6 three-point shots. Antoine Young and Wayne Runnels scored eight points each. CU shot 34.0 percent (17-50) and hit 7-of-19 three-pointers (36.8 percent) and 11-of-18 at the stripe (61.1 percent).
Creighton returns to action on Friday with a 1:05 pm (Central) game at Indiana State. That game can be heard on KXSP (Big Sports 590 AM).
NOTES: Creighton's 18 first-half points were its fewest ever in a half at Qwest Center Omaha. The previous mark was 19 in the first half of a 53-52 loss to Miami on March 20, 2006 ...Creighton's 52 points also tied its Qwest Center Omaha low for a game. The Jays had 52 points in the aforementioned loss to Miami ...The crowd of 17,152 was eighth-largest in CU history ...Creighton fell to 17-9 all-time at Qwest Center Omaha in games in which it trails by 10 or more points at any time ...Creighton's 52 points were its fewest in an MVC home game since a 54-45 loss to Illinois State exactly 13 years earlier ...Creighton had been 14-0 all-time when Cavel Witter scored 14 or more points before tonight ...Last year Northern Iowa lost its MVC opener at home, only to rally to win a share of the league's regular-season title and the MVC Tournament title, advancing to the NCAA's.
