Alexander Guides Creighton Men Past Iowa 92-84
Photo Credit: Creighton Athletics/Sullivan Lawrence
OMAHA, Neb. -- For the second consecutive game No. 8 Creighton men's basketball used an early second half surge to seize control as the Bluejays defeated Iowa 92-84 in Gavitt Tipoff Games action on Tuesday, November 14. Trey Alexander came one assist shy of the first points/rebounds/assist triple-double in Creighton history, finishing with a season-high 23 points in addition to career-highs in rebounds (11) and assists (9).
The win lifted Creighton to 3-0 on the season, while Iowa fell to 2-1 overall.
Tied at 43-43 coming out of intermission, Creighton used an 18-6 burst in the opening five minutes to stun Iowa. The squads began the frame by trading buckets, then the Bluejays exploded with consecutive three pointers from Baylor Scheierman and Alexander. Ryan Kalkbrenner capped the run by running to floor for a fast break layup to give Creighton a 53-45 lead (17:09). Holding a 56-49 edge moments later, Isaac Traudt connected from beyond the arc and Kalkbrenner delivered a thunderous dunk to force Iowa head coach Fran McCaffrey to use a timeout with Creighton leading 61-49 (15:14).
Iowa trimmed the Bluejay advantage to 68-61 with 12:15 remaining, but Creighton went back to work. The Bluejays rattled off nine straight, getting five points from Fredrick King and four by Alexander to extend their lead to 77-61 (10:14). Creighton went on to lead by as much as 17 (80-63) and fended off a late Iowa surge to collect the victory.
Iowa opened the game on fire, hitting 10 of its first 15 shots to race out to a 22-15 lead with 12:19 remaining in the first half. The Bluejays answered the challenge with an 11-3 run, getting buckets from Scheierman, Alexander, Kalkbrenner and Francisco Farabello to take the lead at 26-25 (9:55). Down the stretch of the opening stanza each team took control as Iowa led 31-27 (7:18) and Creighton answered with a 7-0 run to lead 34-31 (5:04). Trailing 41-38 with just over one minute remaining, Traudt brought Creighton even once more with a corner trey. The two squads traded buckets before the break to send the game to halftime knotted at 43-43.
In addition to Alexander's huge night, four other Bluejays reached double figures as Scheierman scored 17, Farabello delivered a season-high 14, Kalkbrenner finished with 13 points and King scored a dozen points. CU won the rebound battle 38-30 and outscored the Hawkeyes 42-24 in the paint and 32-18 off the bench.
Ben Krikke led Iowa with 24 points, while Tony Perkins tossed in 16. The Hawkeyes made exactly half of its 68 field goal attempts and drained 16-of-30 two-pointers that were outside the paint.
The Bluejays return to action on Saturday, November 18 as it hosts Texas Southern at 7:30 p.m. at CHI Health Center Omaha in a game that will be nationally televised on FS2.
NOTES: Creighton has made a three-pointer in 988 straight games and Baylor Scheierman has made a three-pointer in 50 straight contests dating to his final 10 games at South Dakota State ... The BIG EAST now leads the final Gavitt Tipoff Games, 3-2 ... Trey Alexander is Creighton's first player with 20 points in each of CU's first three games since Doug McDermott in 2013-14 ... Creighton has scored 89 points in each of its first three games for the second time in program history, having also done so in 2017-18 ... Creighton finished 4-3 all-time in the Gavitt Tipoff Games. The four wins and .571 win percentage are tied for the best of any BIG EAST team in the event ... Steven Ashworth's streak of 20 straight games with a three-pointer was snapped as the senior guard was held scoreless ... The game featured 14 lead changes.
