Creighton's sizzle on both ends of the court offset a lack of substance in Tuesday's home opener against Florida A&M.

The Bluejays got plenty of highlight-reel efforts to roll to a 78-53 victory, but their lack of consistency kept coach Dana Altman from passing out high marks.

“We had some great individual efforts offensively and defensively,'' Altman said, “but we just didn't get them on a consistent enough basis to have a real solid performance.''

The effort, before an announced crowd of 15,321 at Qwest Center Omaha, was good enough to even Creighton's record at 1-1. But it fell short of producing the desired step forward the Bluejays wanted to make after Saturday's season-opening loss to Dayton.

“I think something we need to focus on as a team is finishing out the game and playing 40 minutes of basketball,'' Creighton center Kenny Lawson said. “We didn't do that once again and I think that's something we need to continue to work on.

“I think some of that can be attributed to conditioning, so that's something we have to push ourselves.''

Among the positives that stood out in Tuesday's performance were:

Ÿ A combined 33 points by junior-college transfer Darryl Ashford and true freshman Ethan Wragge. Ashford had 11 of his 17 points while making 3 of 5 3-point attempts in the first half. Wragge converted half of his eight shots from beyond the arc and had 10 of his 16 after the break.

Ÿ The Bluejays' defense that forced 29 turnovers and limited the Rattlers (0-2) to 32.1 percent field-goal shooting.

Ÿ Good ball-sharing as the Bluejays had 22 assists on 28 baskets.

“At times I thought we shared the ball really well and other times we just made bad decisions,'' Altman said. “We took some bad shots. It's early, and I'm trying to get everyone to be aggressive offensively. I want our guys, if they have an open shot, to shoot it.

“But I think we're taking some bad ones, some quick ones, without investigating the inside. We just need to do a better job there.''

Before Creighton faces Arkansas-Little Rock on Sunday, Altman also would like to see his players clean up their ball-handling as well as working on stacking stops together. Creighton had 20 turnovers Tuesday, 11 coming in the final 20 minutes.

“I thought our ball movement at times was very good,'' Altman said. “Defensively, at times, we had some really good possessions. It just didn't seem like we put them on top of each other.

“We did some awfully good things, but our consistency just wasn't there.''

The Bluejays never trailed and had a double-digit lead eight minutes into the game. Florida A&M hurt itself by committing turnovers on 18 of its 39 first-half possessions in falling behind 46-26 at the break.

“The turnovers really got us out of sync,'' Florida A&M coach Eugene Harris said. “Obviously, we need some work on our press offense.''

Creighton supported Ashford and Wragge with an 11-point effort by Lawson, while Cavel Witter scored 10 and Josh Jones eight. P'Allen Stinnett finished with just seven points but added four rebounds, five assists and three steals in 30 minutes.

In their first two games as Bluejays, Ashford and Wragge have scored 57 points while making 21 of 41 field-goal attempts, including 11 of 22 from 3-point range.

“These two games have been a big boost, but it's not me,'' Ashford said. “My teammates are looking for me, just as I'm looking for them. It's just be me these nights, but it could be anybody else on any given night.''

Wragge agreed.

“In both games, we've had a big number of assists,'' he said. “You just have to be ready to knock down shots when your teammates get you open.''

FLORIDA A&M (0-2)

FG FT RB PF A Min TP

Jackson 0-3 1-2 5 3 0 27 1

Crowder 3-5 1-1 9 1 0 24 7

Walker 2-6 2-2 9 1 0 33 6

Brown 0-3 0-0 0 1 2 9 0

Bryant 3-10 2-2 2 0 0 24 10

Wallace 2-4 0-0 5 0 0 11 4

Jenkins 5-11 1-2 1 3 3 29 13

Hughes 3-7 2-2 1 0 0 19 10

Bent 0-2 2-2 1 5 0 9 2

Stevens 0-3 0-0 1 0 0 6 0

Acosta 0-2 0-0 1 2 0 7 0

Buchanon 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 2 0

Totals 18-56 11-13 41 17 6 200 53

3-point shot (6-22) — Walker 0-3, Brown 0-1, Bryant 2-5, Jenkins 2-7, Hughes 2-6.

Team rebounds — 6. Turnovers — 29. Shot percent — 32.1.

CREIGHTON (1-1)

FG FT RB PF A Min TP

Ashford 6-13 2-2 3 0 3 28 17

Lawson 4-7 3-4 6 1 3 23 11

Stinnett 3-7 0-0 4 1 5 30 7

Korver 1-4 0-0 4 3 2 17 3

Young 0-0 0-0 0 2 2 12 0

Jones 3-6 0-0 1 2 1 11 8

Witter 4-10 2-2 1 1 0 16 10

Bock 1-3 4-5 2 1 3 22 6

Runnels 0-3 0-0 9 3 2 21 0

Wragge 6-11 0-0 3 3 1 20 16

Totals 28-64 11-13 37 17 22 200 78

3-point shot (11-31) — Ashford 3-8, Stinnett 1-3, Korver 1-4, Jones 2-3, Witter 0-4, Bock 0-1, Wragge 4-8.

Team rebounds — 4. Turnovers — 20. Shot percent — 43.8.

Florida A&M 2627—53

At Creighton 4632—78

A — 15,321. Officials — John Higgins, Kipp Kissinger, Justin Pavich.

Contact the writer:

679-2298, steve.pivovar@owh.com

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