• Box Score: Creighton 66, Indiana State 53

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Creighton straightened out its recent problem with slow starts Saturday to finish the regular season with a 66-53 win over Indiana State in Missouri Valley women’s basketball.

The crowd of 941 at Sokol Arena saw the Bluejays get rolling much quicker than they did in Thursday’s 70-67 win over MVC regular-season champion Illinois State. That night, the Jays made just 1 of their first 10 shots and 6 of 35 in the first half.

Against the Sycamores, Creighton made its first two shots and 5 of its first 6 to sprint to a 12-0 lead. The Jays eventually cooled off — making only 4 of their next 17 and finishing the first half 13 of 34 — but still held a 34-23 halftime lead as Indiana State was just 9 of 30.

“It was important to get off to a good start,” Creighton coach Jim Flanery said. “Emotional fatigue could have been an issue later in the game because it’s been a big weekend. But we executed and stuck shots, and that always helps.”

The win, paired with Bradley’s 65-64 win over Missouri State, secured the No. 2 seed for the Jays in the MVC women’s tournament that begins Thursday in St. Charles, Mo.

Creighton (18-9, 13-5 MVC) gets a first-round bye and will play Friday at 6 p.m. against the Drake-Evansville winner.

“It’s nice being the No. 2 seed,” Bluejays senior Megan Neuvirth said. “It’s a better time to play, but at the end of the day, we still have to work hard no matter who we play.”

A 3-point shot from the right wing by Sam Schuett and a short jumper inside by Kelsey Woodard in the first 47 seconds gave Creighton a quick 5-0 lead. A 3 by Chevelle Herring and jumpers by Kellie Nelson and Neuvirth, who led CU with 22 points, provided the 12-0 cushion less than four minutes into the game.

That lead grew to 14 points four times before the Jays took their 34-23 lead into the locker room. That was as close as the Sycamores (16-13, 7-11) would get.

Schuett and Herring both finished with 11 points, and Nelson led all players with 10 rebounds. Brittany Schoen paced Indiana State with 15 points and Kelsey Luna added 13.

Though his team never gave up its double-digit lead, Flanery said he never felt comfortable until the final moments.

“Indiana State competed and we couldn’t quite put them away,” Flanery said. “To their credit, they hung in there and battled the whole game.”

The game also was the 100th played on the Creighton campus, the 250th in Flanery’s head coaching career and successfully wrapped up the Jays’ first season at Sokol Arena.

Creighton is now 76-24 in games played on campus, and Flanery’s career record stands at 149-101. The win also improved Creighton’s home record this season to 11-3, with the only losses coming to Oklahoma, Missouri State and Bradley.

“This was a great way to end our first season in this new arena,” Flanery said. “I told the team before the game that as well as we played the other night, it wasn’t going to be a good a weekend if we didn’t play well today.”

Indiana State (16-13, 7-11)....................23 30 — 53
At Creighton (18-9, 13-5)........................34 32 — 66
• ISU: Kelsie Cooley 0-8 0-1 0, Shannon Thomas 0-2 1-2 1, Brittany Schoen 6-10 0-0 15, Taylor Whitley 2-11, 3-6 7, Kelsey Luna 4-13 2-2 13, Amanda Pedro 2-3 0-0 4, Krista Smith 1-3 0-0 2, Deja Mattox 4-8 0-0 9, Moriah Hodge 0-2 0-0 0, Chelsea Buher 0-1 0-0 0, Laurence Rivest 0-0 2-2 2. Totals - 19-61 8-13 53.
• CU: Sam Schuett 3-7 2-5 11, Megan Neuvirth 7-10 5-8 22, Kellie Nelson 2-7 2-4 6, Kelsey Woodard 2-6 2-2 7, Chevelle Herring 5-12 0-0 11, DaNae Moore 1-1 0-0 2, Kelsey Crites 1-4 3-4 5, Ally Jensen 0-5 0-0 0, Jasmin Corbin 0-1 0-0 0, Katie Frank 1-2 0-0 2. Totals - 22-55 14-23 66.
• 3-point goals: ISU 7-16 (Schoen 3-5, Whitley 0-2, Luna 3-6, Mattox 1-3), CU 8-24 (Schuett 3-7, Neuvirth 3-5, Woodard 1-4, Herring 1-4, Jensen 0-4). Total fouls: ISU 19, CU 14. Fouled out: None. Technical fouls: None. Turnovers: ISU 8, CU 7. Rebounds: ISU 38 (Cooley, Thomas, Mattox 5), CU 43 (Nelson 10). Field-goal percentage: ISU .311, CU .400. Free-throw percentage: ISU .615, CU .609. A: 941.

Contact the writer:

444-1201, alexsdad@mail.com

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