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A Creighton team that ranked among the country's top shooting teams all season is starting to turn into a gang that can't shoot straight.

For the third straight game, the Bluejays made just 4 of every 10 field goals they attempted in Saturday's 89-68 loss to Wichita State at CenturyLink Center. Creighton shot 40.4 percent from the field against the Shockers, and its struggles from 3-point range continued as the Bluejays made just 5 of 23 (21.7 percent).

That follows a 5-for-16 effort in a three-point loss at Northern Iowa and a 4-for-22 showing in last Tuesday's 65-57 defeat at Evansville. A team that had been shooting 45.3 percent from beyond the arc before the UNI game has made just 14 of its last 61 3-point attempts (22.7 percent).

Creighton's inability to make shots, coach Greg McDermott said, is starting to take its toll on the Bluejays.

"I think every team in the country is going to play with a little more bounce in their step when they're making shots," he said. "That's human nature. You have to have a really mature team to be good enough to be beyond that when you're not making shots."

The Shockers shot 58.2 percent from the field because they got just about any shot they wanted. The Bluejays were slow to rotate to cover shooters on the perimeter, and were unable to keep Wichita State's guards from driving for easy baskets.

"They took it right at us tonight and scored in the paint all night," Creighton guard Grant Gibbs said. "That's on us as players. It's not sitting down and guarding. That's something that we've struggled with all year."

Turning point

Creighton trailed for the last 34½ minutes of the game, but it was a 4½-minute stretch at the end of the first half that McDermott said decided the outcome.

Creighton had scored five straight points to cut a 10-point deficit in half when Gregory Echnique, who led the Bluejays with 16 points, made two free throws with 4:34 remaining.

Creighton forced a turnover on the Shockers' next possession but then missed a shot on its trip down the court. Wichita State responded by scoring on seven straight possessions, with Ben Smith capping the 16-8 spurt with a 3-point basket from the wing.

"We had gotten a little momentum and then they scored on seven possessions to end the half," McDermott said. "That really set the tone for the game."

Smith praised

Ben Smith had eight of the points in the spurt that ended the first half, and he finished with 22 points, matching his career high. The 6-foot-5 senior also drew praise for his work on holding Creighton's Doug McDermott to 10 points below his 23-point scoring average.

"Ben Smith tonight was unbelievable," Wichita State coach Gregg Marshall said. "He came out and shot the ball. We had talked about in order to win a championship, you have to take your game to another level.

"In big games like that, that's what championship-caliber teams do."

Marshall stopped short of crowning the Shockers as the Missouri Valley regular-season kings. Wichita State has a two-game lead over Creighton with three games to play.

"We're not a championship team yet," Marshall said, "but we've certainly closed the gap on being able to claim a championship. We just need a couple more wins."

Bits and pieces

• Creighton, which had 27 turnovers in the losses to Northern Iowa and Evansville, committed only six against Wichita State.

• Echenique was two points off his season high in his 16-point effort. He made 5 of 6 shots from the field and 6 of 7 free throws. He also had five rebounds, two blocked shots and a steal while not committing a turnover.

• Creighton had a steak of 90 straight home wins snapped when the Bluejays had scored 68 points or more.

• The sixth sellout of the season pushed Creighton's average attendance to 16,692.

— Steven Pivovar

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