PEORIA, Ill. - Players wearing the No. 3 combined for 69 points, but Creighton's Doug McDermott accounted for 44 of those points, leading the #24 Bluejays (13-2, 3-1 MVC) to a 92-83 win at Bradley (5-11, 0-4 MVC) Saturday night at Carver Arena.
McDermott's career-best 44 points were the most ever by a Bradley opponent in the 30-year history of Carver Arena and his 18 field goals (in 23 attempts) equaled the most-ever by a Bradley opponent in any venue. Bradley senior forward Taylor Brown scored 22 of his team-high 25 points in the second half and was a perfect 5-for-5 from 3-point range.
Brown's efforts paced four Braves in double-figures as Walt Lemon, Jr. added 16 points and a career-best eight assists, Dyricus Simms-Edwards chipped in with 14 points and swingman Jake Eastman scored 10 points off the bench. Creighton center Gregory Echenique put up a double-double with 12 points and a game-high 12 rebounds and enjoyed a perfect shooting night: 3-for-3 from the field and the 47.7 percent free throw shooter was 6-for-6 from the line. Jahenns Manigat added 13 points for the visitors.
After enjoying a hot-shooting first half (.556 field goal percentage), Creighton came out blazing to start the second half, making its first 11 field goal attempts after the break to help stretch a 44-34 halftime lead to 69-49 with 11:22 remaining.
Averaging only 3.8 3-pointers per game for the season, Bradley turned to the long ball and sank five treys during a 29-14 surge that pulled the Braves to within 83-78 with 1:52 left. Simms-Edwards blocked a Grant Gibbs jumper, but Bradley missed on its opportunity to slice further into the Creighton lead on the ensuing possession and the Bluejays made 7-for-8 free throw attempts in the final minute to close out the game.
While Creighton made 10-of-20 3-point field goal attempts to defend its status as one of the nation's top 3-point shooting teams, Bradley made 13-of-24 (.542) attempts from behind the arc. The 13 treys tied for the eighth-best total in program history and third-best total at home.
Both teams will play three games in six days next week. Bradley will visit Drake Tuesday and Wichita State Friday, before returning home to host UNI Jan. 15 in a 1 p.m. game at Carver Arena.
