OMAHA, Neb.—Booker Woodfox’s hot hand pulled Creighton out of a small fire Monday against winless Southern University.
The senior guard, who is shooting 53 percent from 3-point range through 10 games this season, canned three consecutive threes late in the second half to help the Bluejays to a 71-60 win over the Jaguars. Woodfox finished with a game-high 17 points.
Creighton (8-2) scored 12 of the game’s first 13 points and never trailed while improving to 7-0 at home. Yet it couldn’t put away Southern (0-8), which has losses this season to NAIA Division I Tougaloo College and USCAA Talladega College.
The Jays were only 4-for-23 from outside the arc after hitting 10 or more threes in their previous three games. That helped the Jaguars pull within six at 57-51 on 3-pointer by Geri Guillory with less that six minutes to play.
Then Woodfox hit the first of his three big shots with 5:17 left. His one-minute barrage gave Creighton an insurmountable 15-point cushion.
Cavel Witter had 15 points, P’Allen Stinnett 14 and Justin Carter 10 points and seven rebounds for the Jays.
Southern got 16 points from Chris Davis and 15 from Jazz Williams. But the Jaguars couldn’t overcome a slow start in which it turned the ball over seven times while shooting only twice in the game’s first four minutes.
Southern had 29 turnovers.
