OMAHA, Neb.—When Creighton’s starting lineup failed to get out of the gate quickly at Qwest Center Omaha Saturday, the reserves were there to pick up the slack.
P’Allen Stinnett and Cavel Witter led a 30-point effort by the Bluejay bench in a 57-56 win over Wichita State on Saturday that avenged Creighton’s 70-58 loss to the Shockers in Wichita a week ago.
The Bluejays evened their overall record at 9-9 with the victory—their 17th in a row over Wichita State in Omaha, dating back to Feb. 22, 1992. They also improved to 4-3 in the Missouri Valley Conference while snapping the Shockers’ five-game winning streak.
Wichita State (16-3, 5-2) never trailed during its victory over Creighton last week. The Shockers then led for much of the opening half Saturday before falling behind after the Bluejays scored the final eight points before the break.
Wichita State opened the second half by scoring seven of the first 10 points to move in front 31-29. That was before Stinnett and Witter sparked a string of 13 consecutive points by Creighton.
The duo combined for the first nine points of a decisive 18-4 run that put the Bluejays up for good at 47-35.
“It was our defense,” said Witter, who finished with 10 points. “We were getting stops, and we were playing with more energy at that time.
“I think we won the rebounding battle in that stretch. And we got a couple of turnovers and got them to take a couple of bad shots. I think our defense was huge.”
Stinnett finished with 14 points and Kenny Lawson added 11 for Creighton, which held on despite shooting only 33 percent from the field on its home floor. The Bluejays did, however, hit 22 of their 30 foul shots, including 13-of-17 in the first half to grab a 26-24 lead at the intermission.
Toure’ Murry scored 16 points to pace Wichita State, which closed to within one on a 3-pointer by Clevin Hannah with 13.1 seconds remaining. The Shockers knocked the ball out of bounds near midcourt while playing for the steal on the ensuing possession, but then failed to foul Creighton during the final 9.4 seconds after the Bluejays inbounded the ball.
“We didn’t play well enough to overcome what we had to overcome on the road,” Wichita State coach Gregg Marshall said. “We didn’t make enough plays. You’ve just got to play much better than that to win here.”
