OMAHA, Neb.—Once Creighton began to pound the ball inside to 6-foot-9 center Kenny Lawson Tuesday, injury-plagued Indiana State couldn’t keep up.
Lawson scored nine of his game-high 17 points as the Bluejays opened the second half with a 21-8 run to pull away for a 65-52 win Tuesday night.
“Coach (Dana Altman) was telling me to get lower and post up,” said Lawson, the only player in double figures for the winners. “And my teammates were looking for me. They told me to go to my strong move, and that’s what I was trying to do.”
Creighton improved to 13-12 overall and remained tied with Illinois State for third in the Missouri Valley Conference at 8-6. Those two teams meet in Omaha on Saturday.
Indiana State (14-11, 6-8) played without three of its top four scorers. Harry Marshall, Dwayne Lathan and Jake Kelly were all out due to injury, leaving the Sycamores with only eight players.
In their absence, Lawson managed a double-double by grabbing 10 rebounds. But Creighton had trouble getting the ball to him in the first half against the Indiana State’s zone defense.
Instead, the Jays settled for 19 3-point attempts, making only five, while building a 31-24 halftime advantage. Their lead grew to 20 once Lawson began to take over inside.
“We played a lot better in the second half,” Altman said. “Kenny played awfully well. And we got a lot better looks with that inside-out action.”
The Jays were 5-for-10 from outside the arc in the second half while extending their lead.
Creighton never trailed in the game, scoring 17 of the first 23 points and never letting Indiana State closer than five the rest of the way.
The Bluejays also turned the ball over a season-low five times while tallying 21 total assists.
“Our zone—which we don’t usually like to play, but have played more than we’d like to—didn’t have a lot of resistance,” Indiana State coach Kevin McKenna said. “If you let a team have 21 assists to five turnovers, you’re getting picked apart.”
The Sycamores missed 11 of their first 13 shots in the game, then went without a field goal for the first 5:34 of the second half. Carl Richard paced Indiana State with 15 points, and Rashad Reed had all 13 of his points after halftime.
