In Porter Mosers first trip to his alma mater as head coach of the Illinois State mens basketball team, his Redbirds fell to the No. 24 Creighton Bluejays for the second time this season. This time the Birds fell 72-63, in front of a crowd of 14,313 people, the largest crowd to witness a Missouri Valley Conference regular season contest in the history of the league.
Creighton (14-2 and 6-2 in the Valley) extends its home winning streak to 27 straight games, which marks the third longest streak in the country. lSU drops to 5-11 and 1-7 in the conference.
The Birds led for much of the first half, going ahead by as many as seven points and holding a 30-27 edge at the break. The turning point in the game came at the beginning of the second half when Creightons Brody Deren scored six straight points to put the Bluejays up by three. After shooting just 44 percent in the first half, the Bluejays shot a blistering 80 percent in the second half, making 16 of 20 shots. They shot 60 percent overall.
ISUs last lead of the contest, 39-37, came and went with 15:17 left in the game. The Bluejays then went on an eight minute 19-5 run to go up, 56-44. Turnovers were costly for Illinois State as Creighton scored 20 points off 15 ISU turnovers, while the Redbirds scored just five points off 10 Bluejay cough-ups.
Trey Guidry led all scorers with 16 points. Najeeb Echols (13 points and five rebounds) and Marcus Arnold (10 points and five rebounds) were also in double figures for the Birds.
Nate Funk and Kellen Miliner each scored 15 points for the Bluejays, while Deren (12 points and six rebounds) and Mike Grimes (11 points) rounded out the Creighton players in double figures.
The Redbirds will have a few days off before heading to Cedar Rapids to take on Northern Iowa at 7:05 p.m. on Wednesday, January 28.
