Box Score

OMAHA, Neb. – University of Evansville senior Troy Taylor registered just the second triple-double in program history, but it was Creighton who picked up the victory, taking down the Purple Aces by an 87-70 final on Saturday night at the CenturyLink Center.
  
Taylor finished the game with 10 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists.  Reed Jackson had the only other triple-double for UE (7-6, 0-1 MVC), doing so versus New Hampshire on January 3 of 1995 as he finished with 13 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds.  It was also the first triple-double in the history of the CenturyLink Center, which is in its 10^th season of existence.  In terms of MVC history, it was the 36^th one by a Valley player and only the second since the 1999 campaign.
 
Leading the Aces was Colt Ryan, who notched 25 points for the second-straight game.  Doug McDermott was the game’s leading scorer, tallying 29 points for Creighton (12-1, 1-0 MVC) to go along with 10 boards.  Greg Echenique also recorded a double-double with 13 points and 13 boards.
 
Lewis Jones got the Aces started off on the right foot with a layup on Evansville’s opening possession before Creighton responded with eight in a row.  The Bluejays hit a pair of threes while opening up an 8-2 lead.  Jordan Jahr knocked down a trey of his own to end the run.  The quick start continued as Creighton hit five of its first seven shots en route to a 14-5 advantage just over four minutes into the game.
 
The Bluejays continued to extend the lead, going up by a 19-5 tally as the Purple Aces hit just two of their opening eight attempts from the floor before later notching four out of 18 shots.  Creighton opened their largest lead at 31-14, hitting five early threes before a quick 6-0 run got UE back within 11 at 31-20.  Greg McDermott ended the run with another one of CU’s seven first-half three-pointers. 
 
Despite the struggle in its shooting, Evansville continued to hang around and would go into the break trailing by just 11 points.  Colt Ryan, who set a career mark with 43 points in last year’s visit to Omaha, scored ten in the first half while grabbing four rebounds.  McDermott led everyone with 13 tallies in the first period.
 
Evansville’s rally to end the first half continued into the second frame as they reeled off the first two field goals to make it a 7-point deficit at 45-38.  Austin Chatman put a quick stop to that run, hitting another trey, hit third on three attempts to that point.
 
The treys kept falling as the Bluejays matched their largest lead with 12 minutes left as Ethan Wragge made it 10-of-16 from long range for CU to make it a 63-46 lead.  On the ensuing possession, Creighton made it a 9-0 stretch as they opened up a 19-point advantage on a McDermott jumper.
 
Creighton’s advantage stayed in the 20-point range over the remainder of the game, going to as many as 21 prior to the 87-60 final.
 
Three-point shooting was the primary difference as the Bluejays finished hitting 12-of-24, including 11 of their opening 17 attempts.  Evansville started 1-of-12 before finished with a 3-for-14 performance.  Creighton also dominated the boards to a tone of a 43-27 final.
After being away from home since December 18, the Aces will be back at the Ford Center on Wednesday evening to open up the home portion of its MVC schedule, welcoming Missouri State to town for a 7:05 p.m. matchup.  Next Saturday, UE will be back home once again to face one of the league’s surprise teams in non-conference play – Southern Illinois.  The Salukis finished up non-conference play with a 7-4 mark after being picked to finish in 10^th place in the preseason poll.