Iowa Pulls Away From Creighton
Reggie Evans probably should have just parked himself at the foul line.
Evans made 12 of 13 free throws in the last 10 minutes when the teams combined for just three field goals to lead Iowa to a 69-56 victory over Creighton in the first round of the NCAA tournament on Thursday.
"I felt real good hitting all my free throws like that," said Evans, who scored 16 of his 19 points in the second half and had seven straight in a key span. "I felt very confident at the line."
Evans, a transfer from Coffeyville Community College in Kansas, was 13-of-15 overall in his first NCAA tournament game.
"Sometimes we forget that Reggie is a junior college transfer. This is brand new to him," Iowa coach Steve Alford said. "I thought he was uptight, but he came up big-time in the last 10 minutes."
Duez Henderson added 16 points and Dean Oliver 15 for seventh-seeded Iowa (23-11), which went scoreless the first 5:32 of the second half. Creighton started the half on a 12-0 run, before the Hawkeyes recovered to pull out their fifth straight victory.
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"We had to get back to doing what we needed to do, and that was play defense," Oliver said. "We've been down before. We had experience. We had to keep fighting."
Iowa will play Kentucky, which beat Holy Cross 72-68, in the second round Saurday. The Hawkeyes last played the Wildcats in 1997, when they lost 75-69 in the second round of the NCAA tournament.
Ben Walker and Livan Pyfrom each scored 11 points to lead 10th-seeded Creighton (24-8), which made only one field goal in the last 10:44.
"There were a couple of critical possessions, and the game kind of changed," Creighton coach Dana Altman said. "We had opportunities, but we rushed our offensive opportunities in the second half."
The Bluejays shot just 5-of-28 from 3-point range.
"We're a team that depends on outside shooting, and we didn't knock the shots down," Altman said.
With the game tied 49-49 with 7:54 left, Evans scored seven straight points and the Hawkeyes took a 56-49 lead with 3:14 remaining.
The game turned into a free-throw clinic from that point, with Iowa outshooting Creighton 13-5 to seal the victory.
"We were just not listening early on," Oliver said. "We were taking bad shots and doing things we shouldn't have been doing. But we chipped away and were able to get back into the game."
Walker's layup with 52 seconds left was the Bluejays' first field goal since his layup with 10:44 left. He broke his right ring finger while going for a rebound midway through the second half. Walker had the finger wrapped, and continued to play.
"I think I smacked the ball and the bone just came right through," said Walker, a senior. "But I knew I was going back out there, even if they had to amputate it."
Iowa, which trailed 21-13 midway through the first half, used a 19-9 run to go into halftime with the lead. Oliver made two free throws with 43 seconds remaining to give the Hawkeyes a 32-30 halftime lead.
Iowa, the Big Ten tournament champions, again played without leading scorer Luke Recker, who has been sidelined since breaking his right kneecap on Jan. 27. Shooting guard Brody Boyd bruised his knee against Creighton, but Alford said he expects him to play against Kentucky.
The Hawkeyes have advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament in each of its last 10 appearances. They last lost a first-round game in 1986.
Creighton outrebounded Iowa 28-15, led by Walker's nine. But the Bluejays, who received their first at-large berth since 1975, failed to break the school record for single-season victories.
"Defensively, we just let down overall," Walker said. "I think we're a good team, but we didn't play our best game. We just didn't fight as hard as I thought we could."
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