Creighton shoots down SMS in final

ST. LOUIS -- Reserves Dane Watts and Jimmy Motz combined for 26 points and Creighton hit 12 3-pointers, pulling away late to win the school's fifth Missouri Valley Conference tournament championship in seven years with a 75-57 victory over Southwest Missouri State on Monday night.

Watts and Johnny Mathies had 14 points apiece and Motz had 12 for Creighton (23-10), the third seed. The Bluejays lost twice to Southwest Missouri State in the regular season, but overcame 43 percent shooting to win their ninth Valley title -- more than twice the total of any other school.

Creighton, which has an eight-game winning streak, receives the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. It will be the Bluejays fourth straight trip to the NCAA tournament.

Deke Thompson had 14 points and Anthony Shavies 10 for Southwest Missouri State (18-12), which also lost in the tournament championship game last year and then got shut out in the postseason. The Bears have been in the title game five times in the last eight seasons, all losses, and haven't won the tournament since 1992.

Creighton averages 8.5 3-pointers per game and was 12-for-25 -- tying for its second best this season -- in the title game. Motz was 4-for-7 and Watts, who led the team in scoring for the first time all season, was 2-for-4.

The Bluejays ended a four-game losing streak against Southwest Missouri State, despite an off-game from leading scorer Nate Funk, who was 3-for-12 and had eight points -- 10 below his average. Funk contributed seven rebounds.

The game seemed set for a tense finish when Tamarr Maclin made a three-point play with 7:24 to go to cut the Bears' deficit to 52-50. Consecutive 3-pointers by Tyler McKinney and Motz only 53 seconds apart put Creighton ahead 60-50 with four minutes left.

The Bluejays led 38-32 at halftime, seemingly not much of a cushion against a team that rallied from a 23-point deficit to beat No. 1 seed Southern Illinois in the semifinals on Sunday. The last time the top seed won the tournament, which is typically wide open, was in 1998.

Mathies was named tournament MVP, and was joined on the all-tournament team by teammates Motz and Funk along with Maclin of Southwest Missouri State and Darren Brooks of Southern Illinois.

Creighton was 8-for-14 from 3-point range while building its halftime lead. Mathies, Kellen Miliner and Watts hit two 3-pointers apiece, helping the Bluejays solve a matchup zone that gave top-seed Southern Illinois trouble in the semifinals and offset 6-for-17 shooting inside the 3-point arc.

Shavies had 10 points in the half, more than his 8.6-point average. But Southwest Missouri State missed five of its last six shots after tying it at 28 with 4:23 to go in the half.