Creighton stayed alive in post-season play with an impressive 102-92 win against visiting Davidson on Monday.  The Bluejays will host UCF on Wednesday.  Missouri State (loss at Miami in the NIT), UNI (home loss to SMU in the CIT) and Evansville (loss at Boise State in the CBI) all saw their 2010-11 seasons come to a close.

Creighton 102, Davidson 92 (CBI)
OMAHA, Neb. -- Doug McDermott had a career-high 31 points and Josh Jones a career-best 21 points as Creighton topped Davidson, 102-92, in the highest-scoring game in the four-year history of the College Basketball Invitational, presented by Zebra Pen.

With the win, Creighton (21-14) advances to the semifinals of the CBI, and will host UCF (21-11) on Wednesday night at 7 pm Central. Davidson sees its season end with an 18-15 mark.

The teams lit up the scoreboard to the tune of 99 points in the first half, with Davidson owning a 50-49 lead at intermission. McDermott had 21 points for the Jays in the first half, while Antoine Young added 13 points and five assists. Davidson got 12 points off the bench from De'mon Brooks, while three other starters had nine points each. Davidson shot 57.6 percent from the field, including 6-of-13 from downtown, while the Jays were 53.1 percent and 2-of-6 from deep.

Creighton led 72-64 at the midpoint of the second half, but Davidson went on a 19-10 run to take its final lead at 83-82 on a three-pointer by JP Kuhlman with 4:21 to go. From then on, it was all Bluejays, as the hosts closed the game on a 20-9 run.  three-point play by Young started the flurry. Gregory Echenique threw down a monster jam while drawing a foul, and Jones followed with a corner three-pointer to put CU up six with 2:08 left. After two foul shots by Manigat with 1:52 left, the Jays got a stop and Jones sank a dagger three-pointer to put CU up 96-86 with 1:01 left.

Creighton cracked the 100-point barrier on Kenny Lawson's three-point play with 12 seconds left. The hoop also moved Lawson past baseball great Bob Gibson and into 18th on CU's all-time scoring list.

Brooks led Davidson with a career-high 21 points and nine rebounds in 23 minutes off the bench. JP Kuhlman (19) and Jake Cohen (16) also reached double-digits in the scoring column. The Wildcats shot 53.1 percent for the game, including 7-of-22 from distance, and were 17-of-24 at the line.

Creighton had three men with 20 or more points, as McDermott had 31 points and 10 rebounds to pace the Jays, and Young (22) and Jones (21) also poured in the points. Echenique was limited to just 12 minutes before fouling out, but did score 10 points. Young had nine assists on the evening as CU had 18 assists and nine turnovers on the evening. The Jays shot 51.7 percent for the game, including 6-for-15 from deep and 36-of-43 at the line.

SMU 57, UNI 50 (CIT)
CEDAR FALLS, Iowa - The SMU Mustangs used a 17-point, 21-rebound effort from center Papa Dia to score a 57-50 victory over the University of Northern Iowa Panthers on Monday in the quarterfinals of the CollegeInsider.com Tournament.

SMU (20-14 overall) will move on to the semifinals and will face the winner of Tuesday's Santa Clara-San Francisco matchup. UNI (20-14 overall) saw its 2010-11 season come to a close.

Dia scored 15 of his 17 points in the first half, when he also corralled 12 rebounds. The Mustangs led 31-23 at the break while shooting 57.1 percent from the floor. UNI shot just 28 percent in the first half and followed that up with 26.9 percent in the second half for a 27.5 percent effort for the game. The Panthers made only one 3-pointer in the second half on 11 attempts.

The Panthers jumped out to an early 8-4 lead following a pair of 3-pointers from Jake Koch and Kwadzo Ahelegbe. But SMU quickly regained the lead on a convention 3-point play from Dia and another bucket. The Mustangs never trailed following a Dia basket with 15:35 left in the first half.

Iowa City native Mike Walker drained a 3-pointer with 1:04 left in the first half to give the Mustangs a 31-23 lead at the break. SMU then upped the margin to 10 to begin the second half on a bucket from Robert Nyakundi.
SMU eventually built a 13-point lead at 41-28 with 14:16 after a triple from the Mustangs' Nyakundi.

The Panthers went on a 9-0 run and trimmed the margin to four behind seven points from Ahelegbe. The Mustangs were able to push the lead back to nine points following scores from Collin Mangrum and a 3-pointer from Nyakundi.

UNI pulled to within five points at 55-50 following a layup from Ahelegbe with 23.5 seconds left. The Panthers Johnny Moran forced a jump ball in the in-bounds pass with give the ball back to UNI with 20 seconds left. However, Dia blocked a layup attempt by Ahelegbe and SMU's Walker drained two free throws with 15.4 ticks left to seal the win for the visitors.

Boise State 75, Evansville 69 (CBI)
BOISE, Idaho -- Boise State hit 27 of 32 free throws to hold off the University of Evansville Monday night in the quarterfinals of  the College Basketball Invitational presented by Zebra Pen, 75-69, at Taco Bell Arena.  The Broncos move on to the semifinals Wednesday night.  The loss ended Evansville's season at 16-16.  It was the second .500 or better season for the Aces in the last three years.  It was also the final game for three Evansville seniors--Pieter van Tongeren, Clint Hopf and Kavon Lacey.

"I thought our guys gave a great effort tonight, and all season," said coach Marty Simmons.  "We're going to miss those three seniors in the locker room and on the playing floor. 

"It's going to be a huge off-season for us.  Our returning guys need to take this experience and build on it, and get better.  This was a great experience for us to play in a tournament like this, and it can be the first step toward making us a better team next year."

The Aces kept their CBI semifinal hopes alive until the final seconds, fueled by the 17 points of sophomore Ned Cox and 16 of junior Kenneth Harris.  Denver Holmes added 13 and Colt Ryan 10.

Down by seven at halftime, 30-23, Evansville clawed back and took the lead briefly at 50-48 with 9:00 remaining on Harris's first three-pointer of the night.  The 6'5" forward tied the game again at 52-52 90 seconds later.  But the 22-12 Broncos led the rest of the way, extending their lead to seven at 63-56 with 2:18 remaining. Cox cut the deficit to three at 65-62 with 1:28 to go, but Boise State hit six of seven free throws down the stretch to hang on to the lead.  Freshman forward Ryan Watkins was key for the Broncos.  Averaging less than six points per game, he finished with 18 points and eight rebounds.

"We finished better in the second half; we had a good effort against a very good team," Simmons said.  "But Boise State is a very physical team, and they hit their shots.  I told our guys in the locker room that I was very proud of them tonight, and all season for that matter."

Miami 81, Missouri State 72 (NIT)
MIAMI, Fla. -- A 14-point effort in the first 4 minutes, 17 seconds of the second half by Miami's Adrian Thomas erased a six-point Missouri State halftime lead and helped the home standing Hurricanes (21-14) to an 81-72 victory over the Bears (26-9) here Monday in the NIT second round.

Thomas' run gave Miami a 47-39 lead with 15:43 to go in the game as part of a 28-7 run for the home club which moves on to play Alabama in the quarterfinals Wednesday.  He finished with 16 points and Durand Scott led Miami with 20.

The Bears would fall behind by as many as 13 in the second half, but rallied late behind the hot-shooting hand of senior Adam Leonard who had a career-high seven three-pointers and team-high 26 points.  His long-range bomb with 7:17 to go made it a 61-56 game, but Miami got to the foul line 24 times in the second half which proved to be too much.

Kyle Weems finished with 18 points for Missouri State, which won 26 games for just the third time in school history.

MSU finished 25-for-66 (.379) from the field and 13-of-29 (.448) from bonus range, a season high in makes and attempts. MSU got to the free throw line just four times in the second half and made 9-of-15 (.600) for the game.

Miami was 26-for-52 (.500) from the field and 8-of-22 (.364) from three. The 'Canes were 21-of-24 (.875) at the free throw line, all in the second half. Malcolm Grant added 10 points for Miami, while Reggie Johnson had 9 points and 9 boards.