Creighton rolls to exhibition win

[Harry]

There was nothing about Mary that left Creighton feeling overconfident Friday night as it moved within a week of opening its season.

Sure, the Bluejays outshot, outrebounded and, for the most part, outhustled their Division II opponent from Bismarck, N.D., in posting an 89-51 exhibition game victory at the CenturyLink Center.

But everyone on the Creighton side knew the Marauders bore little resemblance to the North Texas team that will show up Friday to tip off the season against the Bluejays.

“The little I’ve seen of North Texas, they’re very, very talented and very, very athletic,” Creighton coach Greg McDermott said. “They’re going to pose some problems that I don’t think we’ve seen in our scrimmage against Iowa or tonight.

“Part of those are difficult to simulate in practice, because we don’t have a guy who is 6-9 and has a 40-inch vertical jump like Tony Mitchell. It’s going to be a challenge, and North Texas may very well be one of the more talented teams we play in the nonconference.”

The University of Mary also didn’t have anyone 6-foot-9 with a 40-inch vertical. The Marauders’ tallest players were a trio of 6-6 guys. And athletic isn’t a description that often will be used to size up a squad picked to finish 14th in its 16-team conference.

But former Bluejay Jevin Budde got his team to play hard for 40 minutes, which is exactly what Creighton wanted from its only exhibition-game opponent. After losing the first half 61-21, Mary outscored the Bluejays 30-28 in the final 20 minutes.

“We got off to kind of a shaky start, but then put together a big run and were clicking,” Creighton forward Doug McDermott said. “In the second half, we could have done a much better job. They beat us by two in the second half, and we have to improve there.”

Read more: http://www.omaha.com/article/20121102/BLUEJAYS/711029853/1707