ISU vs
Creighton
February 21st
7:05 p.m.


ISU defeated 2nd place Creighton 80-67 on a night where the 6 Redbird seniors were honored before and after the game.The seniors(Dan Muller,LeRoy Watkins,Jamar Smiley,Rob Gibbons,Skipp Schaefbaur and Steve Hansell) were recognized before the game along with their parents and were each given the microphone and allowed to address the crowd after the victory.The victory gave the Redbirds the outright Missouri Valley Conference title for the second straight year.If ISU wins the MVC tournament they would become the first team in Missouri Valley history to be back-to-back tournament champions and back-to-back outright regular season champions.The victory also gave ISU its 4th straight 20 win season.They are now 20-5 and 15-2 in the MVC,3 games ahead of Creighton.

The Redbirds left no doubt as to which team is the best in the league this year.Dan Muller nailed a 3 pointer on the first play of the game and the Birds never looked back.They connected on 12 of their first 16 shots from the field as they raced out to a 30-11 lead in the first 12 minutes of the game.At one point during that stretch the Birds scored 15 unanswered points which ended with the Birds up 23-6.Outside of a 7 point run from Creighton on a 3 pointer and 2 buckets off of ISU turnovers the Blue Jays never threatened ISU all night long.ISU coasted to a 48-33 half time lead.

Dan Muller posted another excellent defensive game holding the MVC's 2nd leading scorer Rodney Buford to 9 points,10 below his average.He had only 4 with 10 minutes to go in the game.The MVC's most over-rated player(according to those Peoria experts) also scored 15 points,grabbed 5 rebounds,had 3 assists,2 blocked shots,1 steal and 0 turnovers in 34 minutes on action.(I bet Molinari would hate to have someone like that on his team)That performance should aid in earning Dan MVC Defensive Player of the Year and Probably a First Team All-MVC pick.

If Rico Hill didn't secure MVC Player of the Year honors tonight the media should no longer be allowed to vote.The game pitted the MVC's two best in Hill(19.0 ppg,8.0 rpg) and Buford(18.9 ppg,7.5 rpg).Rico who was limited in playing time tonight and did not start because it was senior night definently had the upper hand.He finished with a team high 21 points,a team high 9 rebounds,1 assist and 1 steal in 30 minutes of action.Rico was 2-4 from three point land,7-14 from the field and 5-5 from the free throw line.Buford finished with 9 points on 4-12 shooting and grabbed 9 boards.Buford also played 30 minutes.

All of the seniors contributed well to the victory.Skipp Schaefbaur finished with 11 points,5 rebounds,3 assists and a team high 4 steals.Skipp's first 3 pointer of the game was his 150th career 3 as a Redbird.Skipp also made his first 2 pointer since late December.Jamar Smiley scored 10 points,grabbed 3 rebounds,3 steals and a team high 7 assists.LeRoy Watkins chipped in 9 points,grabbed 8 boards, blocked 2 shots and had 1 steal.He also had a monster putback dunk off of a missed shot by Rico. Steve Hansell didn't score from the field but still played a solid game.He scored 4 points on free throws,had 3 assists and 3 rebounds.Rob Gibbons Finished with 8 points,1 rebound and 1 blocked shot.Rob had a nice dunk in transition off of a Jamar Smiley pass.He also had a dunk waved off when the ref called him for basket interferance as he tried to slam home a missed shot by Muller.The call was questionable.

CREIGHTON (67)
                      fg    ft    rb
               min   m-a   m-a   o-t  a pf   tp
Buford          30  4-12   0-0   3-9  1  2    9
Mungin          20   2-3   2-2   1-3  0  1    6
Templeman       17   1-2   1-2   0-1  1  2    3
Sears           27  5-12   3-4   2-4  1  2   17
Walker          24   3-7   2-4   6-8  1  2    8
West            12   1-2   0-0   0-1  3  2    2
Brandon         26  3-12   0-1   4-5  3  3    8
Kolder           1   0-2   0-0   0-1  0  0    0
Bates            3   0-2   0-0   0-1  0  0    0
Swenson         20   3-9   1-1   1-2  0  4    7
Haynes          20   3-9   1-2   0-0  0  1    7
_______________________________________________
TOTALS         200 25-72 10-16 17-35 10 19   67
_______________________________________________

Percentages: FG-.347, FT-.625. 3-Point Goals: 7-25, .280 (Buford 1-2, Sears 4-10, West 0-1, Brandon 2-7, Kolder 0-2, Swenson 0-2, Haynes 0-1). Team rebounds: 6. Blocked shots: 3 (Swenson 2, Mungin). Turnovers: 19 (Swenson 4, Brandon 3, Buford 3, Mungin 3, Templeman 2, Walker 2, Sears). Steals: 12 (Brandon 4, Haynes 3, Sears 2, Buford, Kolder, Walker).

ILLINOIS ST (80) fg ft rb min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp Hansell 17 0-3 4-4 2-3 3 3 4 Muller 34 6-10 0-1 0-5 3 0 15 Watkins 22 3-4 3-6 2-8 0 4 9 Schaefbauer 26 4-10 0-2 2-5 3 1 11 Smiley 26 3-5 3-4 0-3 7 2 10 Holmstrom 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 0 0 Stotler 2 1-2 0-0 0-1 0 0 2 Pierson 6 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 0 Cartmill 12 0-1 0-0 0-0 1 1 0 Crowley 1 0-0 0-0 0-1 0 0 0 Hein 2 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 vanVelzen 2 0-1 0-0 0-1 0 0 0 Gibbons 19 3-8 2-2 0-1 0 0 8 Hill 30 7-14 5-5 3-9 1 2 21 _______________________________________________ TOTALS 200 27-58 17-24 9-37 19 14 80 _______________________________________________

Percentages: FG-.466, FT-.708. 3-Point Goals: 9-18, .500 (Hansell 0-2, Muller 3-5, Schaefbauer 3-5, Smiley 1-1, Cartmill 0-1, Hill 2-4). Team rebounds: 3. Blocked shots: 5 (Muller 2, Watkins 2, Gibbons). Turnovers: 19 (Smiley 6, Watkins 3, Cartmill 2, Hill 2, Gibbons, Hansell, Pierson, Schaefbauer, Stotler, vanVelzen). Steals: 11 (Schaefbauer 4, Smiley 3, Cartmill, Hill, Muller, Watkins). __________________________________ Creighton 33 34 - 67 Illinois St 48 32 - 80 __________________________________ Technical fouls: None. Attendance: 10,044. Officials:Jerry Seibert, Eric Harmon, JD Collins.