Sports – Men’s – Page 25

Jays Win the 2008 Las Vegas Classic.

Steady performance holds Blue Demons at bay…Woodfox MVP.

Champions
2008 Las Vegas Classic

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to Jays fans everywhere. The Creighton Bluejays traveled to Sin City to play in the exempt Las Vegas Classic, at the Orleans Arena this week. Behind a steady and balanced team effort, the Bluejays defeated two opponents on consecutive days to win the tourney championship. On Monday the Jays defeated a scrappy Fresno State squad 84-65 in the semi-finals. They followed that performance by holding off a determined and talented DePaul team 83-75 on Tuesday, and in doing so claimed the LVC Tournament Championship. Creighton’s senior shooting guard Booker Woodfox was named the Las Vegas Classic MVP. Creighton has won a total of 9 inseason tournaments during the Altman tenure.

DePaul made a game of it by hitting nearly 50% of their shots, aided by a tremendous offensive rebounding advantage, 16 to 7 over CU. They won the overall rebounding battles 42-28 over the Jays, with Mac Koshwal snagging 22 rebounds. CU’s defense consistently forced the Blue Demons into turning over the ball (18) and outscored DePaul 27-8 in points off TOs, which tended to balance things out. However, the winning margin of difference proved to be at the free throw line. The Jays were money, hitting 18 of 19 FTs (94.7%), including 6 FTs in the last half minute to seal the win, while the Blue Demons shot 13 of 24 (54.2%) from the line. Dar Tucker led all scorers with 32 points, while Booker Woodfox led the Jays with 26 points.

Las Vegas Classic MVP – Booker Woodfox

Overall a very good showing out West by the Bluejays enroute to the classics’ championship. Way to play Jays!

Creighton begins MVC play with a home date against the Wichita State Shockers this Sunday, 28 Dec 2008.

Bluejay Basketball – End of the Non-Conference Season.
Frequent Flyer Milestone 1

Week Six of the Season – a Bye week.

At 8-2 the Jays appear on schedule. Should do well next week at the culmination of the Las Vegas Classic and finish the nonconference slate with a 10-2 or 9-3 record. A very good showing for the nonconference portion of the season, as only the folks who OD’ed on the Blue Kool-aid (gtmo) predicted a better record to this point.

Missouri Valley Conference Forecast – Part 1

The opening 3 weeks of MVC play should be challenging as the Jays will have a 2 game road swing to the ISU’s (31Dec & 03Jan) and a date @ Bradley on 10Jan. In fact 4 of the first 7 seven conference games are on the road. Week 3 has the Jays facing WSU on the 17th of Jan, followed by a Week 4 date @ Evansville immediately following on 20 January.

I see the Jays posting an 8-1 record for the 1st half of MVC Play (ending after the Drake date @ the Qwest) on 24 Jan 09. Only blemish is a road loss at either ISU-R or at Bradley.

In fact the only home stand of significant length is the 8-day, 3 game run from Saturday, 24 Jan through Sunday 01 Feb 09, featuring games with Drake, ISU-B, and MSU.

Only 15 more weeks left in the season…