Creighton Men Get Past NDSU, 75-60

OMAHA, Neb. -- Creighton's Greg McDermott celebrated his 1,000th game as a head coach by leading his Bluejays to a 75-60 win over visiting North Dakota on Wednesday night in Omaha.

Creighton is now 3-1 on the young season, while North Dakota had a two-game win streak snapped to drop to 2-4.

The Bluejays fell into an early 15-10 hole before Blake Harper sparked a 14-0 run that gave the Jays the lead for good at 24-15. Harper drained two three-pointers as part of a personal 8-0 run. Jasen Green followed with a dunk and lay-ups from Fedor Zugic and Josh Dix capped the early knockout blow. UND never got within seven points the rest of the night.

Harper had 15 of his season-high 19 points in the first half as the Bluejays owned a 47-36 lead at the break. The sophomore from Washington, D.C., also led the Jays with 12 rebounds for his fifth career double-double and first by any Bluejay this season.

The CU lead hovered between 9-16 points for the first 10 minutes of the second half, and the Fighting Hawks forced a Bluejay timeout after lay-up trimmed CU's lead to 62-54 with 7:27 left. CU countered with a 9-2 run, including five from Owen Freeman, to hold off an upset-minded North Dakota squad.

In addition to Harper's 19 points and 12 rebounds,  Dix had a season-high 16 points and  Freeman had 13 points, eight rebounds, three blocks and three steals on 6-for-6 shooting. CU shot 41.3 percent from the field and made 21.1 percent in 38 attempts from three-point range. The Jays also made 15-of-25 free throws on the evening.

North Dakota was led by 14 points from Marley Curtis and 13 more from Greyson Uelmen. The Fighting Hawks shot 38.3 percent from the field, made 6-of-18 three-pointers (33.3 percent) and drained 8-of-11 free throws. UND's seven steals were a season-low.

Creighton returns to action on Monday when it opens play at 1 p.m. Central against Baylor at the GEICO Players Era Men's Championship in Las Vegas, Nev.