ST. LOUIS — Jim Les appreciated each and every one of the 31 points that Bradley guard Sam Maniscalco scored in Friday's Missouri Valley tournament win over Creighton.

But the Braves' coach was even more delighted about his team's defensive effort that limited the Bluejays to 21 field goals and 31.8 percent shooting.

“I thought in the previous two meetings, we didn't put our best foot forward like we can defensively,'' Les said. “These guys were challenged, and whenever they are challenged, they respond.''

Creighton scored 73 and 82 points in winning regular-season games against the Braves. The Bluejays shot 43.3 percent from the field in a five-point January victory in Peoria and 51 percent in Saturday's 11-point win in Omaha.

Friday, Creighton made 12 of 33 two-point attempts and 9 of 33 3-point shots in its season-low shooting performance. The 33 shots from behind the arc were on shy of the school record for 3-point attempts.

When a young reporter asked why Creighton continued to launch 3-pointers when it wasn't connecting, coach Dana Altman replied, “Well, my man, we were 12 of 33 inside. So if you do the math, we were more productive on the 3-point line. But I agree, we took way too many 3s.''

Altman later apologized for the out-of-character sarcastic reply.

“We didn't score very well either way,'' he said. “You never want to take 33 3s but we weren't scoring inside, either. We just weren't good offensively.''

Some recent offensive improvement in a three-game winning streak fueled hope that the Bluejays might be capable of making a run at the tournament title. Creighton had shot 48.3, 49.2 and 51 percent in wins over Loyola, Southern Illinois and Bradley.

With the exception of Kenny Lawson, who made 7 of 13 field-goal attempts, no Bluejay converted half of his shots against Bradley's changing defensive schemes. The Braves combined man-to-man defense with 1-3-1 and 2-3 zones to disrupt the Bluejays.

“We felt comfortable coming in shooting the ball, but the zone made us stand up,'' Creighton forward Justin Carter said. “And we settled (for 3s) too much.''

Reserves fall short

Creighton came out on the short end of a number of specialty statistics. The Bluejays were outscored 28-18 in the paint, 19-8 off turnovers and 17-9 in bench points.

Senior guard Cavel Witter was the only Creighton reserve to score. The other four reserves that played — Wayne Runnels, Kaleb Korver, Darryl Ashford and Casey Harriman — combined to go 0 of 8 from the field.

“We (usually) can count on our bench,'' Altman said. “We just really struggled off the bench today.''

Creighton's starting five of Carter, Kenny Lawson, Antoine Young, Ethan Wragge and Josh Jones played together a total of 13 minutes and one second, which was a season high for a non-overtime game. Creighton outscored Bradley 28-16 when its starters were in the game. All other lineup combinations were outscored 65-34 in the remaining 26:59.

Although the reserves were outscored by eight Friday, it was an improvement over Saturday against the Braves. Bradley owned a 44-15 edge in bench scoring in the 82-71 loss, with Taylor Brown accounting for 27 points.

Not done yet?

Altman and Bruce Rasmussen, Creighton's athletic director, indicated the Bluejays would be open to playing in either the Collegiate Basketball Invitational or the CollegeInsider.com Invitational Tournament.

Young indicated the players would be in favor of extending the season, too.

“If it's a pickup game, we're playing,'' Young said. “This is what we do for a living. We love this game, and after a game like that one, you can't wait to get back out there.''

The CBI and CIT will issue invitations a week from Sunday after the 97 spots in the NCAA and National Invitation Tournament fields are set.

Uniform change

Bradley wore all-black uniforms for perhaps only the second time in school history. The first came last month in a home game against Illinois State, and that happened because of a special exemption from the university president.

Bradley officials have disapproved of the basic-black look, although the players seem to like it.

“Coach surprised us,'' Bradley guard Andrew Warren said. “We only brought our red and white when we went to breakfast this morning. So thank you, coach, for allowing us to wear these. Hopefully, we can keep wearing them with the win today.''

Aware that a certain segment of the Bradley community is against the all-black uniforms, Les tread carefully when discussing the issue after the game.

“We're not trying to change our colors, OK?'' said Les, a former Bradley player. “I'm entrenched in this tradition as much as anybody else. I believe in Bradley red and white, but if we've got to mix in black for a little motivator, I guess that's OK.

“I don't care if we wear short shorts, as long as they play.''

Bits and pieces

Wragge made three 3-point baskets, extending his streak of making at least one shot from beyond the arc to 18 games. That's the longest current streak by a Valley player and a school record for a freshman . . . Lawson recorded his seventh double-double by scoring 17 points and grabbing 13 rebounds. That tied him with Rodney Buford for the most double-doubles in a season in Altman's 16 years as head coach .. . . Carter also had a double-double, the first of his career, with 10 points and 13 rebounds. The 13 rebounds were the second most of his career and the most by a Bluejay player in the tournament since Anthony Tolliver grabbed 13 in the 2007 championship game . . . Maniscalco's 31 points were the most in a Valley tournament game since Creighton guard Nate Funk scored 33 against Missouri State in 2007 . . . The Bluejays' 39-38 advantage in rebounding included 21 offensive boards. Creighton got 19 second-chance points, just five more than Bradley, which had 13 offensive rebounds. “We had a lot of offensive rebounds where we adjusted our shots instead of getting to the (free-throw) line,'' Altman said . . . Creighton never trailed in their regular-season wins over Bradley. The Braves didn't get their first lead against the Bluejays until Warren scored with 59 seconds remaining in the first half.

—Steven Pivovar

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