TERRE HAUTE, Ind. - Rashad Reed scored a season-high 18 points as Indiana State secured a key early season Missouri Valley Conference victory over the visiting Creighton Bluejays, 70-64, in front of 4,017 fans on New Year's Day inside Hulman Center.

ISU improves to 9-4, 1-1 MVC with the victory while Creighton dropped to 5-8, 0-2 MVC. ISU is now 2-1 in MVC home openers under third-year head coach Kevin McKenna and ran ISU's home court Valley winning streak to three. ISU also earned at least a split in its first two MVC contests for the fifth consecutive season.

Reed paced the Sycamores with his 18 points, which tops the 16 he posted against Milwaukee during the NIT Season Tipoff. Reed was 7-of-14 from the field and hit a pair of 3-pointers as well.

Lathan finished the game with 13 points which put him in double figures scoring for the 11th time which is a team-best. He has now scored at least 10 points in each of the last six Sycamore contests. Marshall used a late-game bucket to finish with 10 points.

With the victory, McKenna picked up his second win as Sycamore head coach versus his alma mater in five attempts.

Creighton battled back from a seven point halftime deficit to knot the contest at 41 with 16:11 left in the game. The Bluejays would not take the lead though as Dwayne Lathan hit a free throw for a 42-41 advantage.

ISU's defense forced a key stop and Jordan Printy kept things swaying back in the favor of the Sycamores with a 3-pointer for a four point advantage. ISU would grow the cushion back out to five points on a pair of free throws by Lathan to make it 46-41.

The Sycamores led by as many as eight points in the first half, and took a seven point advantage on a Carl Richard free throw with 12 minutes to go. Harry Marshall gave ISU its biggest lead of the contest, 55-45 with 10 and a half minutes to go on a 3-pointer.

Creighton would not go away as they put together a 8-2 run over the next three minutes to inch closer at 58-54 on a pair of charity tosses by Cavel Witter with eight and a half to go.

Indiana State stemmed the tide on a lay-up by Aaron Carter for a 60-54 lead. Wayne Runnels answered with a pair of free throws to get the 'Jays back within four points, 60-56 as the clock ticked towards eight minutes remaining.

After Creighton cut the Indiana State lead down to four points again at 63-59, the Sycamores were able to get the advantage back out to 63-57 on a lay-up by Rashad Reed with five minutes left in the contest. Leitnaker added a free throw with just over four minutes to go to make it 64-57.

ISU's lead went to 66-57 with three and a half to go on a driving lay-up by Marshall and following a Bluejay score, Leitnaker converted another free throw for a 67-59 advantage with three minutes left.

Creighton scored the next four points to cut it down to 67-63 but Lathan countered with a pair of free throws to make it 69-63 with 30 seconds left. Both teams added a free throw in the final 25 seconds as ISU won 70-64.

The Sycamores took control of a close contest in the final eight minutes of the first half, leading by a 35-26 count in the final minute. Creighton added a free throw late yield the halftime score of 34-27.

Indiana State forced just nine turnovers in the contest, but made the most of them as they scored 13 points off those miscues. Creighton was able to muster just three points off of ISU's eight turnovers, its lowest this year since committing six in the season opener against Nebraska-Kearney.

ISU made a living at the free throw line in a game that saw 45 fouls whistled between the two teams. The Sycamores were 25-of-34 at the stripe while Creighton was 19-of-28. ISU barely outshot the 'Jays, hitting 20-of-53 shots from the field (37.7 percent) while Creighton was 21-of-56 (37.5 percent).

Indiana State returns to action on Sunday, January 3 when they travel to Drake. Tip-off is set for 7:05 p.m. (ET).

Creighton at Indiana State
Friday, Jan. 1, 2010
Postgame Press Conference Quotes

Indiana State Head Coach Kevin McKenna
Opening Statement
“I thought our guys, from start to finish, competed pretty well. Neither team shot the ball extremely well – 37 percent both ways. I think the difference is we got to the free throw line a little bit more. That was one of the things we tried to do. We were trying to control the tempo a little bit and not cave in to their full-court pressure. For the most part, I thought we did that, and then we just hung on at the end. Our guys made enough plays. Despite not having Jake Kelly for the game, I thought some other guys stepped up. Rashad (Reed) played a little better than he had been playing recently, and Aaron Carter gave us a big boost, too. Aaron got to the free throw line a few times, gave us a layup, gave us some energy. We just hung on to win.”

On displaying composure after Creighton's early second-half run
“I think the composure and the poise – we talk with our guys about keeping that together. It helps when you have senior guards like Rashad Reed and Harry Marshall and a heady, smart player like Jordan Printy. They are guys who have been through this with us now. We've had some disappointing losses – and Southern (Illinois) was a disappointing loss – but we bounced back. We bounced back at practice and had two good days of practice. We play how we practice. We were prepared for this game, and the guys did a good job of executing what we were trying to do.”

On ISU's style of play
“The nature of our team is that we are a grind-it-out kind of team. I don't think we're this high-flying, 90-point scoring team. But I don't think we're a slow-down team either. We're somewhere in between where we can play fast at times, we can execute at times, and that's where we need to be with our team. I'd still like to see our assists go up a little bit more, but it seems like we made more plays for each other. We did get to the free throw line, and that was one of our points of emphasis for our guys.”

On Creighton's defensive pressure
“Their pressure is different. They change it up, so you have to be on your toes. I thought our guys did a good job. It helps when you have senior guards organizing and communicating on the floor, especially in the second half when a lot of the action is down at the other end.”

On bouncing back from the loss of Jake Kelly
“The first time we got our group together that first practice without Jake, I told them our expectations have not changed one bit about where this season is going and where we're headed. We still expect to compete. We still expect to be at the top. We expect to fight and scratch and claw our way to as many wins as we possibly can, with or without Jake. If somebody else goes down, I'm going to look them all in the eye and say the same thing's going to happen. That's the way you have to play. Unfortunately, Jake got hurt. He's out for the year, and it's a bad deal for everybody. He has good support around here with his family and his teammates and his coaches. We have great doctors who will take care of him, and he will get back to 100 percent. We're just going to without him for a while. While that happens, somebody else will have to step up.”

On Creighton
“P'Allen (Stinnett) had 19 points, but he earned them. We were on him a lot. He hit some tough shots. He got loose a couple of times and stepped through a couple of times. He's as talented an offensive player as there is in our league, and he's a first-team preseason all-conference player. He's going to score some points.

“Kenny Lawson is an experienced player now. He's in his third year in the program. He's had some 25-point games and 20-point games. We mixed it up on him. We doubled him some; we let him go on some. I thought we got him out of rhythm a little bit where he just always didn't know what he was going to have coming at him. Our guys did a good job of following some gameplan things we were trying to do.”

Senior guard Rashad Reed
On the tenor of today's win
“I thought we did a good job not panicking on the pressure coming in. We had a lot of pressure on us the whole game, and I thought everybody did a good job of breaking the press and getting into our offense well. I thought everybody played decent for the most part. I thought people stepped up. Jake (Kelly) is not here, so other people had to step up and score and defend. I also thought we defended well, which got us the victory.”

On his scoring effort with 18 points
“Early, I was really just trying to take shots that I get and get other people shots. When Jake went down, that's 11 points we're missing, so somebody has to step up. I was just taking shots that I thought I could hit. Teammates were finding me, and I was trying to knock down shots.”

On limiting turnovers
“Eight turnovers might be the lowest we've had all year. Against a team that pressured us the whole time, I think that's decent. We probably could have had more assists, but eight turnovers -- I think any coach would take that any night. I think it was a good team effort.”

Sophomore guard Dwayne Lathan
On opposing team's runs
“That's just basketball. Teams are going to make runs. Southern made a run the last game in the second half…and we panicked. We started turning the ball over. You just have to know that they're going to make runs. We just have to bounce back and make ours, and that's what we did tonight.”

On ISU needing today's win
“Southern Illinois – that was a heartbreaker, especially when we had the game going into halftime, and we came out like we did. We really just came together and knew we couldn't let that happen again. We have to fight harder and harder in practice and everything. As long as everybody works hard and we do what we're doing and we stay as a family, we should be all right. That's just the biggest thing for us right now – staying together and working hard and playing like we played tonight.”

Creighton Head Coach Dana Altman
Opening Statement
“We're disappointed. We just haven't been able to put a game together. Obviously the free throws down the stretch have been our Achilles heel, and that's been a problem. I like the way we started the second half. We got our selves back in the game, and they made a little run, and we came back at them again. I thought our fight was good, but we just didn't make the plays when we had to make them, defensively or offensively. It was a close game down to the end. Kevin (McKenna) got his team to hit a few free throws and make a few plays, and we didn't do it.”

On close games
 “We've had a lot of three-, four-, five-point games that we've lost, and the formula has been the same for all of them. We had a chance to keep it close or keep it tight with free throws, and we did not do it. We had an opportunity to get a couple of defensive stops, and we did not do it. We held them to 37 percent; our defensive effort was not bad. I thought we did some good things defensively. We just didn't do enough of them. The situation was close, but close isn't good enough.”

On pressuring Indiana State
“We're not creating the turnovers. I think we had one steal at halftime. We're just not getting our hands on balls, and that's either a little hesitation or effort, whatever the case may be. We're just not making plays. I'm not sure how to get us going. A lot of our energy is generated by little stretches, little runs. To do that, you have to hit some threes and get that press going and get them on their heels a little bit. We just haven't been able to get anybody on their heels.”

On varying the starting lineup
“We're going to keep trying different things. I just don't feel like we have anything to lose. I think a big part of our problem is the consistency factor. I don't know who to go to. No one has differentiated themselves in practice enough for me to rule anyone out or to go with somebody. I'm giving everybody an opportunity, and hopefully somebody will step up. We haven't had the consistency that we want. It's been very difficult in my position to decide who's going to play.”