Creighton's emphasis on beefing up its pressure defense paid some dividends in Wednesday's 94-69 exhibition win over Missouri Western.

The Bluejays forced 22 turnovers, including one that triggered an early 14-2 run that put the Griffons in a 17-4 hole. Casey Harriman scored on a layup, then stole an inbounds pass, made another layup and was fouled. His sank the free throw to finish off the five-point surge in seconds.

“We've been working on our green (full-court) press a lot,'' Harriman said. “The last couple years, it hasn't had the bite in it that we'd like it to have. That's been one of our focuses, getting it back so that we can just torment teams.''

Missouri Western had at least one other turnover directly off an inbounds pass and at least five more that were attributable to backcourt pressure by the Bluejays. More importantly, coach Dana Altman said, the pressure took its toll on the Griffons.

“Turnovers are one thing, but I think it also wore on them a little bit,'' he said. “I thought overall we were active in our press but that we weren't very disciplined at times.''

Stinnett unconcerned about not starting

Harriman started the game, along with Kenny Lawson, Kaleb Korver, Justin Carter and Antoine Young. Junior guard P'Allen Stinnett came off the bench to score 20 points in 20 minutes.

Stinnett, who has started all but three games since midway through the 2007-08 season, said he had no problems with not being on the court for the opening tip.

“It's exhibition,'' he said. “I know when the time comes what the lineup is going to be. No worries at all.''

Carter's 22 minutes were a team high, while Wayne Runnels saw 21 minutes of action and Stinnett, Korver and Darryl Ashford played 20 minutes each.

Bluejays' unleash 3-point attack

Creighton attempted almost as many 3-point shots (31) as it did 2-point attempts (33). The Bluejays made 13 (41.9 percent), with seven different players sinking at least one shot from beyond the arc.

“You play to your strengths, and that's one of our strengths,'' Altman said. “We have to be careful about not taking too many but we're going to take a lot of 3s. It's a big part of our offense.''

Ashford made 4 of 5 shots from beyond the arc in scoring 16 points, while Stinnett, Harriman and Cavel Witter each made two.

“Any guy you see open,'' Harriman said, “you know he's going to get down an open shot. It's easy to give the ball up when you know that.''

Omaha Central's Cook will redshirt

Missouri Western coach Tom Smith said he plans to redshirt Denzel Cook, a 6-foot-4 freshman from Omaha Central. Cook is the son of Missouri Western's all-time leading scorer Arthur Cook, a former standout player at Omaha Tech.

“Denzel has a really, really high basketball IQ,'' Smith said. “He really understands the game. I really like him and he probably would have played a little bit for us this year but we've chose to redshirt him.''

The decision was a tough one for Smith, entering his 35th season of collegiate coaching.

“I'm at the age that when I redshirt somebody,'' Smith said, “I might not be around to see them finish.''

— Steven Pivovar