OMAHA, Neb. _ The University of Central Arkansas Bears dug themselves a 28-point hole midway through the first half before falling 104-77 to the Creighton Blue Jays on Friday night in front of a crowd of 18,160 at CenturyLink Center.

    The Bears (0-1) settled down and played the Blue Jays (1-0) nearly even in the second half, scoring 43 points and making 8 of 14 from three-point range. UCA finished 11 of 24 from beyond the arc, with freshman guard Jordan Howard going 4 of 9 and junior guard Mike Martin 3 of 4. The Bears had four players in double figures, led by Howard with 19 points. Freshman forward Boo Milligan added 18 points and a team-high 8 rebounds.

    The Blue Jays have now won 17 of its last 18 season openers and improved its home record to 162-25 at CenturyLink Center.

    "Coming in here, gosh, I don't know how many people are going to come in here and win,' said UCA first-year head coach Russ Pennell. "But I thought we competed hard, especially the last 12 minutes or so. I thought the last 10 minutes, when (Creighton Coach) Greg (McDermott) went to his bench and started playing his freshmen, our freshmen looked pretty good. 

    "I just think it's going to be a little bit this way early on, trying to figure things out. But I thought some guys had some pretty good games. I told our guys, 77 points is enough to win. But you have to play better defense than what we're doing. I just didn't think our defense was up to par and to what I expect.'



    The Big East Blue Jays, who have been to the NCAA Tournament four of the past five seasons, shot 48.6 percent from the field for the game and made 25 of 30 from the free-throw line (83.3 percent). UCA rebounded with 53.8 percent from the field in the second half after struggling at 40 percent in the first 20 minutes.
  
    "They do a great job, particulary (guards) Austin Chatman and Devin Brooks, of just keeping the pressure on you,' said Pennell. "And that's one of the things we trying to get with Mike and Jordan in our transition game. I think sometimes we take the pressure off the defense because we pull the ball up.

    "But I think tonight's going to be a great teaching tool for us, and not just watching ourselves but in watching Creighton and the way they play. They're pretty simple, they're pretty vanilla. But they are really good at what they do.'



    The Bears made more three-pointers than one of the most prolific perimeter shooting teams in the nation a year ago. Creighton finished 9 of 26 from beyond the arc. Milligan was 2 of 3 from three-point range and was 7 of 9 overall.

    "I hated that he got in foul trouble early in the second half,' Pennell said, "because he had it going. I thought the foul situation kind of broke his rhythm a little bit. But I liked the fact that he came off the bench and he knew what we needed. We needed some energy. And I think his first two buckets he got were offensive rebounds.'

    The Blue Jays had 18 offensive rebounds to UCA's six. Six players scored in double figures for Creighton, led by Rick Kreklow with 18 points. Isaiah Zierden added 16 points off the bench and 6-foot-11 center Will Artino scored 14 and had a game-high 10 rebounds.

    "I'm not real happy right now with our rebounding and our transition defense,' Pennell said. "And I think we're better at those things than we showed tonight. A lot of times I looked up and Jake (Zuilhof) was the only guy battling on the glass, and that's unacceptable. We have to correct that. 

    "I'm not upset with our overall effort, but I thought the attention to detail is what is will take for us to improve, and to improve quickly.'

    The Bears continue their three-game road trip against Nebraska-Omaha at 4 p.m. Sunday.