Marks' 35 keys Boise St. upset of No. 11 Creighton

(AP Photo/Nati Harnik)

By ERIC OLSON

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) This time, Boise State finished the job.

After nearly winning on the road at Michigan State last week, the Broncos pulled the biggest upset in program history Wednesday night with their 83-70 victory over No. 11 Creighton.

Derrick Marks scored 28 of his career-high 35 points in the second half, bettering the 24 he had in the 74-70 loss to the 13th-ranked Spartans.

"We came in here knowing we'd have to play our `A' game to be with them," Boise State coach Leon Rice said. "Where the Michigan State game helped us is we played really good for 36 minutes and put ourselves in position and didn't finish. We went back and spent some time watching that film in the last two days before we came out here and kind of analyzed our mistakes."

The Broncos (5-1) beat a ranked opponent for the first time in four seasons and on the road for the first time since March 2005.

Marks scored 18 straight points for his team during a 10-minute stretch, allowing the Broncos to hold leads of eight to 12 points most of the second half.

"My teammates just kept on telling me to drive, so I listened to them, and I was getting layups," Marks said.

Rice, sitting next to Marks, laughed. "I don't think they were exactly layups," he said.

Marks scored eight straight field goals using a mix of penetrating moves to the basket, pull-up jumpers and runners.

The sophomore guard was 13 of 19 for the game, 10 of 15 in the second half.

"I recall a few times I threw him the ball and I was already back at halfcourt getting ready for defense," teammate Jeff Elorriaga said. "That's a special thing to watch when someone is just kind of taking over the game. It's fun to watch and, hey, he had the hot hand. Keep going to him, feed him."

Creighton (6-1) hadn't lost a regular-season November home game since 1989.

"Congrats to Boise State," Bluejays coach Greg McDermott said. "We didn't play poorly offensively. We just had no answer for them on the defensive end of the floor. I thought they outhustled us, I thought they communicated better than we did. If you're watching that game tonight, it was obvious who the better team was tonight, and it wasn't us."

Anthony Drmic had 17 points and Elorriaga added 12 for the Broncos, who are picked to finish eighth in the Mountain West.

"We don't want to be defined by the win in November," Rice said. "Hey, it was a great win against the 11th-ranked team in the country and a tough place to play, and they played their tails off and I'm so proud of them. But we have to get a lot better to compete in our league."

Doug McDermott led Creighton with 21 points and Grant Gibbs added a season-high 17.

Boise State led 39-33 after shooting 64 percent from the field in the first half. The Broncos made seven straight 3-pointers and were 9 of 13 from beyond the arc in the first 20 minutes, with Elorriaga making 4 of 5.

The Broncos were 1 of 6 on 3s after halftime, preferring to let Marks do his thing on dribble drives.

"We want our guys to love the rim and like the 3," Rice said. "The first half we were really loving the 3, including myself. I was kind of loving it when they were going in."

Creighton got within five points in the last 3 minutes, but Drmic scored twice and Marks made four free throws to seal the Broncos' first win over a ranked opponent since they beat Utah State in February 2009.

The Broncos had come into the game having lost 18 of 19 on the road against ranked teams, with the lone win against Nevada in March 2005.

Creighton came in with all six of its wins by double figures, and the Bluejays were impressive in weekend wins over Wisconsin and Arizona State in Las Vegas.

Boise State was better from start to finish Wednesday against the highest ranked opponent it had faced since playing No. 9 Washington State in November 2007.

McDermott, who scored 30 points against Wisconsin and 29 against Arizona State, made 7 of 11 shots, including 4 of 5 3-pointers.

But Gregory Echenique, the Bluejays' strong man inside, managed only nine points and three rebounds. Ethan Wragge, who had been shooting 58 percent from 3-point range, was 1 of 5 from beyond the arc.

"They got off to that hot start early and never really looked back," Doug McDermott said. "They were on fire. We have to be able to get a hand in their face better, and we were just giving them way too many open looks. They came in and played a great ball game. Just got to move on."

Updated November 28, 2012