St. Louis, MO -- Johnny Mathies tied for game-high honors with 14 points as the Creighton Bluejays earned an automatic berth into the upcoming NCAA Tournament by winning the Missouri Valley Conference championship with a 75-57 victory over the Southwest Missouri State Bears at the Savvis Center.

Mathies went 5-of-14 from the floor and added five assists for Creighton (23-10,) which won the conference tourney for a record ninth time.

Dane Watts also scored 14 points to go along with four rebounds, while Jimmy Motz hit four three-pointers for 12 points for the Bluejays, who had four other players score eight points.

Leading the Bears (18-12,) who entered as the fifth seed, was Deke Thompson with 14 points on 5-of-9 shooting. The only other SMS player to reach double figures was Anthony Shavies with 10 points.

Creighton started the game stroking its outside jumpers, hitting 6-of-10 three pointers en route to a 24-15 advantage a little less than 10 minutes into the game.

After SMS responded with a 13-4 burst to tie the game 28-28 with a little more than four minutes left in the half, the Bluejays answered with a 10-4 run to head into the locker room leading 38-32.

Creighton shot 45 percent from the field in the first half, hitting 8-of-14 three-pointers.

The Bluejays continued to front run for the first 13 minutes of the second half, but a three-point play by Tamarr Maclin pulled SMS to within 52-50 with about seven minutes to play.

It was all Creighton from that point on as the Bluejays responded with an 8-0 run capped by back-to-back three-pointers by Tyler McKinney and Motz that staked the Bluejays to a 60-50 advantage with 3:51 on the clock.

Creighton ran off 15 of the next 23 points as SMS never seriously threatened again.

The Bluejays finished the game 12-of-25 from three-point distance (48 percent,) while the Bears hit just 3-of-12 shots (25 percent) from behind the arc. SMS also had 14 turnovers, which led to 12 Creighton points.

Coming in as the third seed, Creighton followed a bye in the first round with victories over Illinois State and Wichita State to earn a berth in the final.

SMS earned a date in the tourney final with wins over Northern Iowa and Southern Illinois.

Game Notes:

The Bluejays improved to 31-15 in the MVC Tournament all-time...Creighton's last title came in 2003...The Bears claimed their one and only title in 1992 by beating Tulsa 71-68...SMS is now 21-14 all-time in the conference tournament...These teams are tied 21-21 in the all-time series against each other.