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When: Saturday, March 1, at 2pm Central
Where: Al McGuire Center
Audio/Visual: FOX SPORTS 1, Y'ALL. Live stats will be here.
Special Promotions: It's Senior Day, so Marquette will be honoring the careers of Katherine Plouffe, Katie Young, and Courtney Thomas. Bringing a new/gently used pair of shoes to donate to Soles For Jesus will get you two tickets for the price of one! Also: All sorts of prizes for students throughout the game!
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteWBB
Katie Young's hot shooting and tenacious rebounding bought Marquette some time on Wednesday night. The Golden Eagles rallied from a 23 point first half deficit to end up with a fairly simple 13 point win against St. John's, and thus raised the stakes for today's game against Creighton, which comes into the day tied for second place in the Big East. As of last Monday, ESPN's Charlie Creme had the Red Storm as a #7 seed in his Bracketology, while Creighton was slotted as the first team out. Since then, Creighton popped Seton Hall in the nose, so if Marquette can build on their win against SJU and pick up the win today, things are looking very shiny for the Golden Eagles hopes at returning to the NCAA tournament for the first time since the current seniors were just freshmen.
Marquette being able to carve most of that 23 point margin away with Katherine Plouffe on the bench was almost more luck than anything else. The native of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, averages 17 points and 10 rebounds for the Golden Eagles, ranking her third in the Big East in both categories. While Chelsie Butler was able to provide more than capable relief for the foul plagued Plouffe in Queens, Marquette's best shot at beating the Bluejays comes with Plouffe on the court.
The biggest reason why? The Big East's best scorer plays for Creighton. Marissa Janning averages 18.1 ppg, and also ranks eighth in the league in assists, first in free throw percentage, and fourth in three point percentage. All of this while for the sophomore while also compiling the league's third highest minutes per game average. Senior forward Sarah Nelson leads the Bluejays in rebounding at 8.1 per game, eighth best average in the league, although she still trails both Plouffe and Young. Nelson also has the team lead in assists, just barely edging out Janning. Keep one eye on McKenzie Fujan, as both she and Janning are tied with Seton Hall's Tabatha Richardson-Smith for the Big East's highest single game point total this season 38.