Marquette Women’s Basketball Could Not Complete the Comeback Against Creighton

The Marquette Golden Eagles came back from 11 points down and nine entering the fourth quarter, but could not maintain their two-point advantage in the final seconds of the game and fell 74-73 to Creighton. The loss snaps their 16 game win streak at the Al McGuire Center. MU falls to 9-3 in Big East play with the loss and drops to second place after DePaul won both of their games over the weekend.

You cannot make an incredible comeback effort and then give up an and-1 with 2 seconds on the clock. Can’t can’t can’t can’t can’t. In no circumstances do you foul the shooter with the clock winding down. At the very worst, they make the shot and the game goes to overtime. Though it seemed like a tough call for Erika Davenport who had her hands straight up as Audrey Faber drove into the lane and put up the shot. You can be the judge of that. Below are the highlights:

Allazia Blockton had the chance to win the game but her tough shot at the buzzer was just a little long. It was a heart-breaker at the end, especially after Blockton had just drilled a baseline jumper just seconds earlier to put the Golden Eagles up two. Marquette could have easily avoided the late-game situation if they would have played better basketball the first three quarters. They shot well below their season average in the first and third quarters only making 6 of 15 and 7 of 18 shots respectively. MU finished at 42% for the game. And get this...they only shot 11% from behind the arc hitting just two of their eighteen 3-pointers in the game. Yikes. Meanwhile, Creighton shot 66% and 69% in the middle two quarters finishing up at 52% for the game. As an added bonus, they hit 43% of their threes going 7-16 from distance.

Erika Davenport led all scorers for Marquette with 23 points and 10 boards. This marks her seventh double-double this season. Allazia Blockton also had a good game, scoring 20 points. If you were keeping track, that does put her in the top 10 all-time scorers for Marquette as she passes Katherine Plouffe’s 1,551 career points. Next on the list is Arlesia Morse’s 1,577 career points. Aside from Davenport and Blockton, two other MU players just barely recorded double-digit points with Danielle King and Amani Wilborn scoring 11 and 10 each. Curiously, this is the second straight game where both Natisha Hiedeman and Allazia Blockton have been left out of the starting lineup, as well as the second straight for Davenport, but she wasn’t dressed to play against Providence. Not quite sure what coach Carolyn Kieger’s reason is for this change but I can’t say I fully understand it, Especially with Allazia Blockton being in the running for the Anne Meyers Drysdale Award.

Four different Bluejays hit double-digit points against the Golden Eagles. Leading the way was Sydney Lamberty who totaled 18 points on an impressive 7-11 shooting and snagged eight boards. Audrey Faber also shot the ball well hitting 7 of her 15 shots en route to her 16 points. Temi Cardi came off the bench and scored 13 while Jaylyn Agnew rounds out the list with her 12 points. Creighton just played a better all-around game than Marquette and were awarded with the free throw in the end that gave them the victory.

It was an impressive comeback effort for the Golden Eagles but the reality of the fact is that they are now one game back of DePaul with six left to play. Similar to the men’s team, they really cannot afford to lose another game this season. The difference being that the men’s team is fighting for a tournament bid, while the Lady Eagles are hoping to win the regular season title. Villanova is on their heels at 8-4 in conference play and Creighton is right behind the Wildcats at 8-5. Also, Marquette has to hope DePaul loses a game down the stretch to have any chance at the regular season title. Anything can happen, of course, but that is a lot to hope for.

Up Next: Marquette will travel to Cincinnati to play Xavier next Friday. The Musketeers (9-15, 2-11 Big East) are tied with Providence at the bottom of the standings and have lost five straight games. Cannot, under any circumstances, lose to Xavier.