Marquette Women’s Basketball Can’t Contain Creighton For 40 Minutes

Stop me if you’ve heard this one: Once Creighton started hitting threes, it was all over for Marquette.

That’s what happened on Friday night in Omaha as MU’s four point halftime lead evaporated as the Bluejays went 6-for-13 behind the arc in the second half for all six of their made three-pointers in the game. That ultimately led to the 72-62 win by Creighton, dropping the Golden Eagles to 0-2 in Big East play and 9-4 on the year.

Marquette got out of the gate quickly with a 9-0 run to seize the early control, but it was just 13-10 after 10 minutes, and Creighton would take a five point lead in the second quarter before MU fired back. The Golden Eagles closed the half with a 7-0 capped by a triple from Isabelle Spingola to make it a 28-24 game at the break.

At that point in the game, Creighton was 0-8 from behind the arc, which is notable because 1) they’re a good three-point shooting team and 2) they like to focus their offense through taking a bunch of threes. Here they hadn’t made a single one, and Marquette limited them to just 27% of their shots coming from behind the arc.

The second half would be a different story. 13 of their 29 shots after halftime came from behind the line, and as mentioned before, they cashed six of them. Five of them came in the third quarter, with the first coming from Jaylyn Agnew with 7:41 to go. That gave Creighton a 29-28 lead amidst a 7-0 run to start the half. The next three came on consecutive possessions for the Bluejays, as Temi Carda drilled one and Chloe Dworak went downtown on consecutive shots. That gave the Jays a five point lead as all Marquette could do was trade buckets with them, and only of the two-point variety. Agnew hit another, the fifth of the quarter for Creighton, with 1:38 to go, putting her team up 8, the same margin that the quarter ended with. That’s a 12 point turnaround from halftime, and that kind of a spin was more than Marquette could ultimately handle.

They had a chance to win, though. A 7-0 burst made it a two point game with 6:38 to play when Camryn Taylor got a bucket to drop, and Selena Lott converted an offensive rebound to knot the game at 56 with 3:35 to go. At that point, Marquette really just needed to make stops.

They didn’t. The Bluejays scored on every single possession they had the rest of the game. The dagger came from Rachael Saunders, who answered a Lott triple with one of her own as the shot clock was winding down. 34 seconds left, Jays up 4. Marquette took waaaaaaaaaaaaay too long to get to Spingola missing a three, Marquette had to foul, Agnew hit a pair, and that was that.

A trio of 12 point performances from Spingola, Lott, and Lauren Van Kleunen led the way for Marquette, and all three contributed in more ways than points. LVK had six rebounds and five assists on the day, Spingola chipped in eight rebounds, and Lott was all over the court with five rebounds and eight assists.

Up Next: Well, it’s time to literally go halfway across the country. Marquette will make the trip from Omaha to Rhode Island for their next game, which comes up Sunday afternoon when they visit Providence. The Friars are also winless in league play at 0-3 after taking an 80-67 loss at home against #16 DePaul on Friday night. Tipoff is set for noon Central on the Big East Digital Network.