Non-Starter: #25 Creighton 68, Marquette 42

7-0.

Seven to nothing favoring #25 Creighton in the first 2 minutes and 34 seconds on Sunday afternoon in Omaha. Based on how the thing ended just over 37 minutes later, that’s where the game was decided. Marquette Golden Eagles women’s basketball didn’t get out of the gate at all for the fourth time in the last five games, and just like the previous four, it ended in a loss. The final: Creighton 68, Marquette 42. The Golden Eagles are now 10-6 on the year and 3-4 in Big East play.

Rose Nkumu scored in transition for Marquette to cut Creighton’s lead to 12-6. The Bluejays scored the next eight points through the end of the first quarter, and then tacked on a three-pointer from Kennedy Townsend nearly 90 seconds into the second period. Marquette didn’t score again until the 7:02 mark of the frame, which means the Golden Eagles’ offense went to sleep for nearly seven straight minutes. By the time it woke up again — and I use that term loosely since MU scored just six more points in the quarter — they were trailing by 17 and the lead would never go back to single digits.

The closest Marquette got in the second after that was 14 and they went into the locker room trailing by 21. Jordan King scored to open the third quarter, Rachael Saunders hit a three for Creighton’s first points of the second half with 7:47 to go, and that was it for MU being within 20 points for the rest of the game.

The end.

This Marquette team was ranked in the Associated Press top 25 earlier this season. They’re just 4-5 since that poll was released, and MU has lost four of their last five games, all because they just did not have what it takes to start the game. I don’t know what the solution is — junior forward Liza Karlen missing this game and a lot of future games with a mouth injury that has her out indefinitely is not helping — but Marquette’s shot at an NCAA tournament bid is very much in danger at this point of the season if they do not figure out how to start games better than they have since December 21st.

There are, in theory, highlights thanks to GoMarquette.com and FloSports.

Up Next: It’s probably a good thing that Marquette has most of the next week off. They won’t be back in action until next Saturday, which gives them a lot of time to figure out exactly what the hell is going wrong. They’ll also be back at home after playing three straight road games, so that’s good news as is the opponent. Providence is 10-8 overall but just 1-6 in Big East play this season. The Friars lost 76-60 at home to Seton Hall on Sunday, and they’ll host 0-7 in the league Xavier mid-week before coming to Milwaukee.