Creighton women’s basketball (13-3, 5-0 Big East) survives Marquette’s (10-5, 2-2 Big East) comeback behind a hot shooting night from downtown. The Bluejays outlasted the Golden Eagles, 71-68 thanks to a miss in the waning seconds of the game Wednesday night at D.J. Sokol Arena.
Comeback falls short
Marquette finished the game on a 6-0 run and a 14-3 extended run after facing deficits of 45-30 and 68-54 by holding Creighton to 0-for-7 from the field to end the game.
Jaidynn Mason attempted a game-tying three-pointer with 9 seconds left that fell just short.
The Golden Eagles showed tremendous toughness on the road versus one of the Big East’s best. The more Marquette trailed by, the harder and more disciplined it was.
Offensive Output
Partly due to bad luck (Creighton shooting well), Marquette’s defense had a subpar game.
In the defense’s absence, the offense stepped up and had a terrific game. Jaidynn Mason took her game to the next level, dropping 18 points on 7-of-15 shooting.
Skylar Forbes added 13 points on 5-for-10 from the field. Perkins scored 8 points, and Vice contributed 7 points.
Marquette had 15 assists on 28 makes, and the Golden Eagles out-rebounded Creighton 29-24
Shooting
Before today, Marquette held opponents to 27.3 percent from behind the arc this season. Creighton barraged MU from deep, shooting 14-for-26 (53.8%).
Part of that was unlucky for the Golden Eagles as Creighton made some tough, contested triples.
The other looks were unguarded shots, mostly in transition, off Golden Eagle turnovers where Creighton beat Marquette down the floor.
Creighton was 26-for-57 (45.6%) from the field. This marks the first-time all-season Marquette has given up better than 45% field goal percentage to an opponent.
Marquette shot the ball well, too, going 28-for-50 (56%), which is 13% higher than its season average of 43%. The Golden Eagles also knocked down some triples 5-for-13 (38.5%).
Turnovers
Marquette struggled to take care of the ball. It had 15 first-half turnovers and 19 for the game. Those giveaways led to 24 Creighton points, 19 of which were in the first half.
The early turnover bug got the Golden Eagles behind the eight-ball. Marquette was playing catch-up after a 37-26 halftime deficit.
Creighton ranks fifth nationally in turnovers per game, averaging 11.3, but Marquette forced 12 Creighton turnovers and scored 13 points of Bluejay turnovers.
Seniors Shine
Lee Volker led the Golden Eagles with 19 points on 8-of-11 from the floor. For most of the game, she also guarded Creighton’s leading scorer, Lauren Jensen (17.9 PPG).
Jensen had 17 points but on an inefficient 7-for-19 shooting. Volker held Jensen to just three points in the first half. In the second half, Jensen hit a few key jumpers to extend the Bluejays lead.
Morgan Maly was the star for the Jays, scoring 28 points on an eye-catching 10-for-11 and 8-of-9 from beyond the arc. Maly set a new career high with eight made treys.
Next up
Marquette returns to Milwaukee to face Villanova (7-8, 2-2 Big East) in the Al McGuire Center on Saturday, January 11th at 2 PM CST.
This story was written by Max Mullin. He can be reached at maxwell.mullin@marquette.edu or on Twitter/X @MullinMax