Coming in sporting a four-game losing streak, three of which saw them blow double-digit leads, the Creighton women’s basketball put their foot on the gas from the opening tip and never let up in their 69-46 win against crosstown rival Nebraska-Omaha.
Creighton rode a strong start defensively to build a big lead that their opponents could not recover from. The Bluejays latched onto the Mavericks from end line to end line and forced them to miss 17 of their first 18 shots as they opened up a 17-3 lead with 8:05 remaining in the first half.
“UNO is young and they are very structured, so we wanted to be disruptive in the full court and press them as much as we can,” Creighton head coach Jim Flanery said. “My philosophy is if you play a team that you can press — who is super structured — then you want to press. That’s why we used the bench a little bit more. The other thing it does is it shortens the clock, so that they can’t get all the way through if they’ve got three progressions within their offense, they won’t have the kind of time. I thought that was big.”
UNO got the game back within single digits when freshman center Caroline Hogue capped off a 10-5 run with a 3-pointer to cut Creighton’s lead to 22-13 with 4:33 left in the second quarter. Instead of letting the wheels fall off as they have in their three previous road games against Kansas, Nebraska, and Utah, Creighton freshman forward Audrey Faber landed some timely counter punches for the Bluejays when she broke out of an 0-for-5 start to the game by hitting 3-pointers on consecutive possessions to put her team up 28-13 with under two minutes to go in the opening half.
Sophomore forward Bailey Norby and senior guard Tessa Leytem converted layups to help the Bluejays close the quarters on a 10-3 run and take a 32-16 lead into the locker room. Norby scored each of her career-high 10 points in the first half.
“Bailey was really good early,” Flanery said. “She really helped us get off to a good start, because through the first 15 minutes we didn’t shoot it great other than her.”
With junior center Brianna Rollerson still sidelined with a broken foot, the coaching staff was looking for someone to step up in spurts to help fill the void. That was on the second-year post player’s mind throughout the last week of practice and the first half against the Mavericks.
“I think things are clicking now,” Norby said. “I’m working on my outside game a lot more and getting the confidence to actually shoot it and seeing the ball go in it’s a big confidence booster. Knowing that I have to make up for so many more points and so many more rebounds without Bri in there is crucial for our team.”
The third quarter belonged to Audrey Faber. While the Bluejays were still making it difficult for UNO to find open looks, they’re leading scorer carried over her sharpshooting from the end of the first half. She scored hit five of the six shots she attempted in the third quarter, scoring 12 of her game-high 21 point in the period to send Creighton to the fourth quarter with a 53-32 lead.
Along with her 21 points, she also chipped in five assists, four rebounds, three blocked shots, and a steal in her 29 minutes on the court. Most of her assists came against UNO’s zone defense. Faber initiated Creighton’s offense from the foul line area in the middle of the zone and picked it apart when the Mavericks went to it. The Bluejays shot 40.9% from the field for the game, but they finished with 19 assists on 27 field goals, and only turned the ball over eight times, thanks in large part to Faber’s decision-making.
“She’s very comfortable at the foul line,” Flanery said of his star newcomer. “That’s a nice thing to have. I feel like one of the things that can be undersold is the value of having somebody — either a bigger guard or a small post — who is really comfortable in the foul line area of a zone is pretty important, and she does a good job of playing at the right speed. Typically when you play against a zone, and you play the foul line area, the tendency is to think that people are surrounding you and you try to make a decision quicker than you need to. I think it’s hard to find people who play at the tempo that you need to, and have the footwork to be able to make good decisions.”
“I think that was key. You look at Audrey’s assist numbers, they’re very good, and a lot of times that’s the ability to catch the ball at the foul line, assess, take a breath without thinking I have to make a decision right away, and then find the open player. To me the one thing that a lot of teams undervalue is the ability to hit to the foul line against a zone. To me the ability to do that is huge, especially with a team that shoots it as well as we do. If we didn’t shoot it as well as we do it probably wouldn’t matter as much, but when we shoot it with the number of people that we do that foul line area is a real value.”
The Bluejays rested most of the starters in the fourth quarter, but still managed to outscore UNO in the period to wrap up the win. Junior guard MC McGrory joined Faber and Norby in double figures, finishing with 11 points to go along with five rebounds and three steals in 28 minutes of action. Though her perimeter shot was still missing in action, sophomore guard Sydney Lamberty also got back on track with seven points, a season-high eight rebounds, and four assists in 28 minutes.
The win makes it 10 in a row for Creighton over Nebraska-Omaha. The Mavericks have not beaten the Bluejays since February 18, 1982. After watching a 21-point lead at Nebraska turn into a 65-63 loss back on December 6th in Lincoln, finishing as strong as they started this time around was a key against their inner-city rivals.
“We’ve seen it dwindle in front of us before. We have talked about the first five minutes of our game before, but now we are emphasizing the last ten minutes of a game,” Norby said. “To actually close a game and to know that we need to put a team away and not take them lightly, because they have nothing to lose and will try to come back on us.
“It was a big border battle for us. When we get to play Nebraska or UNO it gives us a little more chip on our shoulder. To get a road win is huge.”
All together, it was an early Christmas wish come true for Audrey Faber and company, who now have a chance — if they can get a win on Tuesday night at home against Northern Iowa — to go into Big East play riding a two-game winning streak and some renewed confidence.
“I think we’ve done a good job this week in practice of gaining confidence in each other,” Faber said. “We really had some good practices, and we had good results today from that. We need a big win to go into break. It will be a lot of momentum if we get it.”
Tip-off between the Bluejays (5-6) and Panthers (5-5) is scheduled for 6:05 p.m. at D.J. Sokol Arena.
Listen to Postgame interviews with Creighton and UNO:
Head coach Jim Flanery and Audrey Faber postgame presser:
Interview with Bailey Nordby after the game
UNO Postgame with head coach Brittany Lange
UNO Postgame with forward Mikaela Shaw
