The Creighton women’s basketball team needed a little something from everyone on Tuesday night in Brookings, South Dakota. With three starters fouled out, including preseason Big East player of the year Marissa Janning, the Bluejay reserves made big shots time and time again down the stretch to hold off South Dakota State, 88-81, at Frost Arena, where the Jackrabbits had won 22 straight home games dating back almost two years.
“It wasn’t that long ago that I was in this media room talking about how hard it is to win here, and today was no exception,” Creighton head coach Jim Flanery said. “I said on the radio we played pretty in the first half and we played gritty in the second half.”
The Bluejays got off to a better start in their second game of the season, putting scores together in three like only a Jim Flanery coached team can. Brianna Rollerson got the Jays on the board first with an offensive rebound and putback while drawing a foul. She converted the free throw to put Creighton up 3-0 almost two minutes into the game. South Dakota State would score on their next three possessions, but Creighton answered from beyond the arc each time as MC McGrory, Sammy Jensen, and Marissa Janning all buried long range bombs to push the Bluejay lead to 12-7 with 15:46 left in the first half.
Creighton’s Marissa Janning (WBR/Adam Streur)
Janning would start to take over as the half progressed, finding McGrory for another three-pointer to extend the lead to 25-17 before hitting another one of her own on the next possession when McGrory returned the favor with an assist to give the Bluejays a 28-20 lead with 6:59 remaining in the half. Janning would score on a layup a few trips down the floor later to give her 10 points and push her past former teammate and current coach Carli Tritz on Creighton’s all-time scoring list.
South Dakota State didn’t give the Bluejays any time to rest on that accomplishment as they trimmed the deficit down to four points at 32-28 with 4:47 left in the first half. Flanery, hoping to avoid a repeat of the 28-0 run the Jackrabbits pulled off in the last meeting between the two schools, called a quick timeout before the final media break to settle down his team. The Bluejays responded by rattling off a 15-3 run to end the half, the final eight of those points being scored by Janning. The 2013-14 Big East POY finished the half with 18 points and four assists to help send Creighton into the locker room with a 47-31 lead over the Jackrabbits.
“In the first half I think we were really emphasizing that toughness, that kind of tough team that Flan wanted us to be,” Janning said. “We were diving on the floor. That was definitely the definition of how your defense generates your offense. You get that good feeling on defense that you’re working hard, you’re getting stops, you’re getting deflections, you’re getting rebounds, and then you go down and you hit a bunch of shots. Usually other teams go on that kind of run on us, and we finally got that. We found our niche and what we need to do to play, and I think that was really exciting.”
The excitement didn’t last long once the second half started. South Dakota State, with every starter standing at least 6-feet tall, attacked the Creighton defense in the paint. They chipped away at the 16-point deficit with layups and free throws, cutting the Bluejay lead in half in just three minutes after a free throw by Mariah Clarin made it 48-40.
“Our kids were a little giddy at halftime with a 16-point lead,” Flanery said.
A three-pointer by Taylor Johnson pushed the lead back to double digits and started a sequence of tests for the Bluejays in the second half. Each one became more daunting, but each one was answered by a different player. A few minutes after Johnson’s three-pointer, SDSU’s Kerri Young got open and buried a trifecta of her own to make it 55-50 with 12:20.
Answer: Creighton sophomore guard Lauren Works realizing at the last second that the shot clock was about to expire, fired one up from about 25 feet away and buried it to push the lead back to eight.
A couple minutes later two free throws by Megan Waytashek cut the Bluejay lead down to 60-54.
Answer: A driving layup by Marissa Janning and a successful trip to the charity stripe by true freshman Sydney Lambert made a double digit advantage again for Creighton with just under 10 minutes remaining.
Over the next four minutes the Jackrabbits went on a 14-6 run, capped off by two free throws by Clarissa Ober who was fouled on a loose ball by Marissa Janning. It was Janning’s fifth personal foul meaning the end of her night with 5:47 still left on the clock and Creighton clinging to a 70-68 lead.
Answer: A turnaround jumper by Brianna Rollerson drew a foul on Ober much to the dismay of most of the 1,821 fans in attendance. She sank both free throws. Then, Alexis Akin-Otiko blocked a shot on the ensuing defensive possession before knocking down a three-pointer the next trip down the floor to make it 75-68 Bluejays with 4:55 to go.
On the Jackrabbits’ next possession, Ober again drew a foul on the Bluejays. This time she was on the receiving end of Rollerson’s fifth and final foul. Ober made both free throws make it a five-point game as the game entered the final stretch.
Creighton’s MC McGrory (WBR/Adam Streur)
Answer: A pair of free throws by Akin-Otiko followed up by McGrory chasing down her own miss on the following possession, handing it off to Lamberty who negotiated a ball screen just off the top of the key, rose up and buried a three-pointer to make it 80-70 with 3:20 remaining.
Sixteen seconds later Akin-Otiko picked up her fifth foul, leading to two free throws by Macy Miller. SDSU scored down low on their next possession to cut it to 80-74. The Bluejays were now without three starters, who had combined to score 43 points on the evening, and trying to protect a six-point lead on the road with 2:17 left to play.
Answer: McGrory. The sophomore point guard put the team on her back, scoring seven of the Bluejays’ final eight points of the contest. She went 5-for-8 from the charity stripe over the final minute and change to seal the 88-81 victory and finish with 13 points, five rebounds, four assists, two steals, and no turnovers in 31 minutes.
“We wanted to run the clock down, so we were moving the ball. Without Marissa, Bri, or Lex on the floor I’m the person that needs to be aggressive and look to score,” McGrory said of her play down the stretch. “I was just looking to make something happen.”
Aside from the pride that comes from ending an opponent’s long home-court winning streak, this game meant a lot to this group of Bluejays. First and foremost, according to Taylor Johnson, it avoids an 0-2 start with Utah and Connecticut on the schedule to close out the week.
“We want every game to be a must-win game, because each game is going to help us get closer to the NCAA Tournament,” Johnson said. “After Wichita we realized we gotta kick it in gear and compete each and every game.”
The second reason this win meant a lot was because of the “revenge factor.” Last year in the second round of the WNIT, the Jackrabbits ended the careers of Creighton six seniors who had laid the ground work for a new standard of sustained success in the Creighton women’s basketball program. Almost eight months removed from that bitter 62-51 defeat, Johnson wasn’t shy about how sweet it felt to get some payback for those seniors and the rest of the returning players.
“It feels great. I just missed being on the floor and being able to contribute,” she said. “We were telling stories about how much we wanted revenge for them ending our season, and we wanted to end their home streak, so it was great revenge.”
With the win the Bluejays improve to 1-1 on the young season and will get a hard earned day off before making their 2014-15 home debut against Utah on Thursday. Tip-off is set for 7:05 p.m. at D.J. Sokol Arena, and will be part of the Big East’s effort to raise money for The Cure Starts Now Foundation, which is dedicated to finding a cure for brainstem glioma, a cancerous tumor that 75% of the time is found in children and young adults under the age of 20.
Creighton University will donate $1 for every ticket sold to the home game against Utah.