All the way back on December 13, Creighton and Marquette hooked up in the Al McGuire Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin for a top 25 showdown to kick-off conference play in the Big East. In that matchup, neither team held more than one-possession lead in the second half until the Golden Eagles pulled away in the last 90 seconds for a 76-70 win. Exactly seven weeks later to the day, they met up for the rematch in Omaha, and much like the first contest, neither team get more than two possessions clear of the other for 35 of the final 36 minutes as Creighton’s defense and clutch playmaking down the stretch helped them earn a 76-71 win at D.J. Sokol Arena on Wednesday night to split the regular season series with the Golden Eagles while at the same time closing out the month of January on a seven-game winning streak to improve to 17-3 overall and 8-2 in Big East play.
Marquette senior forward Liza Karlen led all players with 29 points on 13-of-21 shooting. Senior forward Morgan Maly carried Creighton offensively with a team-high 21 points on 8-of-14 shooting. Sophomore guard Mackenzie Hare was the only player in double figures for the Golden Eagles with 17 points, while seniors Lauren Jensen (19) and Molly Mogensen (11) combined to produce 30 points, nine rebounds, and seven assists out of the Bluejays’ backcourt, including some clutch shot-making from the perimeter and the free throw line down the stretch.
Although one coach went home happy while the other was disappointed, neither could summarize the night without celebrating the level of play that was once again put on display on the court over the course of 40 minutes.
“I thought it was a great college basketball game tonight,” Marquette head coach Megan Duffy said. “Just a great crowd here at Creighton and two really, really good teams going at it. [This matchup] has been fun. Creighton’s seniors have been here a long time, and we have a core group with Rose [Nkumu] and Jordan [King] and Liza [Karlen]. They’ve played against each other a lot. When you know each other’s system, it becomes about who can do it a little bit better … but yeah, it’s awesome. This is what our league has been all about, matchups like this, and if people are watching it’s two great teams that are going to hopefully be playing deep into March.”
“I thought it was a really good basketball game,” Creighton head coach Jim Flanery added. “We had to earn [the win]. We have a lot of respect for Marquette and the way that they play. They’re gritty and they’re skilled, so you don’t beat them easily. I thought we played pretty well in the first half, and we were down three in our own building. That’s a tribute to how good they are, but we hung together. We had a lot of people that did things at different points that flipped the game back in our favor, and we had another strong fourth quarter defensively … heck of a win. I’m really happy with that one.”
Mogensen got the Bluejays off to a fast start from the opening tip. She hit Jensen for a kickout three and Maly on a post feed for a layup before knocking down a pull-up jumper of her own in the lane to build a 9-2 lead and force Duffy to burn a timeout three minutes into the first quarter. The Golden Eagles steadied themselves with big-time shots, an increasingly efficient offensive attack, and a physicality defensively that was hellbent on preventing Creighton’s guards from feeding All-Big East forwards Emma Ronsiek and Morgan Maly in the mid-post where they are so lethal as scorers and decision-makers. Trailing 15-10 with 4:28 left in the opening period, Marquette held the Bluejays scoreless for six consecutive possessions, and nearly made it seven before senior guard Jayme Horan caught an airballed three by Jensen and spun around for a tear-drop bucket just before the buzzer to give CU a 17-16 lead after one quarter of play.
The Golden Eagles scored on the first six possessions of the second quarter — starting with a catch and shoot three by Mackenzie Hare followed by five straight buckets from Liza Karlen — to take a 29-27 lead with 5:57 remaining before halftime. Maly and former Creighton recruit Rose Nkumu traded a pair of tough threes over the next three minutes to set up a 35-35 ball game before Hare nailed another 3-pointer and scored inside off the glass in the final 90 seconds of the half to send her team to the locker room with a 40-37 lead at the break.
The third quarter was a wild affair that featured three ties and two lead changes. Creighton started it much like the started the first half with a fallaway jumper in the lane by Maly and a left-handed driving layup by Jensen to take a 41-40 lead on their first two possessions of third quarter. But Karlen kept cooking for Marquette to help the Golden Eagles build their largest lead of the game at 51-45 with 4:06 left in the period. The Bluejays needed a response, and they got it started by going outside the “Big 3” of Ronsiek, Jensen, and Maly. Mogensen sparked the rally with a nice read on a weakside cut for a reverse layup. Horan added to it by stepping into a three in transition at the top of the key. Karlen’s second made three of the game pushed the lead back to four before Emma Ronsiek finally got on the scoreboard with a pair of free throws and game-tying layup with 1:20 left in the third quarter to shake off a 0-for-7 start from the field.
That brought the crowd of 1,321 to its feet with rally towels waving above their heads and making as much as noise as that arena has heard for a women’s basketball game all season. Marquette fifth-year senior Jordan King momentarily halted Creighton’s momentum with a tough, well-defended, fadeaway jumper from just inside the arc in the deep corner in front of her bench. That gave the Golden Eagles a 56-54 lead heading to the fourth quarter, but they couldn’t hold it for very long as Ronsiek scored five more points off offensive rebounds sandwiched around a layup and a tough, turnaround jumper in the lane by Jensen to fuel a 9-2 run to start the final period and keep the crowd juiced for the stretch run. The Jays fed off the fans and the fans fed off the Jays, regardless of what Marquette did.
“There was a lot of energy in the building, it was fun,” Jensen said. “It was reciprocal. They would get loud and then we would make plays and then they’d sustain [that energy]. Marquette would respond and the fans still stayed loud. It never got super quiet in there even when Marquette would make buckets. The crowd was great.”
The Golden Eagles got within three on a pair of free throws by Hare with 5:59 to go, but 25 seconds later, Mogensen toed the 3-point line, caught a drive-and-kick pass from Jensen, and took and made her only 3-point shot attempt of the night to give CU a 66-60 lead.
“I was just ready to shoot it,” said senior out of Minnesota, who also finished with six assists and five rebounds to go along with her 11 points over a full 40 minutes. “Lauren made a good play and I was shot ready.”
Creighton went 8-for-10 at the free throw line — including a perfect 6-for-6 from Jensen — over the final six possessions of the game to salt away their seventh victory in a row and 10th over the last 11 games since the loss at Marquette in the conference-opener. The Jays held MU to 15 points on 18 possessions in the fourth quarter, limiting them to 38.5% shooting from the floor and only one offensive rebound, which didn’t come until there was 7.8 seconds left in the game.
“We were really connected tonight,” Mogensen said. “We locked in defensively. We knew that they were going to come trying to shoot threes like they were in the first half, but we locked in and played as a team … it was a mentality thing. They got a lot of [offensive] boards tonight, but we came out of a timeout and [assistant coach Jordann Reese] was telling us that we needed to lock in on those defensive rebounds and we really did that in the fourth quarter.”
Creighton’s fourth quarter defense has been trending in a positive direction over the past three games. At Georgetown, they were tied 55-55 after three. On Sunday, they lead Seton Hall 47-43. And on this night, they were down two to Marquette. They ended up beating the Hoyas and Golden Eagles by five and the Pirates by eight. All together, they held GU, SHU, and MU to 0.72 points per possession and 28.9% shooting overall in the final 10 minutes of play. Proving that they can close the show with more than just the shot-making that has garnered the most acclaim.
“I think it’s good for our team identity and confidence,” Morgan Maly said. “It also probably makes Flan and coaches happy that we’ve started to put things together defensively and show that we can win games in that way as the year has progressed. People think of our offense, but I think we have a pretty good defense as well.”
Lauren Jensen echoed Maly’s sentiment because for as much as made shots get the glory and buckets fill the reels, another deep run in March might be tied more to their ability to get stops on the other end of the floor.
“Our offense is going to be our offense,” Jensen said. “We’re experienced, we have a lot of seniors, and we know that we are going to get our shots. But to be the team that we know we can be, and go far in the postseason, we know that we need to defend. The last few games we’ve done well at that. We’ve defended and we’ve rebounded. It’s exciting. Now we just have to keep building on it.”
That process continues with a stretch upcoming that will see Creighton play four of its first five games in the month of February away from home starting with a trip to Butler on Sunday afternoon and Xavier two nights later. The Bluejays and Bulldogs are scheduled for a 1:00 p.m. central time tip-off from Hinkle Fieldhouse on Sunday, February 4. That game, as well as the one against the Musketeers, will be streamed live on Flo Sports.