The Creighton Bluejays women’s basketball team dropped its third Big East game in a row on Friday night in a 65-61 loss to Villanova at D.J. Sokol Arena. The Wildcats used key runs at the start of both halves and never trailed in the contest to improve to 8-7 on the season as well as 3-1 and in a four-way tie atop the Big East standings.
“I thought we played pretty well, except for the last three or four minutes,” Villanova head coach Harry Perretta said. “The middle of the second half we played like an experienced team and we were able to get easy shots and open up the lead.”
Villanova started the game on a 12-0 run before an elbow jumper by Sydney Lamberty got the Bluejays on the board. After a 3-pointer by Wildcat forward Lauren Burford put Villanova up 17-9, Creighton star guard Marissa Janning keyed a 7-0 run for the Bluejays to get her team within a point. The run started with a pick and roll resulting in Janning finding freshman forward Kylie Brown cutting towards the basket for a layup. Janning then drove and laid one in off the glass before hitting a 3-pointer from the right wing to make it 17-16 with 8:13 left to play in the opening half.
Creighton got the game to within one point on three other occasions after that, but Villanova had the answer each time. The last of the half came on a 3-pointer by Kendall Burton to make it 31-27 with just over a minute play. Wildcat point guard Caroline Coyer buried a long jumper along the left baseline just before the first half buzzer sounded to send Villanova to the locker room with a 33-29 lead.
Coyer had five points and four assists in 18 minutes to lead Villanova in the first half. For Creighton, Marissa Janning dropped in seven points and dished out six assists in her 18 minutes of action in the first half. Both guards had only one turnover between the two of them in the first half.
In the second half both teams traded runs that seemed to shift the momentum each time as they headed towards a wild ending. Leading 45-34 with 15:02 remaining, Villanova watched as Creighton sophomore center Brianna Rollerson scored six points as part of an 8-2 run that cut their lead to 47-42 with 12:10 to go.
Villanova responded with a 14-4 run that drained almost eight minutes off the game clock. The Wildcats made it a low possession game with the lead and executed well enough to build it patiently.
“I thought it was tremendous,” Perretta said. “For that stretch of time we looked like the teams from a few years ago. We looked experienced. We did have one freshman out there, but we had her out there with four experienced players. That’s Villanova basketball when we can play it well. When had really good teams that’s the way you used to win games. We would just frustrate you and make all different kinds of cuts and reads.”
Trying to avoid a third straight loss, the Bluejays dialed up some full court pressure to try and speed up the Wildcats and hopefully get some turnovers — it worked. Creighton forced three turnovers on Villanova’s next seven possessions and Marissa Janning drove it to the basket at will, scoring eight points to go along with a 3-pointer by Tessa Leytem and just like that Villanova’s 15-point lead was down to 63-59 with under a minute remaining.
“We were just trying to get some deflections and kind of rattle them on offense,” Creighton junior guard Marissa Janning said. “They don’t turn the ball over much, so I think we were just trying to force it out of their hands. They’re really really good at taking care of the ball.”
Creighton forced the third turnover with 20 seconds to go and senior forward Alexis Akin-Otiko made it a two-point when she rebounded a missed layup by Janning and scored off the glass. Leading 63-61 with 14 seconds left, the Wildcats threw the ball in and dribble 10 seconds off the clock before Janning fouled Villanova’s Alex Louin to stop the clock. Louin hit both free throws to secure the victory for the visitors.
Point guard Caroline Coyer led Villanova with 17 points, seven rebounds, and six assists in the victory. For the Bluejays, Marissa Janning put in 15 points and tied her career-high with eight assists.
It wasn’t just another loss for Creighton, which is now 0-3 in 2015, but it was another close loss that the players and head coach Jim Flanery felt could’ve had a different result if the Jays had communicated better on the defensive end.
“We’ve lost three games in the last eight days by a total of ten points, so obviously we’re close,” Flanery said. “Our kids competed, the problem is we’re going to have a lot of close games and we’re playing just enough youth that we struggle to be the type of 40-minute team that I want us to be. Bottom line is the beginning of the game and the beginning of the second half we put ourselves in holes both places.
“The reason is we’re just not good enough defensively. Teams are consistently shooting too high a percentage and it’s because we aren’t good enough as a communication team and when you play a Villanova you have to be a really good communication team. Especially with our level of experience, or lack of experience. I asked [the players] several times, ‘What happened?’ and they said, ‘I didn’t talk.’ Well, I said ‘you’re going to have to be a great communication team and you’re going to have to be a great talking team tonight.’ I told them not to come to practice tomorrow and tell me you wanted to win that game if you’re going to talk better than you’re doing right now.”
Janning said the losses of redshirt junior forward Taylor Johnson and senior point guard Sammy Jensen to season-ending injuries are bigger blows than most think because of the leadership and experience they each provide, but it’s also no excuse for the players who are healthy to not do the things that need to be done.
“Losing Sam and T.J., I mean T.J. was here tonight, Sam was not, and in one of the timeouts Flan said, ‘Sam would be really disappointed in you.’ We lost a really good leader,” Janning said. “Yeah, she’s on the bench, but she’s not on the floor. That kills us. You might not have seen it in the stat sheet, but Sam was one of the best leaders I’ve ever played with. T.J. I haven’t played with her as much, but even she sees stuff that I don’t see in games. I think that’s important and it’s nice to have their voices there, but it’s not the same as having them on the floor. If those two were out there, being seniors, their mouths would be running. They’d be communicating.
“We’re a young team and it’s something we’re going to have to get used to, but it’s still not an excuse. Being a freshman, there’s no reason you can’t open your mouth. Or me being a junior, I need to open my mouth and I didn’t at times where I needed to.”
Creighton (8-8, 1-4 Big East) will get back on the practice floor in the morning to get ready to host St. John’s (12-3, 3-1 Big East) on Sunday afternoon. The Red Storm also fell on Friday night, losing at home to Butler. Tip-off for the Bluejays and Red Storm is set for 1:05 p.m. at D.J. Sokol Arena.