Every year around this time when conference tournaments are getting underway, and conference foes are getting a third crack at each other, you hear over and over from coaches and players about how hard it is to beat a team three times in one season. That rule may not apply to the Creighton women’s basketball program. Entering Sunday’s Big East Tournament Quarterfinal game against the #2-seeded Villanova Wildcats — a team Creighton swept during the regular season — the Bluejays had won 10 of 13 all-time meetings in conference tournament games against a team they swept that season. On Sunday they improved that mark with a 57-48 victory over the Wildcats to advance to the semifinals of the 2016 Big East Tournament at McGrath-Phillips Arena in Chicago, Illinois.
“I’m obviously thrilled to get a win over a team as good as Villanova,” Creighton head coach Jim Flanery said. “Nothing is easy against them. From the first time we played Villanova when we joined the Big East I said to our team in the first scout session, this is a team that does not beat itself. It’s one you’re going to go out and you’re going to have to beat, because they don’t turn the ball over, they don’t make a lot of mistakes, and that was true today. They had five turnovers and they played really good defense. We struggled for offense a lot of the day. I think if you ask our players how tough it is to get a shot against Villanova they’ll be able to answer that, but we really fought.”
“I thought defensively in the first half we were really good. In the second half the game kind of slowed down. They played a little bit more isolation basketball, which to me helped us as a team that had played yesterday. I’m really proud of our team, our effort, our attention to how we needed to win the game.”
The Bluejays held Villanova to just 18 of 57 shooting from the field (31.6%) for the game, including an ice cold 3-of-25 from the 3-point line (12.0%). With senior point guard, and First Team All-Big East performer, Caroline Coyer sidelined with a torn ACL, the Wildcats turned the keys to their offense over to the 2016 Big East Sixth-Man of the Year in freshman Adrianna Hahn. But despite a strong three-game stretch in Coyer’s absence to end the regular season, Hahn managed only six points on 3-of-12 shooting and didn’t produce a single assist in 39 minutes of action against the Bluejays in the first Big East Tournament game of her career on Sunday.
Hahn’s struggles were due in large part to the defensive efforts of Creighton sophomore guard Sydney Lamberty, who since a season-ending injury to Marissa Janning in late November, has taken on the responsibility of guarding the opposing team’s best player.
“I thought she was unbelievable defensively on Hahn,” Flanery said. “I thought she just kept her feet and did a great job.”
Lamberty recorded the third double-double of her young career as she scored 10 points, including eight in the second half, and matched her career-high with 13 rebounds after grabbing only one in the 70-53 win over Providence in the first round on Saturday. The 13 boards set a record for most rebounds ever by a Bluejay in a single conference tournament game, but that seemed like an after thought when compared to her defense against Villanova’s point guard of the future. In the three games since entering the starting lineup for Coyer, Hahn averaged 21.3 points per game to help the Wildcats go 3-0 and clinch the #2-seed behind regular-season champion DePaul entering the tournament. She shot 46.% from the field and 46.4% from the 3-point range in those three games, but was held to 25.0% shooting and went 0-for-3 from beyond the arc on Sunday.
“I definitely focused on keeping my hand forward,” Lamberty said of her game plan against Hahn. “She can shoot the 3-ball from anywhere she wants, so that was one of the big things. She’s super quick, she gets you up on your feet and goes right by you, so I just tried to keep my feet and my hand forward.”
Creighton never trailed in the first half. A 3-pointer from the top of the key by freshman forward Audrey Faber followed by a quick four points in a row off the bench by junior center Brianna Rollerson gave the Bluejays an early 13-6 lead. Villanova narrowed the deficit, but a long jumper from the corner by Sydney Lamberty beat the buzzer to give her team a 17-11 lead at the end of the first quarter.
With 4:24 left in the opening half, Hahn drove to the basket and got a lay-up to fall that cut Creighton’s lead to 21-19, but junior guard Lauren Works had the answer for the Bluejays, scoring two tough baskets down low to help her team take a 27-21 lead at halftime.
Villanova turned the tide a little bit in the third quarter as they took a one-point lead on a couple occasions late in the period. However, after each on of those possessions Creighton had a quick response. Trailing 32-31, junior guard MC McGrory’s traditional 3-point play put Creighton back in front. The Wildcats answered with a 3-pointer by sophomore guard Alex Louin to retake the lead, but lay-ups by Lamberty, Faber, and McGrory to end the quarter gave Creighton a 40-35 advantage heading to the fourth.
In the fourth and final quarter, the Wildcats cut it down to a one possession game three times, but the Bluejays answered every time, often by breaking down their defender and making a scoring play one-on-one late in the shot clock. McGrory, who scored 14 of her game-high 20 points in the second half, hit two back-breaking 3-pointers in the final period. The first came from the top of the key with 8:34 left and Creighton leading 42-39. A loose ball foul by Hahn gave the Bluejays an extended possession, and McGrory made it count by banking home a shot from beyond the arc to make it 45-39.
Later, McGrory provided the dagger when she got a friendly bounce from the soft rims at McGrath-Phillips Arena. One bounce in the air and a few rattles on the rim were needed, but the ball eventually fell through the cylinder to extend a four-point lead out to 52-45 with 2:33 remaining.
“MC is our money player on offense,” Flanery said of his junior co-captain. “She’s been that way since mid-December maybe. She just really wants the ball and can go get a shot against people. We actually put in a play that we’ve never run for her today. I just loved her aggressiveness on offense.”
Since they only managed seven assists on 20 made baskets, Creighton relied heavily on dribble penetration and aggressive drives to the hoop to break down Villanova’s defense and get timely baskets, especially late in the shot clock at times. That was the difference in the game according to Villanova head coach Harry Perretta.
“That’s what they’re good at. The difference in this game today was they had more players that could make an individual play, especially when the shot clock was running down,” Perretta said. “Both teams actually played good defense for the possession, but it’s whoever can make enough individual plays, and when Caroline went out this is one of the teams that we don’t match up well against. I don’t care about records. Records are totally irrelevant. It’s match-ups.”
“Without a break down player like Caroline it’s difficult for us to break them down at the end of the shot clock like they did to us. That’s what they’re good at. They wear you out. That’s what we’re pretty good at too, we wear you out trying to guard our motion, and then we try to dribble drive it at the end of the shot clock. Once Caroline went out the burden became too much on Adrianna. If you notice Adrianna’s stats have gone down each game since Caroline went out, because teams are keying on her now, so it’s a little harder for her. That was the difference in the game, their ability to make individual plays at the end of the shot clock.”
The win is Creighton’s third in a row after ending the regular season with a 64-57 road win at St. John’s. According to Flanery this stretch started on the practice floor prior to their final road trip of the season, and it now has them two wins away from reaching the NCAA Tournament and one win away from being postseason eligible for the ninth consecutive season.
“I feel like we turned a corner,” Flanery said. “I know that’s easy to say, but I feel like the week before we went to Seton Hall and St. John’s our practices were better. I don’t know why, because I’ve wanted them to be better for a while, but they were more consistent.”
“With a young team I’ve always said you can have two or three younger players not show up or not be focused at practice, and then maybe the next day it’s two or three younger players. I felt like we were all really good and focused and did the right things that week, and we had our best road trip. We almost won at Seton Hall and we won at St. John’s. I thought we played really well, and we gained confidence from that. That’s really kind of helped chill me, because I feel like we’ve figured this game out on a level that we really haven’t figured it through the several weeks before that.”
Since they entered the tournament two games under .500, the streak of eight straight years of postseason play wasn’t on Creighton’s mind during the first two days. However, it’s not something that the players plan on allowing to come to an end without a fight. Despite their record and seventh-place standing in the conference, they don’t consider themselves underdogs against Big East opposition after having beaten or come close to beating several of the top teams in the conference.
“This is a program that we’re really proud of and we want to do anything we can do to help build the program, and just continue to work on the tradition that’s here,” McGrory said. “We take a lot of pride in that.”
“We’ve known all year that we’ve had the talent to compete with every team in the Big East. I think now we’re starting to put it together and really focus in on the details to really show our talent.”
Two hours after the win over Villanova they found out they would be facing #3-seed Seton Hall in the semifinals. The Pirates defeated Marquette, 93-86. Creighton went 0-for-2 against Seton Hall during the regular season, losing 86-82 on December 31 in Omaha, and again, 77-71, on February 26 in South Orange. It will be the eighth time since Jim Flanery became head coach that Creighton will face an opponent in the conference tournament that swept them during the regular season. The Bluejays are 6-1 the previous seven times they’ve faced this scenario, including a 5-0 mark since 2007.
Tip-off between the Bluejays (16-16) and the Pirates (23-7) is set for 3:00 p.m. on Fox Sports 1.
Listen to postgame interviews with Head Coach Jim Flanery, players MC McGrory and Sydney Lamberty as well as Villanova head coach Harry Perretta and player Samantha Wilkes