The Creighton women’s basketball team tied a season-high with 14 made 3-pointers on Sunday afternoon in an 84-57 rout of the visiting Providence Friars. In front of 1,412 fans at D.J. Sokol Arena for the annual “Pink Out” game to support awareness for breast cancer, the Bluejays (15-10 overall, 8-6 Big East) outscored the Friars (5-20 overall, 2-12 Big East) by 39 points from beyond the arc as they earned their sixth consecutive win, and seventh in the last eight games.
“That’s a fun win,” said Creighton head coach Jim Flanery. “Obviously we shot the ball really well from the three line. Fans love those games and so do players. Coaches like it but then they always want some other things, and those always know that shooting the ball really well masks those other things. For being off for a week I thought we were pretty sharp and that’s exciting.”
Lauren Works contributed to the three-point barrage with 5 of her own on Sunday (Streur/WBR) $CLICK TO BUY$
Sophomore shooting guard Lauren Works, who missed a couple practices early in the week, converted on her first five attempts from 3-point territory to finish with a career-high 15 points. Junior point guard Marissa Janning added a 5-of-11 effort from beyond the arc as part of her game-high 25 points. The sharpshooting duo scored as many points as the entire Providence team in the first half.
Janning began the game by knocking down an uncontested pull-up jumper after the Bluejays won the opening tip. The rest of her teammates followed suit by attacking inside and scoring to get out to an early 8-2 lead over the Friars.
That lead ballooned to double digits before Providence turned up the pressure with a full court defense that forced three turnovers in a span of four possessions. The Friars turned those miscues into points to cut the deficit to 19-12 with 8:50 left in the first half.
Creighton regained their footing and started taking better care of the ball against the Providence pressure. That led to a lot of uncontested 3-pointers by Works and Janning. The sophomore out of Lincoln started the show with two 3-point baskets from the right corner on consecutive possessions to extend the lead back to double digits. Shortly after that, Janning dropped in a pair of jumpers from beyond the arc as part of a personal 8-0 run to make it 35-18, Bluejays, with 4:04 remaining in the opening half.
“When we come out of a full court press we usually have numbers, because they’ll drop back and try to take middle and maybe a post that’s on the block, s0 it’s usually the corner person that’s always open or maybe a kick back if we drive,” Janning said. “After we got through the press, and came back from turning the ball over a few times, it went better.”
Providence freshman guard Alison Lewis answered with seven straight of her own off the bench to cut the deficit to 37-25, but an offensive rebound and putback by Creighton sophomore center Brianna Rollerson and a fourth 3-pointer by Janning gave the Bluejays a 42-25 lead at the break.
See photos of the game from WBR photographer Adam Streur
Janning was the only Creighton player in double figures in the first half, leading the way with 16 points and six rebounds. She along with Works combined to hit 7-of-11 from 3-point territory in the first half.
Lewis led Providence in scoring with 11 points in 15 minutes off the bench.
The Friars trimmed the deficit down to 13 points after the first four minutes, but Works and Janning orchestrated a 13-4 run for the Bluejays to extend it over 20 points for the first time in the game at 59-37 with 12:41 remaining. Works capped off the run with her fifth consecutive 3-pointer to start her afternoon. Most players by that point know they are in the zone, but Works maintains that there wasn’t much of a thought process during her stretch of hot shooting, an attribute Flanery says is a benefit to her as a player.
“What you like about her is she doesn’t overthink things. You want a shooter who doesn’t blink if they miss one or two,” he said. “A shooter who doesn’t catch and think about it when they’re open. For that reason we like to play her a little bit more against teams that press, because we feel like she is that kid who one, she’s a little better as a ball-handler through press than you might think, and two, she can knock down shots at the back of the press without hesitating.”
“You’re always going to get really good effort out of her. You’re always going to get a kid who fights, and claws, and gets two or three loose balls that a lot of kids her size don’t get. Then you’re going to get somebody who can shoot it and not question whether it’s a good shot.”
Marissa Janning continued her run since the move back to point guard (Streur/WBR) $$ CLICK TO BUY $$
While Providence was concerned with the barrage that Janning and Works were unloading on them, they seemed to forget about the player who has won five Big East Freshman of the Week awards this season in Bluejay wing Sydney Lamberty. The freshman out of Cottage Grove, Minn., went on a personal 11-4 run over a four-minute stretch to give Creighton a 69-44 advantage with only 8:10 left in the game. Lamberty scored 12 of her 16 points in the second half to help put the Friars away. Together the trio of Creighton guards finished with just one fewer point between them than the entire Providence team.
To get their sixth straight win, the Bluejays were able to shoot Providence out of the press. Against the conference-leading DePaul Blue Demons, to earn a seventh straight victory the Bluejays will have to break pressure and make good decisions once they do for an entire game. Coach Flanery says his team will need a big week of practice in order to be ready for a team that scores around 86 points per game and forces its opponents into 21 turnovers per contest.
“We’ll use the guys this week, because we can’t simulate [DePaul’s] press with our personnel,” said Flanery. “Our preparation will be important, but it’s a both ends thing. We shot 4-for-19 from the three the last time and they shot 12-for-28, so part of it is about us making enough shots too. It’s not just about taking care of the ball. We had a lot of open threes, we just didn’t make them.”
The Bluejays and Blue Demons are scheduled to tip things off at 7:05 p.m. next Friday at D.J. Sokol Arena.