Creighton and Wichita State exchanged the lead eight times to begin the second half before the Shockers went on a 15-0 run to drop the Bluejays 65-56 in the 2014-15 season opener for both teams on Saturday afternoon at Koch Arena in Wichita, Kansas.
“It’s a tough place to play and obviously that run in the second half was a decisive factor,” said Creighton head coach Jim Flanery. “But there were a lot of things earlier that disturbed me.”
Both teams struggled to score early in the first half, but Wichita State got a lift from junior guard Michaela Dapprich to help them pull out in front 12-9 with 11:40 left in the opening period. Dapprich had 8 out of the Shockers’ 12 points on 4-of-6 shooting from the field.
Along with struggling to get shots to fall, the Bluejays turned the ball over four times over a four minutes stretch that allowed the Shockers to extend the lead to 16-9 before Brianna Rollerson ended the drought with a turnaround jumper in the lane. “We were just a little sped up,” sophomore guard MC McGrory said. “We were trying to do things early in the shot clock. Especially with a team that’s that aggressive defensively we needed start our offense higher and get a little movement so it opens up a little bit more of those driving lanes.”
The offense finally got on track a bit when Marissa Janning, who was playing with two fouls, started to heat up to get Creighton back in the game. The preseason pick for Big East Player of the Year connected twice from beyond the arc to cut the Shocker lead to 24-21 with 2:53 to play. McGrory converted two free throws shortly after that to cut it down to one, but the Shockers got a couple baskets sandwiched around another Bluejay turnover to head into the locker room with a 30-25 advantage.
“The end of the first half killed us,” Flanery said. “We were down one and all of a sudden it’s down five when we had a two-for-one situation and gave up something easy, then a turnover and two more points.”
Janning led the Bluejays with 10 points and three rebounds in 15 minutes in the first half. The Shockers were led by Alex Harden’s 12 points, but mainly it was her pair of blocked shots and four steals that made the biggest impact in the opening half.
The Bluejays opened the second half on a 8-2 run capped by off by a three-pointer by Sammy Jensen to give Creighton the lead. The play was kept alive after McGrory secured an offensive rebound before kicking it out to Jensen. The Creighton bench erupted as the ball went through the net giving them their first lead since the 16:07 mark of the first half. The two teams traded the lead six times over the next six minutes and change in what was starting to look like a classic that would go down to the wire.
Then Alex Harden, who dominated the first half, made yet another big play by hitting a go-ahead jumper from free throw line extended to give the Shockers a 46-45 lead after an offensive rebound kept the possession alive. The turnovers returned to haunt Creighton after losing the lead. They coughed the ball up six times over the next six and a half minutes while Wichita State put the game away with a decisive 15-0 run to take a 59-45 lead with 2:53 to play.
“I think they were getting a lot of hustle plays,” Marissa Janning said of what keyed the Shockers game-clinching run. “We just need to cut down on turnovers, because that kind of gave them part of their runs, that initiated their runs. They just did a really good job. Harden hit tough shots and [Michaela] Dapprich played well.”
The Bluejays didn’t get any closer than nine the rest of the way as the Wichita State sealed the game at the free throw line by going a perfect 6-for-6 down the stretch.
Janning finished with 18 points and seven rebounds, but the star of the game was undoubtedly the Shockers’ guard Harden. The senior out of Springfield, Ill. led all players with 28 points, two blocked shots, and five steals while logging 39 minutes on the court.
Sitting at 0-1 with a road loss to an MVC foe, the Bluejays will try to repeat what the 2013-14 squad did by beating South Dakota State in their second game after losing at Drake. It will also be a chance for Creighton to exact some revenge on the Jackrabbits after ending their season in Brookings with a 62-51 defeat in the WNIT last March.
“They are going to get up, they’re going to pressure us, they’re going to take away certain things,” Janning said. “We’re going to take the things we need to work on in this game and carry it over to SDSU, and just come in positive and communicate with a fire under us because they did end our season last year. I think we can win. I thought we could have won this game, but effort plays and turnovers took it away.”
Flanery knows it will be a quick turnaround to prepare for another road game on Tuesday night. He laid out what he wanted to see in the few days his team will have in between before they attempt to bounce back, “We’ll need good concentration the next couple of days and focus on trying to get better and maybe just a little bit tougher,” he said. “We’re not necessarily going to see the exact same pressure that we saw today, but we’re gonna see a team that will get after it defensively. A team that’s really deep on offense, so you have to communicate well. We’re going to have to do a good job there. It’s also a game where we need to continue to build our bench and give our young players some minutes without compromising the opportunity to win, and that’s hard to do when you’re playing a tough schedule.”
Tip-off for Creighton vs South Dakota State is set for 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday night in Brookings, South Dakota. The Bluejays and Jackrabbits split two games last season, each defending home court. Overall they have met six times with Creighton holding a 5-1 edge in the series.