Despite a dominant performance on the boards and a clutch three-pointer to send the game into overtime, the Creighton women’s basketball team came up short Tuesday night at Sokol Arena against South Dakota 56-53.
“They deserved to win it,” said Creighton women’s basketball coach Jim Flanery. “Jasmin hit a great shot and we hung in there, but we certainly didn’t play well enough to think we should have won that game.”
Creighton started hot as senior DaNae Moore hit the first two baskets for the Bluejays off of a couple assists from McKenzie Fujan. About midway through the first half, the lead blossomed to ten a 14-4. But South Dakota hung around as the Bluejays struggled on offense and the Coyotes settled down to go into the half with a 30-26 lead.
The Bluejays struggled all evening with the doubling of the post by the Coyotes and a lot of hesitation on offense, showing the youth of the team. “They certainly bothered us with the post-doubles. We had way too many turnovers, 18 against a team that doesn’t pick you up until the three-point line, that is too many.”
Once the second half started, both teams started out slow again trading baskets throughout the half until Ally Jensen nailed a three pointer with 6:02 to go to give the Bluejays the lead at 41-40 and get the crowd into the game. South Dakota stormed back to take a 46 -43 lead with 1:14 to go in regulation. After a couple of scoreless possessions, the Bluejays had the ball with 13 seconds left. Out of the time out the ball went around the arc and with no place to go, junior Jasmin Corbin launched a three-point shot that was nothing but the bottom of the net and tied the game at 46 to send the game to overtime.
In the extra period, the Bluejays looked like they were going to win it out establishing a four point lead with two minutes to go. “In over time to be up four and have their best player foul out,” said Flanery, “We were sitting pretty good then.” But it was not to be as South Dakota stormed back to tie the game and changed the lead for the ninth time in the game to go up 55-53 with 39 seconds to go. The Bluejays had a couple of chances in the final 24 seconds, but could not get a shot to sink. South Dakota hit one of two free throws with 2 seconds left and Carli Tritz launched a shot a half court that was off the mark, giving the Coyotes the victory.
Sarah Nelson grabbed 17 rebounds (Streur/WBR)
One bright spot of the night was Sarah Nelson who scored herself a double-double with 11 points and a career and arena high 17 rebounds. With Creighton’s shooting struggles, at 30% for the game, she was there to grab 10 offensive rebounds.
“We’ve got a long way to go offensively,” coach Flanery expressed. “The last two games, we have done some really nice things on the defensive end but we didn’t move the ball as well as we need to. Everybody is going to look at the shooting percentage, but my thing is that you have to get better shots. That means you have to screen better, pass better, and react to double teams.”
Nebraska natives, Amber Hegge and Jodie Boss patrolled the middle for the Coyotes double-teaming Nelson every time she got the ball, making it tough to get it out to her teammates. “Sarah played her tail off,” said Flanery “We just had a hard time getting the ball out of the post when we got it in and we haven’t worked on that as much. I thought we would be ahead of the game on that. We got greedy and we tried to pull skip passes. Instead of just throwing it out on the same side and reversing the ball, we tried to make it one pass.”
Creighton is now 2-2 on the season and will get a chance to turn things around on Sunday in a 2PM game at Sokol Arena against North Carolina State.