Listen to Matt DeMarinis’ exclusive interview with the seniors:
In the last home game of their careers, Creighton’s five seniors — Aimee Rischard, Myah Mellman, Sydney Lamberty, Bailey Norby, and Kylie Brown — set a strong tone from the opening tip in a 64-55 win over the Butler Bulldogs on a Senior Day Sunday afternoon in front of more than 1,200 fans at D.J. Sokol Arena.
Brown got the Bluejays on the board with a jumper along the baseline, Norby followed that up with a pump fake and drive to the hoop, and then Mellman buried a three in transition from the left corner to open up a 9-0 lead that they never surrendered the rest of the way.
“We didn’t start well [against Butler] out there, so that was something we were focused on to start the game on a good note,” junior forward Audrey Faber said. “It was just awesome to see the seniors all out there together. It was such a cool moment. We are all so happy for them. We just wanted to win for them at the end of the day.”
Sophomore point guard Olivia Elger came off the bench and chipped in five points in six minutes to finish off the hot start and close out the first quarter with an 18-10 lead.
Some tough luck in-and-outs in the second quarter prevented Creighton from putting the game out of reach before halftime as they shot just 3-of-15 from the field in the period, but their defense stayed engaged and held Butler to 10 points on 29.4% shooting to hold maintain a 25-20 cushion going into the locker room at the break. Sophomore wing Jaylyn Agnew paced the Bluejays with a little bit of everything, scoring four points, grabbing three rebounds, and dishing out three assists, while All-Big East center Tori Schickel led the way for the Bulldogs with eight points and four rebounds in the opening half.
A defensive breakdown led to an open three to start the second half for Butler, but after a 30-second wake-up call from head coach Jim Flanery, Creighton’s top two leading scorers on the season in Faber and Agnew poured in eight points as part of a 12-0 run over the ensuing 5:05 to extend the lead to 37-23 with 3:54 on the clock before the fourth quarter.
The Jays never let the lead get any shorter than five points from that point on thanks in part to 54.5% shooting from the field in the second half. On the defensive end, they were just as sharp, holding Butler to a 39.3% shooting over the final 20 minutes, and a 3-of-16 mark from the 3-point line for the entire game.
“I thought we won with our defense,” Flanery said. “We had stretches offensively where we were effective — Audrey got going in the second half and we made just enough baskets, but I thought we guarded them really well. We did a good job on Schickel without having to give as much help as we did the first time. Obviously we had a few breakdowns, but overall I felt like we really contested shots and made things difficult both for their perimeter kids.
“Butler is tough, they don’t go away. We’d get up, they’d come back. We’d get up, they’d come back. We just never really put them away, but that’s a credit to them. On a one-day prep I liked what we did defensively, because I thought that was definitely the key to the win today.”
Faber finished with 13 points, all coming in the second half, to move into the top 15 on Creighton’s all-time scoring chart, while redshirt sophomore center Ali Greene tied her career-high with 14 points off the bench. The duo scored 23 of those 27 points on 8-of-11 shooting after halftime.
For Greene, who missed most of last season while recovering from microfracture surgery, it was the third time in the last seven outings that she has scored in double figures after not doing it in any of her first 57 career games. Over that stretch she is averaging 8.7 points and 5.3 rebounds per game, while shooting 74.3% from the field and 90.0% from the free throw line.
“I think my teammates have done a great job of finding me underneath the basket,” Greene said. “They are they ones who give me a great opportunity to score around the basket. I couldn’t do what I do without them. They have more confidence in me I think, and they are doing a great job of putting me in a good position to score.”
Creighton is 6-1 during Greene’s seven-game hot streak with the only setback coming in Chicago against league-leading DePaul.
In the win over Butler, Creighton’s seniors combined for 11 points, 11 rebounds, and six assists in their D.J. Sokol Arena swan song to improve to 17-9 and 11-5 in Big East play with two regular season games remaining this season. It was the 75th win of their four-year collegiate career.
With Villanova’s loss at DePaul, the Bluejays are now in sole possession of third place in the Big East standings. They will close out the regular season with games at Georgetown on Friday, February 23, and the aforementioned Wildcats on Sunday, February 25.