Creighton senior guard McKenzie Fujan broke Marquette’s Angel Robinson’s D.J. Sokol Arena scoring record by dropping 38 points in an 86-78 win over Big East preseason favorite DePaul on Saturday evening. The senior out of Weston, Neb., bested her previous career-high of 24 points in the second half alone, scoring 28 points on 9 of 12 shooting in the final 20 minutes to lead the Jays to victory after falling behind in the first half. “McKenzie was just phenomenal,” said Creighton head coach Jim Flanery. “She took some tough shots that I cringed when she took, but they kept going in.”
It wasn’t a flawless performance from the Bluejays, however, as the offensive struggles they’ve suffered from at times this season were on display in the early going in this one. Creighton committed two turnovers and started 0-for-6 from the field in their first six possessions, but got on track a bit with a driving layup by Sarah Nelson and a three-pointer by McKenzie Fujan to cut an early Blue Demon lead down to 6-5 before the first media timeout. A wide open three from the left wing by Jordan Garrison and a pair of free throws by Sarah Nelson gave Creighton a 10-9 lead with 14:10 to play in the first half, but DePaul got on a roll with a 16-0 run over the next five and a half minutes to take a commanding 25-10 lead.
Turnovers and poor shooting from the Jays allowed to DePaul to take over, but the Jays fought back. Five straight points by Fujan and another three by Garrison highlighted a 9-0 run by Creighton that cut the Blue Demon lead down to 35-29 with 10.7 left in the half. Two more late turnovers by the Jays led to a layup by DePaul’s Megan Rogowski just before the half, but Jays went into the locker room trailing by just eight, 37-29.
Creighton committed 14 turnovers in the first half after averaging 12.6 per game entering the day. Reigning Big East Player of the Week Jasmine Penny led DePaul with 13 points on 6-for-8 shooting in the first half. Creighton’s McKenzie Fujan, who earned a spot on the conference’s Honor Roll this week, led the Jays with 10 points on 4-of-5 shooting. Senior Sarah Nelson added seven points, three assists, and six rebounds, including four on the offensive end, to help keep Creighton in the game in the first half.
Despite the high number of turnovers and 9 of 27 (33.3%) shooting, to be down by just eight points to the preseason favorite in the conference had Flanery feeling better than he normally would have in that situation:
“I didn’t say anything to the team, because I didn’t want them to think that they played that well. But I felt like for us to only be down eight was encouraging, because of the turnovers and the field goal percentage difference,” Flanery said. “Against a team that’s going to give you many, many more possessions than an average team I felt like we were in pretty good shape.”
The first couple possessions of the second half played out like much of the first half. DePaul scored the first points to make it 39-29. Then, the ensuing Creighton possession changed the game. First, Fujan missed a jumper from the left baseline, but Sarah Nelson was there to grab the offensive rebound. Nelson put it back up, but left it short. She grabbed the rebound again, but this time kicked it back out and Fujan found Alyssa Kamphaus for a layup later in the possession. That cut DePaul’s lead back down to eight, and the Jays buried four three-pointers in a row over the next three minutes as part of a 14-4 run the gave them a 43-41 lead with 16:04 to go.
After a timeout, Rogowski scored on a layup to tie the game at 43-all. It was a game of runs for the next seven minutes. First it was the Jays using an 11-3 run to build a 54-46 lead, then DePaul answered with a 10-2 run to tie the game at 56. A 5-0 run by Creighton preceded a 5-0 run by DePaul, which left the game tied at 61 with 8:54 to go. Punch for punch these teams went at it. A true heavyweight fight between the top two teams in the preseason poll. Little did everyone know that McKenzie Fujan, who had already tallied 23 points up to this point in the game, was just getting warmed up. It started with a driving, contested layup to give the Jays a 63-61 lead and Fujan a new career-high. A free-throw line jumper and a three-pointer sandwiched around a pair of free throws gave Creighton their largest lead of the game at 76-66 with 4:41 left in the second half. The three-pointer gave Fujan 34 points and broke the D.J. Sokol Arena record for most points by an individual player, which was 32 points, held by former Marquette Golden Eagle Angel Robinson.
By now, DePaul was out of answers, and they would not get any closer than eight points the rest of the game. Fujan added four more free throws to her record-setting performance as the Jays closed out DePaul to improve to 3-0 in league play. Fujan’s 38 points were the sixth-highest single game total in Creighton women’s basketball history. She shot 13 of 17 from the field, including 6 of 8 from beyond the arc and 6 of 7 at the free throw line. It was a stand-out effort that forced Flanery to go back over 11 years to find a comparable performance.
“Christy Neneman’s 39 points in the conference tournament final against Drake – my memory kind of went back to that a couple times,” he said. “What I loved about (Fujan) was she didn’t get overly emotional. She is an emotional player, but I think she understood how explosive DePaul is and how much of a game there was left. It’s easy to start bouncing around and getting hyper when you’re in that kind of a zone, but I felt like she stayed focused and that was part of her continued success.”
After scoring 38 points, Fujan was ready to dish out some assists to her teammates after the game:
“Honestly I was just making shots, and my teammates did a really good job of finding me,” she said. “We moved the ball really well and had good offense. Sarah (Nelson) said, ‘I’m just going to screen for you.'”
“I think she could have granny-ed it from half court and it would have gone in,” Nelson interjected. “I was like ‘just give it to Mac.'”
Nelson finished with her second straight double-double. Dropping 15 points on 4 of 7 shooting, grabbing 12 rebounds, and dishing out five assists. Fellow All-Big East preseason pick Marissa Janning chipped in 15 points and matched her career-high with eight rebounds.
Creighton improved to 9-6 overall on the season, and they will put their conference-best 3-0 record on the line this upcoming Wednesday when they travel to the Big Apple to take on St. John’s. The Red Storm are 8-4 on the season and opened Big East play with a 72-63 win over Seton Hall. They will play at Xavier tomorrow afternoon before heading back home to take on the Jays. Tip-off between Creighton and St. John’s is set for 4 p.m. (CST).
Notes: McKenzie Fujan’s three-pointer with 16:35 remaining in the second half gave her 700 points for her career … Sarah Nelson’s 12 rebounds gave her 750 in her Creighton career, passing Connie Yori (746) and Kathy Halligan (749) and into sole possession of 6th place in Creighton history … The win over DePaul was the 50th for Creighton women’s basketball at D.J. Sokol Arena … The Jays extended their conference home winning streak to 13 consecutive games … The six Creighton seniors (McKenzie Fujan, Sarah Nelson, Alyssa Kamphaus, Jordan Garrison, Carli Tritz, and Riley Norman) now own a 26-3 career record at home in conference play.