The Creighton women’s basketball team kicked off the CU-UN rivalry week with a 66-57 win over No. 25 Nebraska (6-3) on Wednesday night at D.J. Sokol Arena on the campus of Creighton University.
The Jays (4-2) were led by true freshman point guard Marissa Janning. In 25 minutes off the bench, the newcomer from Delano, Minnesota, scored 19 points on 7 for 10 shooting, including 4 of 6 from beyond the arc. She also added three assists and committed her only turnover on an offensive foul when she drove into the paint for a layup late in the first half.
Referring to Janning’s performance, Creighton head coach, Jim Flanery said, “I expected good, but we got great. Other than the charge where she had Jordan [Garrison] open for a three I don’t know that she made a bad decision. As much as she had the ball in her hands, that’s hard to do.”
Besides her offensive contributions, coach Flanery felt her defensive performance on All-Big Ten performer Lindsey Moore was equally impressive, saying, “she’s someone who can stay in front of (Moore) a little bit better than some of our other kids. She was outstanding. Like I said, I expected good, but I think we got great.”
After an 8-0 run gave the Huskers a 19-18 lead with 6:23 remaining in the first half, coach Flanery called a 30-second timeout to settle his team down. His freshman point guard then stepped up and hit two momentum-swinging three pointers to give the Jays a lead they would never relinquish. Junior guard Jordan Garrison and senior point guard Ally Jensen added to the three-point onslaught before Janning hit junior guard Carli Tritz with a pass in stride on a great back-cut. Tritz laid the ball in over a late arriving Husker defender with 3.7 seconds left in the half. The basket gave the Jays a 36-27 at halftime, their largest lead of the game up to that point.
The Jays stretched the lead out to ten points at 43-33, but the Huskers went on a 7-0 run to cut it to a one possession game with 12:49 to play. After another thirty-second by Flanery, his team provided another response. Junior forward Sarah Nelson drove into the lane, and dished it off to a cutting Garrison, who drew the contact and laid it in for the three-point opportunity. She missed the free throw, but Tritz corralled the rebound, took one dribble towards the hoop, and put it back in to stretch the Jays lead to 47-40 with just over 12 minutes remaining.
Once again it was time for the Marissa Janning Show as she scored nine over the next eight minutes, capped off by a dagger from beyond the arc with 4:13 remaining to give the Jays their largest lead of the game at 60-48. The Huskers never got closer than eight points after that as Creighton closed out the win.
Janning admitted that leading up to the game she became more aware of what this rivalry meant to her teammates, “Coming in I knew there some kind of rivalry, but I did not know it was this bad between Creighton and Nebraska (laughs). Everyone was fired up in practice. They kept telling me ‘we have to beat Nebraska, we haven’t beaten them in eight years’, and I was like ‘ok, let’s do it, I don’t know what this is all about, but let’s do it.’”
When asked if ignorance was bliss in Janning’s case, Nelson wasn’t sure, saying, “I think that last game really helped her out. She was struggling at the beginning of the year, and all she really needed was one good game to realize she can play and she can keep up. If she keeps it up she can be as ignorant as she wants (laughs). I’ll take it.”
One other thing the Jays will take is the performance they got from Nelson. The Omaha native scored four points, grabbed eight rebounds, dished out six assists, while adding two steals and a block in a grueling 39 minutes of action. What isn’t seen on her stat line is the job she did defensively against Honorable Mention All-American Jordan Hooper. Nelson matched up with her the entire game and held her scoreless for the first time in her career.
Hooper, a junior forward who is on several Player of the Year watch lists this season, played 35 minutes and went 0 for 7 from the field, including 0 for 4 from three. After the game, Nelson deflected credit for shutting down the Husker’s star.
“I thought I did a pretty good job, but she got a couple wide open shots that she just missed,” she said. “It was a little bit on her, and I got a lot of help from the person who was supposed to be sneaking off, especially in the beginning. Alyssa [Kamphaus] did a really good job of helping, too. I thought we did a really good job as a team, and that’s what led to (her going scoreless).”
Her coach, however, wasn’t taking any credit any from her on this night, “Sarah’s got an incredible motor. I don’t think there are great matchups for Jordan Hooper, because she’s a great player, but if anybody can (guard her) it’s Sarah because of her footwork and her ability not to get tired. She moves her feet as well as anybody we have from the guard position. She has the length of a post player and the motor of a point guard,” Flanery said.
The win was Creighton’s second victory over a Top 25 team in 19 tries under Flanery. It was also just the third time that the Jays have defeated the Huskers in his 11 seasons. The Jays will travel to Texas to take on the Houston Cougars at 2:00 p.m. this Saturday. After that they will have an eight-day break before returning home Sunday, December 16, to take on North Dakota State at 2:05 p.m. at D.J. Sokol Arena.
Game Stats:
Nebraska / Creighton
Score: 57 / 66
FG/FGA: 24-59 (40.7%) / 27-48 (56.3%)
3FG/FGA: 2-13 (15.4%) / 9-22 (40.9%)
FT/FTA: 7-8 (87.5%) / 3-8 (37.5%)
Rebounding: 33 (Off: 13, Def: 20) / 28 (Off: 5, Def: 23)
Assists: 17 / 22
Turnovers: 11 / 14
Steals: 6 / 7
Blocks: 0 / 3
Scoring Leaders: Sample (20) / Janning (19)
Rebounding Leaders: Cady (8) / Nelson (8)
Assists Leaders: Moore (6) / Nelson (6)
Steals Leaders: Moore (3) / Tritz (3)
Blocks Leaders: None / Nelson (2)