The Creighton women hosted 15th ranked Oklahoma today and the almost 1500 in attendance at Sokol Arena did their best to contribute in trying to come up with the upset. However, it was not enough and the team might have ran out of gas in a 67-58 loss to the Sooners.
You would have thought it was a bit of a celebrity sighting day as the daughter of former NBA star Hakeem Olajuwon (Abi) and the sister of NFL star Ben Roethlisberger (Carlee) were on the Oklahoma basketball roster. Olajuwon finished with 4 points and 5 rebounds and Roethilisberger finished with 8 points, 5 rebounds and 4 steals. But it was the play of Danielle Robinson that tore the Bluejays apart. Robinson was continually able to drive the lane and get to the basket to score throughout the contest finishing with 22 points and 5 assists.
It was defensive breakdowns in the paint that did Creighton in as they were outscored 42-16 in the paint for the game. The combination of Olajuwon and Lyndsey Cloman guarded the lane and made it tough for Megan Neuvirth and the rest of the Jays to get a clear shot in the paint. Even though Oklahoma had 21 turnovers, Creighton returned the favor with 22 of their own.
If you followed our Live Blog from today, you might have felt the excitement in the arena as Creighton was up by as much as 5 in the first half and went to the locker room with a 30-27 lead. The second half started out fast an furious with both teams trying to turn it up a notch on defense. Things looked like they might go Creighton’s way as Olajuwon picked up her 4th foul at the 16:34 mark of the second half. Cloman, who only played two minutes in the first half, came in and almost did a better job the rest of the game keeping Creighton from driving into the lane. By the 12:00 minute mark, the Sooners took the lead and lever relinquished it.
Neuvirth and Sam Schuett kept the Jays close with 19 points and 16 points respectively. The two of them scored 17 of the final 18 points for Creighton over the final 10 minutes of the game. Free throws were a killer for Creighton as well by going 19-of-27 from the line while Oklahoma only went to the line 11 times. Hitting a few more of those free throws and getting some scoring contributions from others down the stretch might have allowed them to pull the upset today. But the team worked really hard and never gave up even when the game was out of reach.
Understand, this is the third straight ranked team in a row that the Women’s team has faced over the past week and a half. Though they hoped to win one or all of these games, they came away 0-3. However, with these games also comes lessons learned and some great experience as they prepare to go into conference play. Creighton will host North Dakota St. next Monday night at Sokol Arena to close out the non-conference season before hitting the road to spend New Year’s Eve on the road at Indiana St. to kick off conference season. The Bluejay women were projected to win the Missouri Valley Conference this season and seeing them play today and the athletes they played against, they should be pretty well prepared come Valley play. And if there can be crowds like today at Sokol during conference season, that will be a great help too. I look forward to seeing more of this team as conference season gets underway. You should get out and see them too.