Marquette will likely want to forget Monday night, as the Golden Eagles lost to the Creighton Bluejays, 83-63, in their BIG EAST home opener.
“I’ve never seen that team before in my life,” Marquette head coach Carolyn Kieger said regarding her team’s performance. “I don’t know who they were.”
Neither Marquette nor Creighton could distinguish themselves in the first quarter, as both teams had the lead but could not build it beyond four points.
The Golden Eagles heavily relied on sophomore Erika Davenport in the first few minutes of the game. Davenport attempted three of the team’s first six shots and was successful on two of those shots.
“The plan is to find the open man,” Kieger said. “So if (Davenport) is open, yeah we’re going to give her the ball.”
Creighton head coach Jim Flanery quickly adjusted to Davenport’s early success, double-teaming her throughout the second half. After starting the game on 2-for-3 shooting, the sophomore from Clarkston, Michigan, missed four of her next five shots.
Kieger’s squad also couldn’t find their outside shot in the first half. The team shot 1-for-8 from 3-point range in the first half, significantly lower than the team’s average of 32.3 percent entering Monday’s contest.
Danielle King and Amani Wilborn served as the silver lining for Marquette, especially in the second quarter. The two sophomores combined to score 14 of Marquette’s 22 second-quarter points.
However, poor 3-point shooting continued to doom Kieger’s squad in the second half, as the team hit only 11 percent of their long-distance shots in the second half.
“I don’t know what we were running on offense,” Kieger said. “Obviously I’m sitting down on the sidelines and it’s hard for me to call plays, but in those moments, we have to step up and mature as a team.”
Marquette struggled defensively throughout the game against Creighton forwards Audrey Faber and Brianna Rollerson. This was particularly evident in the second and third quarters, when Rollerson scored 16 of her season-high 22 points.
Faber, the Bluejays’ leading scorer and preseason All-BIG EAST selection, finished with 21 points.
“It wasn’t just post defense,” Kieger remarked when asked about Faber and Rollerson’s high-scoring output. “There was no defense in general.”
Marissa Janning, Sydney Lamberty and Lauren Works also put up double-digit point totals in the Bluejays’ defining victory.
“We gotta get back to the basics,” Kieger added. “We call it ‘guard your yard,’ which is ‘keep your man in front.’”
The Blue and Gold hit their stride at the end of the third quarter and beginning of the fourth quarter. After losing by as many as 18 with a minute left in the third, MU went on an 8-2 run, trimming the deficit to 12.
Davenport snapped out of her funk to score five of the team’s eight points.
“We had a little bit of energy there for a little stretch,” Kieger said. “We got a little bit fired up on a couple steals, but (there were) not many positives today.”
Marquette’s extra energy only lasted so long, as Creighton answered Marquette’s run with a 15-4 run.
When asked if there were any positives from Monday’s loss, Kieger said, “We play again in two days.”
Marquette will host Providence Wednesday as the second part of a two-game homestand.
