Right before tipoff, sophomore guard Selena Lott was in for a pretty big surprise: replacing reigning BIG EAST Player of the Year Allazia Blockton in the starting lineup.
“(Head coach Carolyn Kieger) was starting to draw up the plays, and I was like, ‘Oh, my name’s on there,’” Lott said.
Lott and the Golden Eagles answered the call, however, winning 85-67 without Blockton, who was out with an ankle injury.
The sophomore guard from East Greenbush, New York, especially stepped up to replace Blockton, scoring a career-high 15 points on 5-for-7 shooting in her seventh career start.
“She stepped up in a huge way,” Kieger said. “That’s what being a family is about. … When someone goes down, you pick them up.”
Kieger said she was looking for defense from Lott to shut down Creighton star senior forward Audrey Faber, but Lott provided a lot more.
“She’s a terror on the defensive end,” Kieger said. “Tonight she stepped up on offense too.”
Her previous career high was only nine points, but Kieger said she was not surprised to see the 15-point performance.
“Sometimes she defers a little bit to the starting lineup, but she definitely has an offensive game to her,” Kieger said. “She did it in high school. She does it in practice every day, so I wasn’t surprised. Now we just have to figure out how to do it every night.”
At first, it looked like Marquette would run away with the game, leading 19-8. Then Creighton tied the game with an 11-0 run late in the first quarter.
“Shooters were getting open shots,” Kieger said. “We were going for shot fakes. We were bailing them out at the free-throw line.”
Lott scored five points in 47 seconds to give Marquette a five-point lead at the end of the quarter. A 14-1 Marquette run midway through the second quarter gave the Golden Eagles some breathing room for the rest of the game. Lott scored five of the 14 points and finished the first half with a team-high 12 points.
When Marquette struggled to put Creighton away in the third quarter, senior guard Natisha Hiedeman stepped up with two threes 22 seconds apart from each other to give Marquette a 60-48 lead. It was her fourth consecutive game with at least two 3-pointers, which sparked a 15-4 Marquette run.
“(Hiedeman) is a big-time player. She hits big-time shots,” Kieger said. “She shows that when you need her most.”
All five Marquette starters scored at least 15 points in the win.
Marquette’s schedule will not get any easier, hosting the reigning BIG EAST champion DePaul Blue Demons Friday. Marquette lost by 35 to the Blue Demons in last year’s BIG EAST Championship.
“We have something to prove,” Kieger said. “We’ve been thinking about this game for a long, long time. It’ll be fun, but we can’t let the moment get away from us. We have to play Marquette basketball.”
“Shut them down, just how we shut (Creighton) down,” Lott said.
Blockton’s availability remains unclear for Friday’s rematch. Kieger described her status as “day by day, minute by minute, hour by hour.”
