The Marquette Golden Eagles had been heating up as the temperatures outside declined. Entering the night on a four-in-a-row win streak, the Golden Eagles looked to improve to five straight.
But, the Creighton Bluejays threw a wrench in those plans as they took down the Golden Eagles 55-44 at the Al McGuire Center.
“Just disappointed overall with tonight’s game,” head coach Megan Duffy said. “I thought they did a great job of just making some timely with baskets. I felt Rachel Saunders and Molly Mogensen stepped up big for them for three and then we just struggled at times.”
It’s the first time Creighton has won at Marquette since the 2017-18 season.
Statistical Leaders
Senior forward Chloe Marotta led with 13 points, going 4-for-11 from the field and picked up seven rebounds. Junior forward Liza Karlen added 13 points and five rebounds but turned over the ball six times.
Senior guard Jordan King tacked on four assists, surpassing former guard Natisha Hiedeman for sixth all-time in program history.
For the Blue Jays, Morgan Mally led with 15 points, 10 rebounds and two assists. Meanwhile, Emma Ronsiek tallied 10 rebounds, two assists and four steals.
Karlen Klinic
After a scoreless two minutes, it’s Karlen who knocked down the first layup to open up scoring.
“You’re just trying to get her confident to score in the paint,” Duffy said. “With her jumpers, I thought it was good to see her a little bit more aggressive tonight.”
But after a small back and forth, Creighton was able to go on a run of their own, bringing their led to six twice in the half.
Karlen got up to six points fast in the first quarter, scoring half of Marquette’s points.
“It’s so good to see Liza (Karlen) from last game to this game, starting the game out strong and knocking down her shots, especially just as she’s been able to work her way back into the season,” King said. “Getting back to what she was successful at before and just being able to get those those buckets for us kept us in that game for the first quarter.”
Through the second quarter, the Golden Eagles played from behind, but were unable to capitalize on scoring opportunities.
Nkumu nailed down the first 3-pointer, which took Marquette on a scoring run of 9-6, but it still went into halftime trailing 26-25.
Turnover Town
Through the game, Creighton tallied eight steals and forced 13 Marquette turnovers.
“We lost possessions because of our turnovers,” Duffy said. “I thought we had some costly turnovers, just poor execution on our part.”
Creighton was able to turn five turnovers into eight points in the third alone. The Bluejays also out-rebounded the Golden Eagles 36-30 on the night.
“I think it shifted the entire game honestly,” King said. “They went on a 9-0 run and as a team were weren’t able to respond. As leaders, we went five different ways. I felt as a team they brought us down in that way.”
Marquette found some rhythm again in the fourth quarter, opening with a 4-0 run forcing Creighton to call a timeout. The Golden Eagles late push was not enough as the Bluejays hit some timely free-throws down the stretch.
“I thought our defense was pretty good,” Duffy said. “Just a couple segments where it wasn’t and at the same time that was happening, we struggled to score. So just kind of a bad combination in that third quarter.”
Next Up
The Golden Eagles will travel out to Ohio to take on Xavier (7-20, 0-18 Big East) on Feb. 25 at 1 p.m.
This article was written by Emma Kroll. She can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @emma_kroll_.
