It’s the same old story, same old result for Marquette women’s basketball.
A good showing for the Golden Eagles turns into a poor finish and they lose a road game they looked like they would win for most of it.
It happened at St. John’s in a 57-56 loss. It happened again at Villanova in a 66-63 loss. It happened for a third time in one month for Marquette at No. 22 Creighton Wednesday night, ending in a 76-71 loss to the Bluejays at D.J. Sokol Arena.
Liza Karlen earned her prescribed double-double (29 points, 10 rebounds). Marquette shot 28-for-60 overall and 8-for-17 from beyond the arc. The Golden Eagles forced 12 turnovers. Jordan King and Rose Nkumu both scored valuable points. Creighton didn’t score a field goal for the final 5:34 of the game.
None of it mattered.
Not when Marquette was outscored 22-15 and went 5-for-13 from the field in the fourth quarter. Not when Creighton got 15 free-throws, and made 13 of them, in the final frame. Not when the Golden Eagles started the game-deciding 10-minute period on the back foot and couldn’t recover.
Marquette (16-5, 5-5 Big East) would go into the fourth quarter up 56-54, but its advantage did not last long. Creighton (17-3, 8-2 Big East) scored the first four points of the frame, which turned into a 10-2 extended run and 63-58 Bluejays lead.
Marquette head coach Megan Duffy called a timeout, but it didn’t matter as the closest the Golden Eagles would get was three points and the Bluejays were able to ice the game.
“There was so little separation the whole game,” Creighton head coach Jim Flanery said in a postgame interview with FloSports. “Anything more than a one possession lead, with the crowd and with a little bit of momentum, that was huge…
“I love Marquette’s team. I think they’re a really really good basketball team. I mean, 76-71 (tonight). When we played them up there, 76-70 (Marquette win). So two really evenly matched teams.”
Well-balanced Creighton offense is too much to handle
The Bluejays had three double-digit finishers.
Morgan Maly led the Bluejays with 21 points. Lauren Jensen was right behind with 19 and Molly Mogensen added 11. The spread-out offense was too much for the Golden Eagles to maintain down the stretch, and it showed with Jensen scoring 10 points in the fourth quarter.
Senior forward Emma Ronsiek, who came into the game averaging 18.4 points per game, was held scoreless until the 1:53 mark of the third quarter. She started the game 0-for-7 overall, and her first points came off free-throws.
In the last frame, Ronsiek scored five game-deciding points and grabbed four rebounds, coming alive when her team needed her the most. She finished with nine points on the night.
Along with all of Creighton’s firepower coming alive, its bench also played its part, scoring 11 points. Marquette’s bench scored six, all coming from junior guard Lee Volker.
Up next
Marquette will travel to Providence and face the Friars (11-11, 5-4 Big East) Saturday at 1 p.m. CST at Alumni Hall.
This article was written by Jack Albright. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter/X @JackAlbrightMU.
