Marquette women’s basketball spent most of Sunday afternoon’s away affair against Creighton in the driver’s seat.
But even with the Golden Eagles consistently ahead for the three opening quarters, a clinical fourth quarter and overtime from the Bluejays sent Marquette (16-8, 10-5 Big East) back to Milwaukee with an 80-74 loss.
Despite 21 points from Skylar Forbes, who came off the bench for the fourth game in a row, 23 from Creighton’s sixth-year senior Grace Boffeli and 25 from first-year Ava Zediker sealed the game for the Bluejays (12-12, 8-7).
For the first 35 minutes of this game, both teams’ scoring carried the same pattern: Marquette building an 8-10 point advantage, with Creighton chipping away before the Golden Eagles built the same lead back up.
The Golden Eagles went into the second period ahead 21-14, and a 9-1 run midway through the quarter pushed the Golden Eagles’ lead to double digits.
The Bluejays responded before halftime, eating away at the deficit with a late run to trail 34-32 when going into the locker room.
That same pattern continued through much of the third quarter.Each time Creighton appeared poised to make a push, Marquette responded with timely baskets to maintain separation. On the offensive end, there wasn’t much that stopped Halle Vice, Lee Volker and Skylar Forbes from carving open the Bluejay defensive front, as those three had 37 of Marquette first 51 points.
The Golden Eagles closed the quarter with another short run, entering the fourth with a 56-46 advantage. Then, they took their largest lead of the day on their first possession of the final period, seemingly further solidifying a road victory.
But, with 7:12 remaining in regulation, Zediker scored her 20th point of the night to cut Marquette’s lead to five and force head coach Cara Consuegra to call timeout.
Senior guard Jaidynn Mason was doing it all for the Golden Eagles in attempt to fend off this run, but when everything was clicking for the Bluejays, everything was falling apart for Marquette.
In the final minute, Creighton’s defense forced a shot clock violation, which Neleigh Gessert turned into a 3-pointer — her first after starting 0-for-6 — to tie the game with 17 seconds left. After Conseugra called another timeout to draw up a desired play, the Bluejays again locked down and forced a poor shot out of Lee Volker to send the game to a fifth period.
Creighton’s victory of the turnover battle was on full display in the fourth quarter. It forced six from Marquette and gave up none itself, with only one over the entire second half.
As overtime got underway, all of the game’s momentum was firmly in the hands of Creighton.
It was Grace Boffeli who converted that into a decisive run, scoring seven straight and not looking back as the Bluejays shut down the Golden Eagles’ offense to get revenge after the two teams’ previous matchup in January.
On Marquette’s end, it will look to regroup and get back in the win column Wednesday evening as it hosts Seton Hall (15-8, 9-5) at the Al McGuire Center.
This article was written by Eamon Bevan. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter/X @EamonBevanMU.
