From the first four minutes of Thursday night’s adventures at the McGuire Center, it seemed that it was likely that Marquette was going to be able to assemble enough possessions to beat Creighton if they kept going like that. Obviously, they weren’t going to shut the Bluejays out after going up 8-0. But the Golden Eagles weren’t doing anything particularly flashy on either end, just calmly working the ball around and putting up points on one side, calmly shutting Creighton down on the other. If they can
do that a few more times throughout the 40 minutes of competition, things are going to be okay.
It was just a four point game going to the second quarter, and then Creighton pushed out in front 12-11 as the second quarter started. That’s as far out in front as the Bluejays could get, and as the frame went along towards halftime, Marquette couldn’t put together one of those runs like the one they opened the game with, heck, they could barely get two buckets in a row. Olivia Porter connected on a pair of threes in the final three minutes, with the second coming as the final bucket of the half, and the Golden Eagles went into intermission up five. Not great, given 8-0 to start, but that’s basketball.
Also basketball: A Game Of Runs, as they say.
Porter’s three ended the first half, and buckets from Lee Volker and Skylar Forbes opened the second. That’s a 7-0 run for Marquette, not entirely unlike that 8-0 opening burst. The catch here is that it took MU three minutes to get those two baskets, which is three minutes where Creighton was not scoring. After Grace Boffeli got CU’s first basket of the second half, Marquette said “that’s enough for you, Jays.” 11-0 Marquette run to end the half over the next 6:20, and the 11 points were all in the final 4:01. Heck, four of it was with less than a minute to go, including Porter drawing a foul in transition with less than a second to play. Marquette by EIGHTEEN heading to the fourth because they outscored the Bluejays 15-2 in the third quarter.
Guess what opened up the fourth? A three from Porter, essentially creating a five point possession for Marquette, 14-0 run, and that’s 21-2 Marquette since there was 45 seconds left in the first half. See, I figured just more likely that MU got a few 8-0 bursts here and there. Nope, they just opened up an entire can of whupass on the Bluejays for 11-plus straight minutes. Marquette’s lead would max out at 23, Creighton never got closer than 16, and Bob’s your uncle, Marquette is now 5-2 in Big East action and 11-5 overall this year.
Did you get a sense that Olivia Porter was great in this game? Good call. She shot 7-for-14 from the field but 5-for-10 behind the arc for an effective field goal percentage of nearly 68% on her way to a career high 23 points. She also added two rebounds, an assist, and two steals. Nice work.
All told, Marquette had four players scoring in double digits with Skylar Forbes putting in 12 to go with her 10 rebounds, and both Jaidynn Mason and Halle Vice chipping in 10 each. Vice finished with just eight rebounds, so her double-double streak ends here. A note on Forbes, who also had three assists: She finished the first quarter with three turnovers, all for traveling calls. She finished the game with just four turnovers, so credit to her for figuring out how to avoid any further problems.
How about some highlights, courtesy of GoMarquette.com and truTV?
Up Next: How about a little bit of time off? The Golden Eagles cycle into a bye in the Big East calendar at this point, so they’ll be off until next Wednesday. That will bring a trip out east to visit Seton Hall on January 14th, with tipoff set for 6pm Central time on ESPN+. The Pirates are 11-5 on the year and 5-2 in Big East games after getting a 58-48 victory at Providence on Thursday night. MU gets zero advantage in the rest department, as SHU won’t play again until the Golden Eagles come to town.
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