Creighton University
South Dakota State
Thrall, Woodard Key Bluejay WNIT Win at South Dakota State
3/20/2008 10:00:00 PM | Women's Basketball
The Bluejays trailed by seven points at halftime after a first half of runs. The Jackrabbits jumped out to a 15-7 lead before the Bluejays would counter with the next seven points in the game to pull within one. But the home team would then rattle off an 11-0 run to go up 26-14 with 6:15 left in the half. The Bluejays would answer with 13-2 spurt to pull within two points with 1:26 to go. SDSU would close the half with the last five points, including their fifth three-pointer of the half to close the first 20 minutes with a 34-27 lead.
SDSU owned a 43-37 just over two minutes into the half before the Bluejays tore off a 15-3 run to take control of the game and move ahead 52-46 with 10:35 to play in the game. The Jays led by as many as 12, up 67-55 with just over four minutes to play before ending with the seven-point margin of victory.
Creighton shot 70.8 percent from the floor in the second half, going 17-of-24 from the field and finished the game with a season-high 56.3 field goal percentage. CU shot 9-for-18 (.500) from three-point range, with four different players making at least two trifectas.
The Creighton defense also played a role in the win, as the Jays blocked a season-high 10 shots in the game, including a career-high from senior Sara Cain. CU also owned a 32-31 rebounding edge.
Woodard shot 11-of-14 in the game, making her first nine attempts of the second half before missing her final shot of the game. She poured in 29 points after combining for 25 points in her previous four games.
Thrall yanked down a game and season-high nine rebounds to go along with her game and season-high nine assists. She finished with 19 points, including a 7-for-8 night at the free-throw line.
Jennifer Warkenthien led SDSU with 26 points on 9-of-20 shooting from the field.
Creighton will now travel to
NOTES: Prior to shooting a season-high 56.3 percent from the field, the Bluejays were shooting 31.5 percent over their previous four games ... Creighton's 10 blocked shots were the most by the Bluejays since they swatted 10 Indiana State shots on March 10, 2006 ... With her first field field goal in the second half, Ally Thrall moved past current graduate manager Kristi Woodard for 16th place on the CU career scoring list, she now has 1,120 points in her career ... Kelsey Woodard had missed her previous 13 field goal attempts coming into this game ... Woodard has now scored 20 or more points in a game four times this year, while this is her first 20-point game since Feb. 2 at Illinois State ... Woodard had scored a combined 25 points in her previous four games and not scored in double figures in CU's last four games ... Creighton snapped South Dakota State's 12-game winning streak, the third 10+ winning streak ended by the Bluejays this year (Illinois State ? 14, Evansville ? 10) ... SDSU finished the season 14-1 at home ... CU is now 3-0 all-time against SDSU ... CU is 11-4 all-time in the WNIT, including 9-2 under head coach Jim Flanery ... Of the first eight WNIT finals on Thursday night, Creighton was the only road team to prevail.
