Creighton University
Saint Louis
Women's Basketball Tops Saint Louis, 69-58
12/4/2009 9:00:00 PM | Women's Basketball
OMAHA, Neb. - Megan Neuvirth had a season-high 20 points and Creighton built an early 36-10 lead, never trailing in a 69-58 women's basketball victory over visiting Saint Louis on Friday night at D.J. Sokol Arena in the Wayne and Eileen Ryan Athletic Center.
Creighton moved to 5-1 for the first time 2000-01, while the Billikens dropped to 3-4 as their two-game win streak was snapped.
Sam Schuett scored seven early points and later blocked three shots in a 14-second span to help the Jays take a 13-4 lead in the first seven minutes. That would be part of a stretech that saw CU hold the Billikens without a field goal for a span of 9:34 as the visitors missed 14 straight field goal attempts. By the time its defensive dominance was over, Creighton's lead had reached 24-5. Lauren Woods scored 13 of SLU's first 15 points, only to see her teammates start the game 1-for-17 from the floor.
The Jays led by as much as 36-10 in the opening 20 minutes before settling for a 39-19 margin at halftime.
Creighton came out strong to start the second half, going ahead 56-27 in the opening six minutes. Saint Louis responded with a 12-0 run and claw within 56-39 and prompt a Bluejay timeout. Creighton would go scoreless on nine straight trips before back-to-back Ally Jensen three-pointers returned CU's lead to 23 points.
Saint Louis finished strong, as the final 11-point margin was the closest score of the game's final 31 minutes.
Neuvirth led CU with 20 points before fouling out, her fifth career game of 20 or more points. Jensen added a career-best 11 points, while Kelsey Woodard added 10 points. Schuett chipped in 11 points and had a team-high nine rebounds and career-high four blocked shots.
Saint Louis was paced by 21 points from Woods. The Billikens shot 38.1 percent from the floor (24-63).
Creighton will enjoy a rare weekend off before returning to action on Wednesday with a 7:05 p.m., game at unbeaten Nebraska (7-0).
NOTES: One game after making just one two-point basket after halftime, Creighton's first five field goals were from two-point range ... Creighton has led by 12 or more points at halftime in all four home games this season, including two leads of 20 or more points ... The crowd of 1,106 was the team's largest home crowd of the season ... The game was the 100th home game of Jim Flanery's head coaching career, as he is now 76-24 (.760) at home ... CU has won 15 of its last 16 home games ... Creighton is now 4-0 all-time against Saint Louis ... Megan Neuvirth had three rebounds to move to 751 career boards, going ahead of Kathy Halligan (749) for fourth on CU's all-time list ... Sam Schuett went over 500 career rebounds, grabbing nine caroms to narrowly miss her second-straight double-double ... This was Kelsey Crites' 100th game of her career.
