Creighton University
17-13, 10-8
No. 4 St. John's
21-9, 11-7
Women's Basketball Suffers a Heart Breaking 57-54 loss to St. John's
3/8/2015 5:12:00 PM | Women's Basketball
ROSEMONT, Ill. - The Creighton women's basketball squad suffered a heart breaking 57-54 loss to No. 4 St. John's in the quarterfinal round of the BIG EAST Tournament on Sunday, March 8.
The loss dropped the Bluejays to 17-13 on the season, while St. John's moved to 21-9. The Red Storm advance in the BIG EAST Tournament to face No. 1 Seton Hall on Monday, March 9.
Creighton came out of the gate quickly behind a spirited first half from freshman Sydney Lamberty, scoring 14 points in the first 20 minutes of play. Lamberty started the scoring with a trey at the 18:19 mark, sending the Bluejays on a 9-0 run to start play. Junior Marissa Janning and senior Alexis Akin-Otiko tallied layups, then Lamberty capped the Bluejays run with a driving layup of her own with 15:56 showing on the clock.
The Red Storm responded with several pushes in the opening half, pulling within three at 26-23 (2:35), but Creighton took a 28-23 lead into the break at the half.
The second half saw the Bluejays push their lead back out to eight with a 4-1 run in the opening moments, but the Red Storm refused to wilt. St. John's found success in the paint and Creighton saw its fouls begin to mount.
The Red Storm took their first lead with 10:53 remaining (39-38) on a free throws by Aliyyah Handford, but Creighton responded with a bucket from Akin-Otiko. The two squads exchange the lead once more on two St. John's free throws and an interior bucket by sophomore Brianna Rollerson to make it 42-41 in favor of the Bluejays.
St. John's, however, scored the next eight points to build a 49-42 lead with 5:14 remaining. Rollerson rallied Creighton, then sophomore Lauren Works gave the Bluejays new life with a three-ball that trickled in to make it 49-47 with 3:46 left.
With under a minute to play the Bluejays had the ball down 55-52; an errant three was put back by Akin-Otiko with under two seconds remaining. Akin-Otiko was hammered as she dropped the bucket in, but no the officials refused to call the foul.
With 1.6 seconds left, St. John's connected on a long in-bounds pass and dropped in a bucket as time expired for the 57-54 final.
Lamberty led Creighton with 16 points, while Janning had 10 points and Rollerson finished with nine points and 12 rebounds.
Sunday's loss closed out the Bluejays regular season, Creighton will now await word about a post-season berth early next week.
