Marquette women beat No. 23 Creighton in Big East semis (Mar 6, 2017)

By AP
Published

MILWAUKEE (AP) Amani Wilborn shot 7 of 12 from the field, made 7 of 8 free throws and finished with a career-high 21 points, four assists and two steals to help Marquette beat No. 23 Creighton 72-65 on Monday to advance to the championship game of the Big East Tournament.

Allazia Blockton added 19 points and seven rebounds, while Danielle King scored 18 with five rebounds and five assists for third-seeded Marquette (24-7). The Golden Eagles, who have won seven in a row, will play top-seeded and 17th-ranked DePaul or No. 5 seed St. John's on Tuesday.

King converted a 3-point play midway through the second quarter that gave Marquette the lead for good and sparked an 11-4 run that made it 36-30 at the break. Creighton, the No. 2 seed, twice cut its deficit to five points in the fourth quarter - the last of which came when Sydney Lamberty's layup made it 66-61 with 3:45 to play. Blockton scored four points and Wilborn added two more, as the Bluejays missed 5 of 7 shots, in the final 2:40 to seal it.

Creighton swept the regular-season series, including an 83-63 road win on Jan. 2.

''I mean, that was fantastic to watch them weather that storm, make every right play down the stretch,'' Marquette coach Carolyn Kieger said. ''And I can't say enough about these two guards (Wilborn and King) sitting next to me and how much they've matured, not even in a year, just from the beginning of the season.''

Marquette committed a season-low four turnovers. Creighton scored 22 points off 13 Golden Eagles turnovers in its 80-77 win on Jan. 29.

''Yeah, it's huge; 17-0 on points off of turnovers, right,'' Kieger said. ''So that's saying that we're maturing, I think. We're confident with the ball, especially the way we lost the Creighton game last time at their home floor was because of turnovers, so in a month to have fixed that and to have confidence down the stretch, that says a lot about our toughness.

Lamberty, the only Creighton (23-7) player to score in double figures, had career highs of 26 points and 15 rebounds.

''You know, Marquette is a really good team,'' Creighton coach Jim Flanery said. ''We knew that when we played up here two months ago. We played one of our best games of the year, and they probably didn't play very well, but we were fortunate to beat them at home. So we knew it was going to be the type of game that it was.''