The St. John’s women’s basketball team fell to the Creighton Blue Jays by a score of 65-62, handing the Red Storm its first losing streak of the 2014 calendar year.
Amber Thompson was limited by the Creighton (17-10, 11-4) defense in the first half, going just 1-4 from the field with 2 turnovers. Aliyyah Handford’s Big East player of the week winning shot was practically silenced to open the game as well, scoring just 4 points in the first in this tale-of-two-halves contest.
“It was a tough loss today but I’m proud of the way we fought back at the end,” said head coach Joe Tartamella in a release. “They have three great scorers who came out and did just that against us. Creighton is a very aggressive team, especially at home where it’s a great atmosphere.”
The Red Storm threatened in the second half, becoming seemingly an entirely new offensive team after falling to as much as a 20 point deficit when trailing 50-30 at the 10:56 mark. St. John’s closed the gap to just 4 points with under a minute left by going on a 24-8 run, but failed to finish the job.
The Johnnies got out to a 4-2 lead to open the first half, but it would be the last lead they would have for the rest of the game. At the 14:23 mark, the Blue Jays scored 10 unanswered points to go up 18-6 and would eventually lead by 12 at the half shooting 48.1 percent from the field, 50.0 percent from the 3-point arc, and sinking all 5 free throw attempts.
St. John’s couldn’t get back on track Sunday afternoon as both their offense and defense was dominated by the Blue Jays (17-10, 11-4).
Despite ranking second in the NCAA in 3-point defense, the women surrendered 7 of the 12 (58.3 percent) treys attempted by Creighton, while failing to score any of their 3 of 12 attempts (25.0 percent) until the second half.
When they last faced Creighton on Jan. 8 while on the tear of their life, the Johnnies beat up on the Blue Jays with help in part by the dominating performance of junior Amber Thompson, who combined for 11 points and 12 rebounds.
The women will look to get back to their winning ways at home on Feb. 26 when they face Marquette at
Carnesseca Arena.
