A career-high 24 points from junior guard McKenzie Fujan propelled the No. 10 seed Creighton women’s basketball team to an opening round 61-56 victory over the No. 7 seed Syracuse University Orange. Saturday’s victory was Creighton’s first NCAA Tournament win since 1994.
Fujan single-handedly kept the Bluejays in the game during the first half. While the rest of the team couldn’t throw it in the ocean for the first 15 minutes, Fujan sank five 3-pointers to keep the Bluejays at pace with Syracuse.
In fact, the first Bluejay not named Fujan to score a basket was junior guard Carli Tritz, who sank a 3-pointer with 3:31 remaining in the opening half.
Fujan found her groove from the left-wing position on a 3-pointer at the 9:59 mark of the first half. She made additional 3-pointers at the 9:08 and 6:04 marks to cut Syracuse’s opening 14-5 lead down to 17-15.
In all, Fujan scored 17 of Creighton’s 24 first-half points.
Creighton entered halftime tied with the Orange 24-24.
Creighton and Syracuse swapped six- and seven-point runs back and forth in the first 10 minutes of the second half; one team could not pull away from the other.
That is, until Fujan sank her sixth 3-pointer of the contest. That shot sparked an 8-0 Bluejay run that put Creighton ahead 47-37 with 8:39 remaining.
Creighton took its largest lead of the game on a 3-pointer from junior forward Sarah Nelson. Nelson’s 3-pointer put the Bluejays ahead 55-45 with 4:54 remaining in the game.
Following a timeout called after Nelson’s 3-pointer, Syracuse changed from 2-3 zone to a man-on-man defense. The switch created consecutive Bluejay turnovers, which were converted into a bucket in the paint and a 3-pointer on a fast break.
A jumper by Syracuse senior center Kayla Alexander at the 2:39 mark and a layup by senior guard Carmen Tyson-Thomas extended a 9-2 Syracuse run and brought the Orange back within one point of the lead with 19 seconds left.
A pair of free throws by Fujan with 16 seconds remaining put the Bluejays ahead 59-56. Creighton created tough defensive pressure on Syracuse’s 3-point attempt to tie the game in the closing seconds to seal the victory. Senior guard Elashier Hall heaved the final shot while double teamed, which hit the front of the rim and was rebounded by Nelson.
Nelson knocked down a pair of free throws to put the Bluejays up to their final total of 61 points after officials determined she had been fouled with 0.3 seconds left.
Nelson finished the game with 17 points, 14 of which came in the second half. She also led the team with seven rebounds.
“As critical as McKenize [Fujan] was in the first half, I thought Sarah was that critical in the last 10 to 12 minutes,” Flanery said. “She hit a lot of big shots.”
Nelson was also largely responsible for defending Kayla Alexander because foul trouble limited junior center Alyssa Kamphaus to 13 minutes. Alexander’s four-inch height advantage on Nelson allowed the senior center to score a team high 23 points for the Orange.
Though the four-guard Bluejay lineup presented disadvantages on defense for the Bluejays, Flanery believed Creighton was better able to “space the floor and move the ball against [Syracuse’s 2-3] zone.”
The improvement on the offensive end led to a more even distribution of scoring by the Bluejay lineup in the second half. Besides Nelson, freshman guard Marissa Janning scored all 10 of her points in the second half. Janning led the Bluejays in assists with six.
The victory over Syracuse marked the first NCAA Tournament win for head coach Jim Flanery. His only previous appearance came last year, when Creighton was defeated by St. John’s University on a layup with 0.1 seconds remaining.
This season, Creighton was bounced from the conference tournament in the semifinal round in an overtime loss to Illinois State University but earned an at-large bid into the NCAA Tournament.
Flanery said he was pleased to see his team win a close contest this year.
“I credit our team with being resilient and just being tough enough to win an NCAA Tournament game because it’s not easy,” Flanery said.
Creighton advances to play No. 2 seed University of Tennessee Monday, who defeated the Oral Roberts University 83-62 in Saturday’s second game.
Tip-off between the Bluejays and the Lady Volunteers is scheduled for 6:10 p.m. from Thompson-Boling Arena, Tennessee’s home court, in Knoxville, Tenn. The game will be televised on ESPN2.