Senior forward Sarah Nelson’s 21 points helped the Jays defeat the Butler Bulldogs 61-52 Sunday afternoon in the quarterfinals of the Big East tournament.

The Bulldogs defeated Creighton 67-59 on Senior Night and 58-52 on Jan. 18 in Indianapolis.

Nelson scored a season-low two points during the Senior Night loss.

“The first two games we had a really hard time scoring against them,” Jays head coach Jim Flanery said. “Today was no different. What we did differently was we really tried to commit to pressing them so that at some point in the game the game would open up a little more to give ourselves more of an opportunity to have better opportunities on offense.”

Both teams struggled on the offensive end of the floor in the first half, but freshman guard MC McGrory’s second-chance bucket at the end of the first half gave the Jays a 21-20 lead at the half.

“It gave us a lot of motivation heading into halftime with that lead, especially on a buzzer-beater from MC,” Big East Player of the Year sophomore guard Marissa Janning said. “I think it gave her a lot of confidence. As teammates we were there to build her up even more and get her head big so she had confidence going into the second half.”

McGrory delivered in the final 20 minutes, scoring 10 of her career-high 12.

Creighton used a 12-0 run in the second half to take the lead for the good.

After shooting a dismal 23.5 percent (8-34) in the first half, the Jays made 50 percent (12-24) of their shots in the final 20 minutes.

Janning was scoreless in the first half, but added 10 points in the second half for Creighton.

The Jays face second-seeded St. John’s in the semifinals, today at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Ill. at 3 p.m.