TERRE HAUTE —
The Creighton women’s basketball team has won three of their last four games in Hulman Center.
While the Bluejays have been one of the winningest programs in the Missouri Valley Conference — with at least 12 league wins in seven of the last nine seasons — the Bluejays’ success in Terre Haute would need to end if the Sycamores want to show that their 4-1 start to league play is not a fluke.
“I think this is a very important game for us,” ISU coach Teri Moren said. “I think back to when Creighton came in here last year. It was a very frustrating afternoon because of the way we came out: just listless, not really interested in participating for 40 minutes.”
The Sycamores fell behind early in that game, trailing by 15 at halftime before losing 62-53.
ISU was introduced to Creighton’s 5-foot-11 guard Carli Tritz, who had 18 points, five assists and six steals. As a sophomore, Tritz got off to a slow start after minor knee surgery last fall.
The fastest CU player to 400 points since 1993 is one of the top talents in the league, and she’s been on a tear of late. Tritz lit up a 14-2 Kansas team for 23 points, and she’s shooting 48.1 percent from the field in her last 10 games.
ISU senior Brittany Schoen will draw the tough matchup, but she emphasized that it’s going to take a team effort to slow down the Bluejays’ catalyst.
“She’s a really good player and she’s really smart offensively,” Schoen said. “I just have to play smarter defense. It’s not just me against her. I have four teammates that have my back, and I think that’s what’s going to help us.”
The Sycamores played solid team defense during their 4-1 MVC start, with last week’s 79-58 loss at Bradley being the exception. ISU also caught Bradley, which had one of the league’s best nonconference runs at 9-3 with a win over Iowa, at a time when the Braves were in dire need of a win at 1-3 in the league.
Just as Bradley did what it needed to do at home, the Sycamores need to bounce back this weekend, senior center Shannon Thomas said.
“Coach keeps talking to us this week about the huge opportunity we have, being at home with two really good teams coming in,” Thomas said. “They have a really good 2-guard with Tritz and a solid post player [Sarah Nelson]. We’re working on stopping them. We’re ready to keep going and continue to play as well as we have been.”
Thomas is coming off a 1-of-5 shooting performance against Bradley and Braves’ 6-foot-3 center Leah Kassing. The Sycamores’ offense stalled after a strong start led by Deja Mattox, who leads the Sycamores with an average of 14 ppg through five conference games.
While point guard play also wasn’t a strength against Bradley with Natasha Zurek having an off night and Taylor Whitley battling an illness that worked its way through most of the team last weekend, Moren has said in the past that the team tends to go as Thomas goes.
“Her biggest challenge as we stay in conference play is — she’s had a lot of success against undersized post players — now I think where Shannon has to take her game to the next level is being able to have success against kids that are almost her size or as strong as she is. That’s what’s keeping Shannon from going from a good post player to a great post player,” Moren said. “Great post players, night in and night out, they’re still productive. They still find ways to score. They still find ways to get their teammates involved.”
Thomas said she continues to work at dealing with the attention opposing defenses give her.
The Bluejays’ current records of 8-8 overall and 2-3 are deceiving due to a nonconference schedule among the top 20 in the nation and a road trip to two of the conference’s preseason favorites — Missouri State and Wichita State — to start the MVC season.
Whitley will return to the ISU starting lineup tonight, but her minutes will likely remain around the 20-per game she’s been playing. Whitley wears a large knee brace during practice, and still practices just every other day. She had a second surgery within a six-month period to repair the meniscus in her left knee.
“She’s probably only 80 percent and we’re kidding ourselves if we think she’ll be 100 percent this season,” Moren said.
But ISU’s depth at point guard is strong — partly due to the games Whitley missed — with Zurek providing stability, and fellow freshman Jessica Valley leading the team in assists with 48 on the season.
Schoen is confident the Sycamores’ continued hard work will pay off.
“Now, we are practicing like a winning team, which is something we hadn’t done all season until we hit conference. Something switched in us. Our focus is usually always there,” Schoen said.
College
ISU women look to reverse recent trend vs. Creighton
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