Though she only played four minutes in the first half, Illinois States Sophie Tirtiaux came back in the final frame to lead the team with 17 points, a season-high for the senior, finishing with 14 minutes of action in the Birds 79-64 Valley loss to Creighton on Sunday afternoon.
The CU victory pushes the Bluejays record to 15-5, 9-2 in the Valley. While, Illinois State moves to 4-7 in Valley play, 7-13 overall.
Tirtiaux, Sundays top Redbird scorer, felt that Illinois States defense helped in her success.
In the first half, I dont think we played our usual team defense, said Tirtiaux. In the second half we talked more and were able to get some stops. We let our defense dictate our offense, which helped us do better in the second half. I was able to contribute with steals and making open shots. Creighton focused so much on the stars on our team, so that opened up the post. I took advantage of that and was able to play my game and make my shots.
After trading baskets for the first seven minutes, a Janis three-pointer sparked a 10-4 Bluejay run that spanned three minutes. Creighton led the Redbirds 41-28 at the half. Although Illinois States scoring attack was balanced in the first half, with nine players scoring in the opening stanza, the Birds shot only 29 percent from the field, 14 percent behind the arc. The Bluejays, however, led by junior forward Angie Janis who poured in 14 first-half points, shot 56 percent in the first 20 minutes, 64 percent from three-point land. With six seconds remaining in the first half, Janis was charged with her fourth foul after shoving Illinois States Katie Donovan. Janis would finish with 22 points.
Megan McCracken came out strong in the second half, hitting a three just twenty seconds into the half to cut the Creighton lead to 10. Tirtiaux and Jaci McCormack also sparked the Birds on a two minute, 10-3 run, with 13:48 to go in the game. Both had five points in the span to bring the score to 46-56.
Creighton coach Jim Flanery was pleased with his teams win.
I thought Illinois State would play with a lot of confidence so I knew that we would need to come out strong, said Flanery. We answered every run they had in the second half which helped us seal the win. I think this is one of the better games we have played all year. I was quite pleased with the win.
Illinois State head coach Robin Pingeton was also impressed with play of her team leader, Tirtiaux.
Tonight we were certain we were looking for that kid to give us the spark we needed, said Pingeton. Sophie is a steady player, she was a spark for us tonight.
Creighton is a very good team and they obviously played very well tonight, Pingeton continued. I was a little disappointed with the way we let our offense dictate our defense in the first half. We werent making shots and then that affected the way we fell back and tried to defend. We cant be too high as a team and we cant be too lowright now its like peaks and valleys. We need to be more consistent on our approach from game to game. We knew Creighton was going to fight for their life, to stay in that first place spot.
The Birds return to conference action February 10, as the squad travels to Springfield, Mo., to take on Southwest Missouri State for a 7:05 p.m. game against the Bears.
