Last time the DePaul women’s basketball team played at McGrath-Phillips Arena, they lost 64-60 against Villanova. On Friday, they played host to the Creighton Bluejays who were riding a four-game win streak.
This time, No. 24/21 DePaul (15-6, 7-1) didn’t stumble at home and beat Creighton (10-10, 4-4) handily 81-63 in a game that saw four Blue Demons score in double figures.
“Creighton was on a roll…so it was very important game for us and our players to get back home here and make a statement to themselves,” head coach Doug Bruno said. “I thought we did a really good job [following our game plan].”
Jessica January and Megan Podkowa led the way with 16 points each, while Chanise Jenkins and Mart’e Grays added 11 and 10 respectively. January looked like she was going to easily nab a double-double, if not a triple-double when she went into halftime with eight points, seven rebounds and four assists.
However, she only was able to add three assists and no rebounds in the second half to finish the game with a stacked stat line of 16 points, seven rebounds and seven assists.
“We were setting really good screens tonight,” January said. “Just coming off those and getting open [allowed us to score easily].”
Her final basket of the night came with 9:32 to go in the fourth quarter and happened to be the 1000th point of her DePaul career, which made her the 34th player in the program’s history to do so.
“I didn’t know that,” January said. “But that’s cool.”
Bruno said the win at home after the previous home loss to Villanova was important for the team moving forward.
“It’s very important for our team to learn that we can be very good, but we can also be very average,” Bruno said. “It was important for them to come back and bounce back like they did just to show the world that we can be a really effective team.”
The Blue Demons are now 7-1 in the Big East and have another three consecutive home games as they look to take a commanding lead on their conference foes. Up next is last place Providence who are 0-8 in conference play this season.
