OMAHA, Neb. – Butler improved to 16-2 on the year with a 75-43 win at Creighton on Sunday afternoon.
Katherine Strong set the tone with 11 points in the first quarter. She finished the game with a career-high 23 points.
Strong helped Butler post their first win at Creighton since the 2013-14 season. She scored the first five points of the game for the Bulldogs and would responsible for 19 points at the half in just 10 minutes of action.
Butler shot 43.3 percent from the field at Creighton and ended the game with four players in double figures.
Whitney Jennings scored 18,
Kristen Spolyar was in the book with 11 and
Tori Schickel collected her ninth double-double of the season with 10 points and 12 rebounds. Schickel pulled down five of her 12 boards in the first quarter to move to second place all-time in career rebounds at Butler. She is now 31 away from breaking the school record.
10 points was also significant for Schickel as she moved into a tie for fifth place on the BU all-time scoring list. The talented senior saw a double team throughout most of the game and would add four assists to her stat line.
Michelle Weaver led the team in that category with five.
Butler never trailed in the contest to record their sixth conference win of the season. The outcome also goes down as the largest margin for victory for BU against a BIG EAST opponent.
The first quarter ended with Butler leading 20-7. The Bulldogs ended the final 4:50 on a 13-3 scoring run and would end the opening 10 minutes with zero turnovers.
The only thing that slowed
Katherine Strong down on Sunday was foul trouble. The junior picked up her third personal with 5:08 to play in the second quarter. Butler would readjust and still win the frame 17-16 to hold a 37-23 advantage at the half.
Any chance of a comeback would be cleared from the mind of everyone in attendance as Butler opened the third quarter on a 12-5 scoring run which would allow the Bulldogs to win the third 23-12. The final 10 minutes of action was much like the first with BU putting the clamps down defensively. Creighton shot just 3-of-15 in the fourth to net eight points.
The Bulldogs will return to Hinkle Fieldhouse next weekend to face a pair of nationally-ranked opponents. BU will host DePaul on Friday, Jan. 25 and face Marquette on Sunday at 2 PM.
