Led by a career-high 29-point effort from redshirt senior guard Amber White, the women’s basketball team dropped Creighton, 84-71, Saturday night in Reynolds Coliseum to capture the Sheraton Raleigh Invitational championship. After destroying College of Charleston in a 73-36 whitewashing to open the tournament Friday, State’ s opposition Saturday was far stiffer.
Strong play from White, who had 15 points by halftime, highlighted an evenly played first half that concluded with the Pack nursing a four-point lead at 38-34. State shot the ball well throughout the evening, finishing the game with a 51.6 shooting percentage from the field. But Creighton hung around for 20 minutes with 48 percent first half shooting of its own before halftime adjustments by coach Kellie Harper helped hold the Bluejays to 34 percent shooting after intermission.
“We changed a little bit of how we were defending them after halftime,” Harper said. “We went to more of a contain defense. We didn’t want them to get as many drives to the basket. I thought our kids really responded.”
Those changes helped the Pack come out in the second half with an 8-0 run to make it 46-34 at the 17:42 mark. Creighton responded, cutting the lead to two, at 53-51 with 11:37 remaining. That’s when State took over and pulled away. The Pack scored 14 points in a row and held Creighton scoreless until the seven-minute mark, then hung on for a 13-point victory.
State’s second half success coincided with the defense forcing 13 second half turnovers that helped the Pack get out in transition with 14 fast break points. Harper said with players like sophomore Marissa Kastanek, who scored 14 in the second half, it’s often not a matter of if, but when, the opposition will wear down.
“It was definitely part of our game plan,” Harper said. “We want to push tempo. A lot of those baskets came late. You have somebody like Marissa Kastanek who is going to give everything she has got as long as she is out there. And it’s hard for opponents to match that. At the end of the game, she is still going strong and is able to outrun people.”
While Kastanek broke through after halftime, White scored at will early and often and finished the night shooting 11-for-19 from the field. In addition to her career-high point total, White handed out four assists and pulled down five rebounds on her way to being named tournament MVP.
She said her offensive outburst against the Bluejays helped soothe the frustration from a disappointing performance – 1-for-5 shooting and six points in just 11 minutes – in a 73-36 win over College of Charleston Friday.
“I told coach earlier that I was mad about yesterday, I was really furious,” White said. “I got in foul trouble early and she really had no choice but to sit me. It motivated me to go out and play hard. We talked in the beginning about how Creighton was really scrappy. And I wanted to do my part to match their scrappiness and how hard they work.”
Joining White on the all-tournament team was Kastanek, who finished with 18 points against Creighton, and junior forward Bonae Holston.
