It took almost 35 minutes for the Salukis to get an offensive spark, but then it was too late.

SIUC went on a 20-5 run in the last five minutes of the game, but Creighton University’s full-court press kept the Salukis at bay.

Their defense was outstanding, SIUC coach Cindy Scott said. I think their defense is the toughest we have seen all year. They had us in fits the entire ball game.

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The Salukis lost to Creighton 64-61 Thursday night at the SIU Arena. The Salukis have lost two in a row and are 2-6 in the Missouri Valley Conference and 5-11 overall. The Lady Jays have won four games in a row and are now 6-2 in the conference and 10-6 overall.

The Saluki women endangered their chances of reaching the MVC tournament, as Bradley University is now tied with SIUC for eighth place in the conference. Only the top eight teams in the MVC are invited to compete in the postseason. The Salukis have lost eight of their last 10 games.

SIUC had problems early with turnovers. In the first half alone, the Salukis had 15 turnovers compared to Creighton’s six. The Salukis ended the game with a total of 24 turnovers, most of them a result of Creighton’s press defense.

But despite early offensive problems, the Salukis were within reach until Creighton forward Carrie Welle’s field goal at the 1:00 mark in the first half. Everything fell apart for SIUC from there.

Welle was fouled on the play and put the Lady Jays up by four. The Salukis were unable to score the rest of the half, while the Jays scored two more times and took an eight-point lead into halftime.

Welle led all players with 29 points to complement her six rebounds.

She is unbelievable, Scott said. If she touches the ball, she is going to score, or she is gonna hit a free throw.

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At one point in the game, the Salukis were down by 18 points and without a field goal for nearly nine minutes in the second half. The only points in that stretch came from senior center Theia Hudson’s two free throws at the 11:44 mark.

The Salukis continued their recent shooting slump in the first half, but improved after the intermission. After a dismal 36 percent effort in the first half, SIUC came back to shoot 50 percent in the second half. The Lady Jays shot just 37 percent from the field in the second half.

The Salukis got some spark from freshman guard Tiffany Traylor, who came with up a couple of key field goals in the closing minutes and broke through the Lady Jays’ defense several times in the closing minutes.

I thought Tiffany did a good job, Scott said. She just put the ball down and went with it.

The Salukis were led by sophomore guard Meredith Jackson, who had 15 points to go with four rebounds.

The Salukis also got help from Kristine Abramowski who had two steals in the last two minutes of the game to help the Salukis narrow Creighton’s lead.

There were two bright spots, Scott said. We didn’t die when we were down 18, and I thought Kristine Abramowski was really good.

The Salukis play the Drake University Bulldogs at 5 p.m. Saturday at SIU Arena.