No. 22 Creighton women’s basketball closed out the regular season with a 70-55 win over Villanova at D.J. Sokol Arena on Sunday night.
The Jays finished the regular season 24-5 including 16-2 in conference play and will head to the Big East Tournament at the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut as the No. 2 seed.
Here are three takeaways from the regular season finale.
Seniors Signing off at Sokol
Creighton may have held its senior day celebration for its seven seniors a couple weeks ago, but Sunday was the special class’s final opportunity to suit up at D.J. Sokol Arena.
It was a grind for much of the game, but the Jays managed to create enough separation late to have a special moment. With less than a minute to play and a 10-point lead, the ball popped around the court until it found its way into Morgan Maly’s hands, and the senior from Crete let it fly, burying her final 3-point attempt in Omaha.
Coach Jim Flanery immediately called a timeout when the ball went through the net and sent in five subs to give the five fifth-year seniors who have given so much to the program over the years a chance to check out one final time. The fans gave the group a standing ovation as they embraced their coaches and teammates on the bench before the final 50 seconds played out.
“It was pretty cool,” Flanery said. “It’s a group that’s easy, even though you coach them, it’s easy to cheer for them too. I’m not always the easiest on them, but there’s a lot there. They’ve put in the work too. From the time that they’re 9 or 10 years old, they’ve put the work in to get this good, and so you just feel good that they can kind of be recognized and feel what they got to feel tonight.”
Lauren Jensen, Molly Mogensen, Mallory Brake and Jayme Horan checked out alongside Maly. Jensen transferred to Creighton after one season at Iowa while the other four have spent their entire careers at Creighton.
“It’s been so awesome to be able to play with all of them for four years,” Jensen said. “They’re my best friends. Flan talked about playing with joy going out there before the game, and we do that every time. Ee play for each other, and they’re truly the best to play with. It wouldn’t be the same without them. The crowd was great tonight. I think it’s a testament to what we’ve done, what we’ve built here the past four years, what we’ve continued to build from previous players. It was a really cool, special moment.”
The win completed an undefeated final season at D.J. Sokol Arena as the Bluejays won all 11 of the games they played there (with the only home loss coming to UConn at CHI health Center Omaha). Over the past four years, they went 41-9 at Sokol.
“It’s crazy,” Jensen said. “I think that speaks to the work that we’ve done each and every day and the consistency that we’ve had. It’s hard to have 24 wins and be 11-0 at home. It’s been a fun ride, and I’m glad we’re able to go out like that.”
Flanery called this senior group the greatest class the program has seen, and said the fact that they’ve stuck together in Omaha is a testament to their love for each other. He included Emma Ronsiek in that group as well, who scored 1,662 points in four years at Creighton before transferring to Colorado State to spend her fifth season playing with her younger sister, Hannah.
In total, the five seniors who checked out together have totaled 5,943 points, 2,537 rebounds, 1,380 assists, 864 3-pointers and 524 steals in Bluejay uniforms over the past five years. Flanery said their impact extends far beyond their on-court production, however.
“Yeah, they’ve won a lot of games, but I think they’ve also made people think differently about women’s sports, women’s basketball, and Creighton women’s basketball in particular,” Flanery said.
2K Club
Sunday’s game was particularly meaningful for the team’s two senior stars as they both hit the 2,000-career-point mark.
Including the 23 points she scored at Iowa, Jensen only needed six on Sunday to get to 2,000. She reached that point on a pair of free throws in the second quarter. Jensen finished with 17 despite a rough shooting day and needs just 12 more to hit the 2,000 mark during her four years at Creighton.
Maly needed 15 points on Sunday to get there. She got off to a slow start with 6 points on 3-of-7 shooting in the first half. She added a 3 and a pair of free throws in the third, then poured in 12 points on 100% shooting in the fourth to finish with a team-high 23 on 8-of-14 from the field (3-of-7 from 3) and 4-of-4 from the foul line plus 10 rebounds and three steals. Maly capped a 10-0 Creighton run a couple minutes into the fourth quarter with a 3 to cross the 2,000-point milestone and join Jensen in the club.
“We were actually talking about it earlier, because we knew we were both close, and I knew she had me by a little bit,” Jensen said. “I knew it was maybe a possibility … I think it’s rare to have two players on the same team to hit that milestone, especially so close together. It’s been really fun being able to play with her.”
Jensen and Maly have etched their names all over the Creighton and Big East record books with everything they’ve accomplished during their time at Creighton, and it’s culminated in the best season of their careers playing alongside each other. Jensen is averaging a career-high 17.8 points (fourth in the Big East) and Maly is right behind her at 17.5 (fifth).
“I think they’ve elevated each other’s careers, rather than made it more difficult in any way,” Flanery said. “They’re both hard workers by nature, but they probably are 2% better or 4% better because, they want to stay in the gym just a little bit longer, because ‘Well, I think she probably wants to stay in the gym.’ I just think they build off each other, they push each other … They’re highly competitive, but then when practice is over, they’re doing extra stuff to make sure that they’re squeezing every bit of excellence out of each other.
“They want the best, they want the best for this team, and they’ve worked really hard. Their shot-making is elite, and you don’t get that without the work that they put in and pushing each other.”
After the final buzzer sounded, the pair took a moment to look around Sokol before exiting for the final time.
“Just soaking it in, just to look around and see people that you’ve known for four years, five years, and just see them supporting you, it’s cool,” Maly said.
Choppy Game
The game itself had little flow for much of its duration. Each team had multiple extended scoring droughts. Villanova (17-13, 11-7 Big East) went five minutes between points in the first quarter, but Creighton failed to pull away and went three-plus minutes without scoring itself at multiple points. There were seven lead changes and a pair of ties as the teams jockeyed with each other throughout the first half.
Creighton outshot Villanova by nearly 20 percentage points (50% to 30.6%) in the first half, but nine Bluejay turnovers allowed the Wildcats to remain within striking distance. Creighton cut the turnovers down to three in the final 20 minutes and maintained its lead the rest of the way.
“They did a good job,” Maly said. “I feel like our spacing and our timing of our actions wasn’t great. I don’t really know if it was us or them that changed in the second half, but I just felt like the middle was more open. We hit cutters. We just had some good movement that allowed us to just play how we normally play.”
Villanova caught fire in the third quarter, making six out of seven shots at one point to trim deficit to four. However, the Jays responded in a big way, ripping off a 15-3 run to extend the lead to 16 early in the fourth, and they cruised the rest of the way.
Flanery gave junior Kiani Lockett much of the credit for Creighton pulling away. Villanova star freshman Jasmine Bascoe (seventh in the Big East in scoring at 15.8 per game) went off for 24 points on 10-of-17 shooting in the first three quarters. Flanery said he switched Lockett onto her late, and the 5-foot-7 guard only scored three points on 1-of-3 shooting in the final period.
“I thought Kiani did a really good job on Bascoe … I thought she was really good tonight, and so we probably should have switched Kiani onto her and had her play her more, maybe switch Kiani and Molly off and on on her and tried to wear her down a little bit,” Flanery said. “But I thought Kiani took it upon herself to kind of up the intensity and make it difficult on her. For the most part, I thought that was a big deal. They had to work a little harder on offense, and maybe that opened some things up for us on our offensive end.”
Overall, Creighton held Villanova to 37.5% from the field just three free-throw attempts. The defensive effort was more than enough to offset a 6-for-22 performance from deep (which included going 3-for-4 in the fourth after a frigid first three).
