Creighton women’s basketball played its final home game of the regular season on Tuesday night, beating Xavier 99-57.
The Bluejays shot over 60% from the field and put up their second-highest point total of the season. All nine available Creighton players scored, grabbed a rebound and recorded an assist in the contest. Afterwards, the team’s six seniors were honored.
Here are three takeaways from the contest:
Bluejays Run Away in Second Half
There wasn’t much drama expected in a matchup against Xavier, a team which has won once all year and appears headed toward its second straight winless Big East season.
Despite what the final score may suggest, the Musketeers did hang around for a while. The game was tied 9-9 nearly five minutes into the opening period of play before Emma Ronsiek sparked a 15-3 Bluejay run to end the first quarter. Even then, the sides played an even second quarter, with Xavier cutting its deficit to nine for a moment. A Ronsiek and-one pushed the Creighton advantage back to 13 heading into the locker room.
Midway through the third quarter, the Bluejays finally broke free. They ended that period on a 10-0 run, and added 12 more points to push it to a 38-point lead before Xavier answered. Shots kept on falling for the Bluejays, and the Musketeers simply couldn’t match that pace or slow their opponent down.
Creighton shot 86.7% in a 30-point fourth quarter, making 13 of its 15 attempted shots. That included 18 points on 8-for-9 shooting from the bench of Kennedy Townsend, Brittany Harshaw, McKayla Miller and Jayme Horan.
“It was a good way to end the home season,” Creighton head coach Jim Flanery said postgame. “It felt like we wore them down, I thought Xavier played pretty well in the first half… but I thought we stuck with it.”
Senior Night Festivities
Creighton’s starting five is made up entirely of seniors, and that group got going early.
Emma Ronsiek dished out three assists to Mallory Brake, Morgan Maly and Lauren Jensen early, each hitting a three to account for Creighton’s first nine points. Ronsiek then hit one of her own, and Molly Mogensen converted from deep later in the period. The team was happy to see Brake, the only non-shooter in the lineup, knock down her second 3-pointer of the season to start off scoring.
Ronsiek had the most productive night of all the seniors, finishing the game with 25 points, five rebounds, seven assists and four blocks. She moved into 10th all-time on Creighton’s scoring leaderboards with the showing.
“I didn’t know I was that close to that accolade,” she said postgame. “… It’s just an honor to be on that list.”
The starters all finished with double-digit points. Jayme Horan was the last to score off the bench, but finally got on the board late. Flanery said they drew a play up for her to score, but didn’t need it anyway as the guard stole a Xavier pass and took it all the way to the rim on the other end. The Bluejays still did run that play on the next possession, which resulted in Horan making a three.
Postgame, a video honoring the seniors was shown and Flanery took the microphone to thank them and many others.
All six seniors do have the option to come back for another season thanks to COVID-19 eligibility policies at the start of their careers. None have publicly declared their intentions, and the team currently is keeping its focus on finishing the season out strong.
One More Regular Season Game
Creighton will close its regular season at Seton Hall, which it beat by single-digits late in January.
The Bluejays have already secured the second spot in the Big East conference standings and will certainly be selected for the NCAA Tournament. A season sweep would mainly serve to keep momentum going and beef up the team’s argument for a higher NCAA tourney seed.
After that will come the conference tournament, in which Creighton will hope to keep on rolling through most of the Big East and presumably face off with UConn (16-0 in conference play) for a third time. Both teams have plenty business to take care of before then, but have high hopes for the postseason.
