Creighton women’s basketball won its 10th straight game on Saturday, blowing out DePaul 88-59.
The 29-point triumph followed a 30-point win in the team’s last game against Xavier. On this winning streak, the Bluejays also have a 36-point victory and three other double-digit wins.
Here are three takeaways from the game:
Strong Offensive Start
Creighton opened the game on fire, scoring 30 points on 68.4% shooting in the opening quarter of play.
The Bluejays responded to DePaul’s first bucket with eight straight points, and answered the second with a 9-0 run. The Blue Demons strung together some points after that, cutting their deficit to 19-13, but Creighton then scored the final 11 of the quarter.
Emma Ronsiek led the charge, scoring 15 of her game-high 29 points in the first 10 minutes. She got buckets at all three levels, hitting tough shots in the post, cashing in on open layups and even knocking down a three.
The other 15 points came from five different Bluejays. Molly Mogensen had six of those, the guard typically known for her 3-point shooting abilities this time scoring three times in and around the paint. Head coach Jim Flanery credited her postgame for an increase in aggressiveness as of late.
That absurd first-quarter pace certainly did not continue through the rest of the game, but it was enough to spark Creighton to 88 points in the contest and a double-digit lead that never wavered much.
Bluejays Stay Solid Through Slower Offensive Quarters
There were plenty of ugly sequences after the opening quarter for Creighton.
This was especially true in the second. The Bluejays went up 25 points, then, out of a timeout, turned the ball over five times in a span of six possessions. The other ended in a missed three.
“It’s hard to be negative when you’ve won 10 in a row,” Flanery said. “But I do think there are still areas and times where we can be a little bit more in tune with what we need to do to be great.”
Even as Creighton did this and scored five points over the final six minutes and 53 seconds of the half, its lead never dipped any lower than 19 points. Those giveaways resulted in DePaul points just twice — once on a fastbreak layup and once on free throws after a dead ball offensive rebound.
DePaul shot 32.1% in the first half and 32.7% for the game, helping Creighton maintain its big lead. Only once did the Blue Demons do anything resembling a push back into the game, as a 10-2 run between the end of the third and start of the fourth quarters put the difference at 15 points.
The Bluejays quickly quieted that as well, and DePaul went on to have a four-minute scoring drought in the final period of play. Creighton blocked three shots and came up with eight steals in the game, adding to the strong defensive performance.
Creighton’s second-half offense was solid, producing 41 points. Plenty of that total came from the team shooting 18-for-20 at the free-throw line as whistles blew a ton down the stretch.
Now Comes The Hard Part
Creighton’s win streak will certainly be tested in the next two games.
The Bluejays go on the road next Friday to play St. John’s, the current fourth-place team in the conference. Its only home losses this year have come to UConn and Penn State, both strong opponents. The Red Storm lost by 11 to Creighton when they played in Omaha.
After that, it’ll be another away game, this time at No. 11 UConn. The Huskies demolished Creighton in the Bluejays’ most recent loss, winning by 44 points at D.J. Sokol Arena.
UConn is likely the only game left on the regular season schedule Creighton isn’t expected to win, and St. John’s is more than capable of providing a challenge as well. At very least, the Bluejays will look to be much more competitive when they head to Storrs, Connecticut.
