No. 22 Creighton women’s basketball beat Butler 89-53 on Wednesday night, building up a solid first-half lead before running away with the contest after the break.
The Bluejays went up 14-4 early and withstood a few pushes from the Bulldogs before a 9-0 run helped keep them up double-digits at halftime. They then scored 11 of the first 13 points in the third quarter and never looked back from there.
Here are three takeaways from the impressive showing.
Emma Ronsiek, Mallory Brake Dominate on Both Ends
Creighton forward Emma Ronsiek was the highlight of the game, scoring 25 points on 10-for-14 shooting. Most of those came in the first half, helping the Bluejays to a strong start.
In the opening quarter, she scored four of Creighton’s first seven points, as well as its final four in the period. She also brought down five rebounds in that time, along with a block and a steal. When Butler made it a one-point game with back-to-back 3s early in the second quarter, Coach Jim Flanery went right to Ronsiek out of a timeout, and she delivered a bucket.
By halftime, she was up to 16 points, sparking the run which put the Bluejays up 12. She took advantage of mismatches Creighton was able to create against a smaller Butler lineup, also just shooting over players who had a better chance of matching her physically.
“I’ve just been working more on the mid-post touches with [assistant Chevelle Saunsoci] and all the other coaches,” Ronsiek said postgame. “I just think I’m a player who sees one go in and I’m just going to keep shooting, and I think that’s what happened tonight.”
Right behind Ronsiek in first-half production was Mallory Brake, who went into the locker room with eight points on 4-for-6 shooting, four rebounds, a block and a steal. She played well offensively, but stood out even more in disrupting Butler on the other end.
Plenty of other players made a significant impact, but Ronsiek and Brake both were efficient and solid defensively. They combined to produce 27 points on 16-for-23 shooting, 12 rebounds, three assists, no turnovers, two blocks and three steals.
Butler Held Off 3-Point Line
The defense was a point of team success, too. Butler’s offense wasn’t outstanding heading into the night, even adjusting for a slow pace of play, but the Bluejays limited what their foe did well.
Coming into Wednesday, the Bulldogs got a higher percentage of their points from 3-pointers than all but three teams nationally. They averaged over 23 attempts from deep per game and their three top scorers all shot over 40% on 3s.
However, Butler got off just six 3-point attempts in the first half and 14 in the game. Its percentage of 35.7% wasn’t too far off from its season average, but five made 3s was not nearly enough to be a difference-maker in this contest.
Stopping Butler from launching 3s was a point of emphasis for Creighton, and it executed it well in the game.
“We talked about pushing them out,” Flanery said postgame. “… I think they’re dependent on kind of getting into their comfort zone. We’ve got to potentially think about doing that a little bit more, just being a little bit more of a pressure team.”
Flashes From The Bench
Over halfway through the third quarter, Creighton had only gotten three points from its bench on a 3-pointer from Kennedy Townsend.
It didn’t need much more than that, of course, having extended the lead to more than 20 points at that time. Still, with three reserves in the game late in the third quarter, they made a strong push to close the period.
Butler cut its deficit to 21, and Kiani Lockett missed a 3 on the other end. However, Jayme Horan was in position for a putback layup and delivered. Following a Bulldog miss, Brittany Harshaw scored easily on a strong drive to the rim. Lockett followed with a steal soon after and scored on the fast break.
The Bulldogs did answer that 6-0 run with a layup, but Harshaw then nailed a step-back 3 to keep momentum going.
Of course, the bench got even more time in the fourth quarter, which featured more 3s and true freshman McKayla Miller getting in on the action. While most of the contributions came in garbage time, Flanery was happy with what he saw.
“They were great,” he said. “Where they keep getting better is defensively. The more trust that we have of them on the defensive end, the more opportunities they’re going to get, because they can all help us on offense.”
The coach mentioned Harshaw as a player he’s wanted to play more, but hasn’t against a tough schedule in close games. Still, he said the team will need the contributions of its reserves down the stretch of the season.
