After an early exit in the Big East Tournament, the Creighton women’s basketball team is preparing for its first-round NCAA Tournament matchup with the UNLV Rebels.
Both teams received lower seeds than they were expecting in the tournament, as the Jays were named the seventh seed in the Albany 2 region, while UNLV received a ten seed, despite having stellar records in their respective leagues, as Creighton went 25-5 while the Lady Rebels went 30-2.
The two teams are efficient and excel in fundamentals, as both rank in the top ten nationally in assist/turnover ratio and top 20 in free throw percentage (with Creighton at No. 1), but their styles differ drastically. The Bluejays are content to slow the game down and let the ball fly from beyond the arc, while the Rebels want to run the court and control the paint.
The Bluejays are led by their dominant trio of seniors in Emma Ronsiek, Morgan Maly, and Lauren Jensen, a trio of elite scorers who can put the ball in the basket from all three levels, averaging more than 15 points per game. The rest of Creighton’s rotation is loaded with experience, with Molly Mogensen, who leads the team in assists, Mallory Brake, who has been a defensive rock of the Bluejays, and Jayme Horan, who has been a spark of energy off the bench all season.
“We’ve been in this situation before,” Jensen said. “It’s our third year going to the tournament, so we’ll definitely need to lean on that and just soak in the moment, there’s not a lot of people and not a lot of teams that get to go to the NCAA tournament.”
Creighton’s underclassmen have emerged as contributors as the season has progressed, too, as sophomore guard Kennedy Townsend has become an efficient scorer off the bench, sophomore guard Kiani Lockett, who recently returned from injury, has progressed into a dominant perimeter defender, and freshman forwards McKayla Miller and Brittany Harshaw have flashed elite scoring ability and have grown into solid defenders over the course of the season.
UNLV is led by senior center Desi-Rae Young, who averages 18 points and nine rebounds per game, both by far team highs for the Rebels. UNLV also sports one of the nation’s most efficient playmakers, junior guard Kiara Jackson, who leads the country in assist/turnover ratio while putting up 12 points per game.
The teams have a loose connection through Ronsiek’s younger sister, Hannah, who plays for Colorado State and, being in the Mountain West has matched up with UNLV three times this season, giving Emma some additional familiarity with the Rebels.
“I think it’s going to be a fun game, they’ve got really good players, but we’re a really hard team to prepare for when you have such little time to do it,” Ronsiek said of the Rebels.
The Rebels enter the NCAA Tournament on a 15-game winning streak, while the Bluejays are looking to bounce back after being upset by Georgetown in the Big East tournament.
UNLV and Creighton will play at UCLA’s arena, Pauley Pavillion, at 6 p.m. on March 23. The game will be televised on ESPNews. The winner will play the winner of No. 2 UCLA and No. 15 Cal Baptist on Monday, March 25.
Tournament coverage made possible by the generous support of Marty and Barbara Perry and Chris and Kathy Perry in honor of their son and nephew, Zach Perry, a 2010 journalism graduate and Creightonian staff member.