One of the main on-court goals that drew Creighton’s senior class back for a bonus season in Omaha was that the failure to reach the title game of the Big East Tournament in their first four attempts.
In 2021, they upset Seton Hall in the quarterfinals before getting eliminated by Marquette in the semifinals. Despite reaching the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight in 2022, they bowed out on a Mya Bembry jump shot in the final seconds of the quarterfinal rematch with the Pirates. The following year, Morgan Maly’s tip-in at the buzzer paid back Seton Hall in 2023, but the Bluejays fell 63-61 to Maddy Siegrist and Villanova in the semifinals. Last season, they once again bounced Seton Hall in the quarterfinals, but could never find any offensive rhythm in a stunning 55-46 semifinal loss to Kelsey Ransom and sixth-seeded Georgetown.
Four seasons of Big East Tournaments at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut. Four seasons of early exits, including three years where they were on the doorstep of the championship game only to be turned away. After compiling a 16-2 record in conference play with the only losses coming at the hands of the top-seeded UConn Huskies, the Jays entered the weekend determined to finally check that box.
In Saturday night’s quarterfinal round, CU rallied from a 12-point second half deficit to win a 72-70 thriller and earn some redemption against Ransom and the Hoyas. That, combined with Seton Hall’s come-from-behind win over Xavier, set up a meeting with the Pirates for the fifth time in as many years since the event moved from out east from Chicago. Unlike the Georgetown game and previous tussles with SHU, there was no late-game drama on Sunday night as the Bluejays raced out to a 29-6 lead and never looked back enroute to a 73-44 drubbing of their Big East rivals to final kick down the door to the title game where they will meet four-time reigning conference tournament champion Huskies on Monday night.
“These players who have been with us for this long deserve this opportunity,” Creighton head coach Jim Flanery said. “Because they’ve put in the work. They’ve cared for each other and stayed with our program in a time where that’s not always the case, so I’m happy for them to get that opportunity.”
Morgan Maly and team were driven to get to the finals (McAtee / WBR)
Senior superstars Morgan Maly and Lauren Jensen had their foot on the gas from the outset on Sunday night. After Creighton won the opening tip off, Maly cashed it in quickly with a 3-pointer from the left wing. Jensen followed with a layup, a jumper from the left baseline, and a 3-pointer from the same spot as Maly to open up a 10-2 lead after the game’s first five possessions.
Juniors Kiani Lockett and Kennedy Townsend each scored five points, including 3-pointers of their own, to produce 10 of Creighton’s next 13 points to extend the lead to 23-6 at the end of the first quarter. Seniors Mallory Brake and Molly Mogensen joined the long-range barrage with back-to-back threes to kick off the scoring in the second quarter and push the lead out to 29-6, forcing Seton Hall head coach Tony Bozzella to burn his second timeout of the game with 6:51 still left to play in the opening half.
The Bluejays made nine of their first 12 shots — included a 5-for-5 performance from 3-point range — to start the game, but it was the fact that they forced the Pirates into missing 13 of their first 16 while only giving up one offensive rebound in the process that enhanced the opening salvo.
“It all starts on the defensive end,” Jensen said of the early haymakers that she and her teammates landed. “If we can get stops and rebound, we can run and push and that’s what we wanted to do. We were able to do that in the beginning of the game.”
After the timeout, Seton Hall scored on five of its final eight possessions of the half and stalled out CU’s offensive rhythm with a three-quarter court press and a mixture of defenses behind it. Those adjustments and a better conversion rate offensively allowed the Pirates to trim 12 points off the deficit and go into the locker room trailing 33-22.
Maryland grad transfer Faith Masonius scored over right shoulder at the rim to start the third quarter off by getting Hall within nine, but that was as close as they would as ever get. Maly and Jensen combined to score 20 of their squad’s next 25 points as Creighton executed their adjustments to Seton Hall’s pressure and fully rebuild their 23-point lead with 6:34 to go in the game.
“I think we really looked to score more coming out of the press in the second half versus the first,” Maly said. “We got a few easy ones and that just kind of let us build momentum. That transitioned into getting more stops and just having the offense flow a little bit more and get everyone involved.
“They were switching a lot, so we did a good job of slipping on cuts and ball screens, and Lauren putting anyone on an island is also good.”
Lauren Jensen led the way for the Jays (McAtte / WBR)
Flanery emptied his bench less than a minute later and the rest was history. Jensen led the Jays with a game-high 19 points on 8-of-16 shooting. Maly finished with 14 points on 5-of-8 shooting to go along with a game-high four assists. Brake had five points, five rebounds, three steals, and two assists. Mogensen tallied eight points, six rebounds, three assists, and a steal. Townsend joined Jensen and Maly in double figures with 10 points off the bench as Creighton’s reserves outscored Seton Hall’s 22-9.
With the Big East Tournament title appearance monkey off their backs, Creighton now sets their sights on a UConn team that not only handed them their only two losses in league play all year, but is also a perfect 65-0 against conferences foes over the last five years when 3-time Big East Player of the Year winner Paige Bueckers appears in the game as she almost certainly will on Monday night.
“This has been circled on our calendar for a long time,” Jensen said. “We wanted to get here. That’s definitely been one of the things we’ve come up empty on, but just because we’re in the championship game finally doesn’t mean we’re satisfied. We’re looking forward to it. The Big East Tournament is always a battle. We had a tough battle against Georgetown [on Saturday] and Seton Hall tonight. That’s what you’re going to get in the Big East, and we’re looking forward to another battle [on Monday].”
Jensen and her teammates know a win will likely require the best collective performance of their time at Creighton. Perhaps a performance even sharper than the one that allowed them to shock the college basketball world when they took down Caitlin Clark and Iowa at Carver-Hawkeye Arena to earn the program’s one and only trip to the Sweet 16 back in 2022, but Jensen and the Jays are undeterred and chomping at the bit to find out what’s what against Bueckers and the Huskies.
“UConn is a great team,” she said. “We’re going to have to be on, but we’re going to be ready for the challenge. We know what we can do. We know that we’re a good team. Obviously, UConn is a really good team as well, so it should be a fun game. It’s a big stage. It’s the conference championship. This is where we wanted to be and we’re really looking forward to it.”
Tip-off of No. 22/23 Creighton (26-5, 18-2 Big East) vs. No. 3/3 UConn (30-3, 20-0 Big East) is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. CT / 7:00 p.m. ET on Fox Sports 1.