Jim Flanery always takes losing hard, but he couldn’t help but feel like he let his team down as he watched Hannah Sjerven muscle her way to a career-high 28 points on just 15 shots against an inexperienced front court in Creighton’s 72-65 loss at 24th-ranked South Dakota on Wednesday night.
The 6-foot-2 junior forward just missed a double-double, adding nine rebounds, five blocked shots, and 10-of-13 shooting from the free throw line to give the Coyotes their fifth straight win over the Bluejays since 2015.
“We just got our butts kicked in the post all night,” Flanery said. “We need to be tougher and battle harder, but I didn’t adjust and we didn’t have a good enough back-up plan and that’s probably on me. We gave some help late a little bit, but we weren’t decisive enough in helping our kids out. I could have done a better job of just having a back-up plan going into the game, but also being more definitive about adjusting within the game.”
Rachael Saunders had a nice game for the Bluejays (Juszyk / WBR)
Creighton’s post production paled in comparison to what South Dakota had at their disposal. True freshmen Mykel Parham and Carly Bachelor, and redshirt sophomore Gracey Griglione combined for just two points, two rebounds, and two blocked shots in 10 more total minutes than Sjerven. According to the head coach some of that was due to an inexperienced trio having an sub-par night, but some of it he believes also falls on him to put his players in a better position to succeed.
“None of them had a defensive rebound, so they’ve got to better than that, but we have to help them out,” Flanery reiterated. “We need to have a Plan B when they are over-matched … I probably under-prepared them for how effective [South Dakota] could be and what our counters were if they did get going in the post.”
The Bluejays outscored South Dakota 18-10 over the final 7:00 of the second quarter to turn a contest that had mostly been dictated by the home team into a back-and-forth affair resulting in a 33-33 tie at halftime. Sjerven had 12 of her eventual game-high 28 points at the break, but Creighton senior forward Jaylyn Agnew countered her with 10 first-half points to pace the offense while the defense held the Coyotes to 26.7% shooting in the second quarter.
A short pull-up jumper in the lane by junior point guard Tatum Rembao pulled CU within one at 41-40 with 5:46 left in the third quarter. The wheels started to fall off for the Bluejays after that, however. Over the next 11:04 of game time, Creighton missed 14 of 17 shots — including all nine of their 3-point field goal attempts in that span — as South Dakota opened up a 63-48 lead with 4:41 left in the game with a 22-8 run that was capped off by a four-possession stretch that ended with Sjerven scoring either inside or at the free throw line on every trip down the floor.
“Some of that was shot quality,” Flanery said of the crucial stretch. “But a couple times they fell down and Temi had open threes. And Tatum had open threes and she was 7-for-15 going into the game. If we make a couple like the ones Payton made late, if we make a couple like that in that stretch it could have been a different game.
“They did a good job of taking away the three and collapsing. They make you make mid-range shots. But we have to be a better offensive rebounding team. When they knock you off the line and then they help early that means there are offensive rebounding lanes. We ended up with seven, but we have to be better.”
A bright spot for the Bluejays was the production they got of the bench from sophomores Payton Brotzki and Rachael Saunders. Brotzki finished with a career-high 13 points in 15 minutes after scoring 28 total over the first seven games of the season. Saunders, who missed the first four weeks of the season with mononucleosis, added a season-high eight points and five rebounds to go along with an assist, a steal, and a blocked shot in 24 minutes.
“I thought Rachael really battled all night,” Flanery said. “She made some tough plays rebounding-wise. I thought she really battled, so that was good to see.
“And Payton, I thought she practiced well yesterday and the last couple days. I think that’s important because she obviously lost some confidence and had played less. I just think she hadn’t seen the ball go in during practice a lot until yesterday, and I felt like she would hopefully get going. I probably should have put her in earlier — she maybe played seven minutes in the first half, but I probably should have gotten her on the floor for another 3-6 minutes.
“But I’m glad, because we’re going to need both of them going forward for sure.”
With the win, the Coyotes improved to 8-1 on the season, while the Bluejays fell to 6-2. Creighton will be back in action for a brief two-game home stand against a pair former conference foes, beginning with a 1:00 p.m. game against Northern Iowa on Sunday, December 8 before taking on Wichita State the following Saturday.