Morgan Maly let everyone know right away that it was going to be a good day. On Creighton’s first three possessions of the game, the senior combo forward nailed a fallaway jumper out of the mid-post, a 3-pointer from the right wing, and a heat check from even deeper. She missed the third one, but the tone was already set. The Crete, Nebraska native locked in in her first matchup with Villanova’s Lucy Olsen and Christina Dalce since they toured China and Canada together on Team USA’s title winning U21 3×3 team this summer.
Maly was steady throughout her 34 minutes of action at Finneran Pavilion on Sunday afternoon, scoring seven points in the first quarter, six points in the second and third, and five points in the fourth to cap off a 24-point, 13-rebound performance to halt Villanova’s six-game winning streak in a wire-to-wire 63-49 win that improved No. 21 Creighton to 14-3 on the season.
At every pivotal point in the game, Maly was there to stabilize things for the Jays, who improved to 5-2 in Big East play and moved into a three-way tie for second place in the league standings with the win. Not only did she give Creighton the lead for good with the team’s first five points of the game, but when Villanova had closed the deficit to 26-22 late in the second quarter, Maly earned a pair of perfect trips to the free throw line and knocked down a baseline jumper in the final seconds to extend the lead to 33-24 at halftime. In the third quarter, both teams combined to convert on just four of the first 15 possessions, but two of those buckets — both from 3-point range — came from Maly to help the Bluejays open up their largest advantage of the game at 41-26 just past the midway point of the period. After a jumper by Olsen got the Wildcats within nine early in the fourth quarter, Maly followed up her own missed runner by grabbing the rebound and going up strong through contact for a momentum-shifting and-one. She buried the free throw to give CU a 48-36 lead with 6:51 to play and Villanova never got closer than 11 points the rest of the way.
Along with her team-high 24 points, she also grabbed a game-high 11 defensive rebounds to help neutralize one of the top offensive rebounding teams in the Big East. The Wildcats finished the game with just four second-chance points on nine offensive boards, but four of those extra possessions came in the final five minutes when the Jays already had a comfortable double-digit lead.
“She was old Morgan,” Creighton head coach Jim Flanery said. “That was one of the best games she’s played overall in terms of not settling but also not running away from her 3-point shot either … I’m glad for her because playing against Olsen and Dalce she probably had a different emotional component than the rest of our team. But just to have her play well on the road against a good team is exciting.
“It helped that she made the first two [shots]. She got a post up and a three to go, and then of course she had a heat check. But when we needed a basket, it was Morgan or Emma today because [Bella] Runyan does a good job on LJ.”
Between Creighton’s two starting hybrid posts Morgan Maly and Emma Ronsiek, the Jays got 43 points on 39 shooting possessions. With Maly cleaning up the defensive glass, Ronsiek helped supply some of the playmaking elements with the CU sophomore point guard Kiani Lockett, who Flanery said will be out until at least the end of February with he described as a “pre-stress fracture,” and senior guard Lauren Jensen, whose typical aggressiveness was limited by foul trouble. Ronsiek finished with game-highs in assists (5), steals (4), and blocked shots (2) to go along with her 19 points, which were the second-most on Creighton’s team behind Maly’s 24.
“She wasn’t perfect in terms of finishing, but she finished some tough stuff, and she took care of the ball,” Flanery said of Ronsiek. “With Lauren’s foul trouble we played her more as a ballhandler and she had just the one turnover. She’s playing at a high level. She’s just reliable in a lot of areas. That’s what makes her as good of a player as she is.”
The top key to victory for the Bluejays was whether or not they could keep Villanova star guard Lucy Olsen in check. The 5-foot-9 junior dropped 37 points in their most recent win over No. 22 Marquette on Wednesday night. She ranks fourth in the country and leads the Big East at 23.9 points per game. Fourth-year forward Mallory Brake drew the assignment of making Olsen as ineffective as possible. Although she eclipsed her season scoring average with a game-high 29 on Sunday, it took her 32 shooting possessions to get there, and all but 12 of those points came when the Wildcats were down double digits.
“She was really good,” Flanery said. “When you think about the learning curve with Mal going from guarding a post to guarding a point guard and a scorer or whoever she is guarding this year, it’s hard, and she’s done a terrific job. Her length and just her attention has been really good. You’re going to look at her stat line and not have any idea how much impact she had on the game. Everything was difficult for [Olsen] … she was really good for us.”
Sunday was only the fourth time Villanova has suffered a setback at home in their last 35 games at The Finn. Two of those losses were handed to them by the Jays. CU also held them to 0-for-17 shooting from 3-point territory. It’s the first time the Wildcats have shutout from beyond the arc since January 2, 2004, a span of 635 games.
Next up on the schedule is a much-improved Georgetown team that is off to a 14-4 start for the first time since 2012. Defensively the Hoyas are giving up 52.8 points per game and holding opponents to a 40.4% effective field goal percentage, marks that are good enough to rank seventh and 16th in the country, respectively. The Bluejays and Hoyas are scheduled for a 6:00 p.m. (CT) tip-off on Wednesday night.