The Creighton women’s basketball team were grateful for three things Monday night: an exhibition game before the regular season, Bri Rollerson, and Marissa Janning. After a sluggish start to the game the Jays got it together thanks to the contributions of their second-year players as they rolled by Fort Hays State in the second half on their way to a 77-47 victory at D.J. Sokol Arena in front of 804 basketball-starved fans.
New college basketball rules that were designed to make the game “prettier” couldn’t sugarcoat the ugly start to this game between the Bluejays and Tigers. The two teams combined for six turnovers, six fouls, and 2-of-10 shooting from the field as they plodded their way to a 3-2 score at the first media timeout. Then Creighton redshirt freshman Rollerson happened. The Omaha Central product made an immediate impact on the game scoring eight of Creighton’s next 10 points to help the Jays open up an 11-4 lead with 10:26 to play in the first half.
She continued to make a difference throughout the half on both ends of the floor, blocking two shots, recording a steal and knocking down a jumper and two free throws to give the Jays a 26-19 lead at halftime to cap off an impressive first 20 minutes to her Bluejay career. Although Rollerson battled the emotions the come with playing a first collegiate game it was hard to tell based on her performance.
“It was my first game since high school, so I was really nervous to begin with,” said Rollerson. “After we played for a good five minutes I was good to go.”
With the Jays leading by seven to start the second half, Janning, Creighton’s second-year point guard out of Minnesota took over and got her team’s offense running more effectively. She opened things up with a layup, then a few minutes later she had a nice drive and dish to find center Alyssa Kamphaus for a wide open layup that gave the Jays a 34-23 lead.
Midway through the second half senior guard Jordan Garrison knocked down a three to give the Jays a 20-point lead at 52-32. From that point on Janning closed the show, scoring 12 of her 19 second half points over a six-minute stretch to extend the Bluejay lead to 66-41 with under five minutes to play. The 51-point second half for the Jays looked a lot more like the team that won a regular season title and made it to the 2nd round of the NCAA Tournament last season.
“I think every year, every first game, maybe first two games is going to be a little awkward at first,” Janning said, “just because everyone is excited, nervous, trying to do their own thing until we get into the swing of things. I think it was just hard for everybody — well, except maybe not Bri — to get in the swing of things. After we calmed down a little bit and figured out what we needed to do it was a lot easier and the game just came to us.”
Janning finished with 21 points, six rebounds, and a very encouraging seven assists compared to just one turnover in 27 minutes of action. That assist-to-turnover ratio was a point of focus for the young point guard this offseason. With the loss of Carli Tritz, who many considered to be the team’s best passer coming into the season, Janning will be relied upon to make good decisions with the basketball and make the Jays offense click.
“It’s typical for all freshmen, no matter how good you are or how bad you are, the assist-to-turnover thing is your biggest threat,” said Janning. “That was the stat that I was always afraid to look at each night, and this summer I really focused on that and decision-making. Even just limiting the long passes, or shortening passes — that’s something I really tried to focus on with my dad when I was at home, and then here when I played with the girls. I feel like I’ve improved, but it’s only one game so we’ll see where it goes from here.”
The more efficient play from Janning as well as the unexpected contribution from the redshirt freshman Rollerson, who finished with 16 points, five rebounds, four blocked shots, and two steals, left Creighton head coach Jim Flanery with some things to be happy about after a poor start.
“Where would we have been without Bri that first half,” said Flanery. “We couldn’t score other than her. I haven’t coached her long enough to know, but I think she’s a kid who probably doesn’t feel as much pressure because she’s just wired to be loose. She’s a little more care-free than some, and sometimes that’s good — especially for a freshman.”
The other thing that pleased Flanery was a combined 14:3 assists-to-turnover ratio from his All-Big East Preseason nominees, Janning and senior forward Sarah Nelson. With as much as those to have the ball, that kind of efficiency is imperative.
“I think we assisted on 69% of our baskets last year, which was one of the highest percentages in the country. I just feel like because we had Carli who wasn’t a point guard but was still a great passer, and because we have Sarah who isn’t a point guard, but still a really good passer, I think [Marissa and Sarah] are going to have be really good,” Flanery said. “Last year [Marissa] was a little over 1:1, which is fine for freshman, but we need her to be better there. We need Sarah to be as good as she was last year, and then we need some other people to be there. I think at the end of the day to be a good shooting team you need to be a good passing team.”
The win over Fort Hays State was the lone exhibition game Creighton will play this season. They open the regular season against a familiar foe on Friday, Nov. 8 when they travel to Des Moines, Iowa, to face old their old Missouri Valley Conference travel partner in the Drake Bulldogs. Tip-off is set for 7:05 p.m. from the Knapp Center. The Bluejays are 24-37 all-time vs Drake, but the Jays current senior class holds a 4-3 edge in their careers against the Bulldogs, including wins in the last three meetings.
