Creighton University
23-9,15-5Big East
Iowa State
28-7,14-4Big 12
Bluejays are Elite! Women's Basketball Pulls Away From #10 Iowa State, 76-68
3/25/2022 10:28:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Morgan Maly pumps in career-high 21 points
With the win, Creighton (23-9) advances to Sunday's Regional Final against No. 1 seed and top-ranked South Carolina (32-2) in a game that will tip at 6 p.m. Central and air on ESPN. The Gamecocks defeated fifth-seeded North Carolina, 69-61 in the first Regional semifinal behind 28 points and 22 rebounds from National Player of the Year candidate Aliyah Boston.
Maly's outburst helped Creighton outscore the Cyclones 30-4 in bench points. Senior Tatum Rembao had 17 of her 19 points in the second half, while Payton Brotzki contributed 13 points and six rebounds. Second Round hero Lauren Jensen finished with 10 points and eight rebounds.
Both teams showed some jitters in the first quarter. Creighton missed its first three shots and fell behind 4-0 before rallying to take its first lead at 7-6. Iowa State regrouped to go on an 8-0 run late in the first quarter to hold a 16-10 edge (1:25) before a Jensen three-ball got CU within three points (16-13) after one quarter.
Maly heated up in a big way in the second quarter, scoring 14 of CU's 17 points to help the Bluejays even the score at 30 at the half. The BIG EAST Sixth Woman of the Year made 4-of-4 shots from the floor, including a pair of three-pointers, while also adding 4-of-4 marksmanship at the charity stripe. The Cyclones were led by Emily Ryan in the opening 20 minutes, posting 11 points and seven rebounds by the break.
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In the locker room at the half, Creighton coach Jim Flanery and his squad felt good to be knotted at 30-30 as the Bluejays knew they hadn't played their best.
Creighton came out firing in the third, using a 13-6 run to open the second half and take a 43-36 lead with 7:15 remaining. Rembao connected on a pair of treys, including one banked off the glass. Fellow senior Payton Brotzki dialed up a three-ball from long range as well, while junior Carli Bachelor and Jensen connected inside the arc.
Minutes later, Rachael Saunders ripped away an offensive rebound and kicked it out to Jensen, who buried the triple from the top of the key to put CU up 52-44 with 2:05 left in the third quarter. Two trips later Maly buried her third three-pointer to put the Bluejays up 57-48. Maly's lay-up to beat the third quarter buzzer gave her a career-high 21 points and upped the Bluejay cushion to 59-51 after three frames.
Creighton's lead reached double-figures for the first time at 61-51 on a drive by Brotzki with 9:04 remaining and Rembao drilled a three-pointer to make it 66-53 with just over seven minutes to go and prompt another Cyclone timeout. Emily Ryan kept ISU in the game with repeated drives the the hoop and trimmed CU's lead to 68-64 with 2:11 to go. Jensen swished two foul shots with 1:42 to play and the Jays got a stop with 1:20 to play when Brotzki hauled down a defensive board.
Iowa State forced a turnover and Nyamer Diew converted a lay-up with 55.2 left before Rembao was hacked with 43.7 to play. She made her second attempt to advance the Bluejay edge to 71-66. Ryan scored off a lay-up with 39.2 left, making it a one possession game (71-68), before Rembao was fouled with 34.2 left. She made both, pushing the CU lead to 73-68. Ryan then was blocked in transition by Brotzki and Rembao was once again clutch with two free throws with 27.5 left. ISU used its final timeout to advance the ball and Brotzki came up with a steal. Rembao made one more foul shot to cap her big night.
The Cyclones were paced by a game-high 22 points from Ryan, who added eight rebounds and six assists. The Cyclones shot 38.1 percent from the field and made 8-of-25 three-pointers.
The Bluejays shot 44.8 percent for the game and made 11-of-25 three-pointers. CU dished 15 assists and made 13-of-16 free throws, including 8-of-10 shots in the final quarter.
NOTES: Tonight marked the 24th all-time meeting between Creighton and Iowa State, but first on a neutral court and first match-up between the schools at any site since Nov. 23, 2008 ... Creighton and Iowa State are two of 15 teams nationally to win games in the NCAA Tournament in both men's and women's basketball in 2022 ... Iowa State made a three-pointer in its nation-leading 873 consecutive game, while Creighton drained a triple in its 453rd consecutive contest, which ranks seventh-longest among active streaks nationally ... Creighton took over the national lead in assists this season with 651 ... Creighton's last team to make the Elite Eight was the Volleyball program in 2016 ... Lauren Jensen has made each of her last 14 free throw attempts ... Every player to lead Creighton in scoring over its last 24 games has been a sophomore, as Emma Ronsiek (10 times), Lauren Jensen (9), Morgan Maly (6) and Molly Mogensen (1) have all led or shared CU in scoring (there's been two ties…both among sophomores). ... Creighton will make its first Elite Eight appearance on Sunday and join Oregon's 2017 team as the only No. 10 seed to ever advance to the Elite Eight. No double-digit seed has ever reached the Women's Final Four ... Creighton improves to 8-7 all-time in NCAA Tournament play while making its eighth appearance, including a 6-4 mark in five trips under Jim Flanery ... Creighton improves to 8-16 all-time against Iowa State, snapping a 10-game losing streak in the series with its first win over ISU since Nov. 30, 1993 ... Creighton improved to 12-40 under Jim Flanery against top-25 teams with its second consecutive (and second ever) top-10 win ... South Carolina and Creighton have never met in women's basketball.
Creighton Bluejays (Jim Flanery, Tatum Rembao, Morgan Maly)
Sweet 16 Postgame Media Conference
Creighton 76, Iowa State 68
JIM FLANERY: This team just continues to amaze me, and we're so proud of how they've grown, what kind of fight they have and how they play for each other. Just couldn't be more proud of them, the growth that we've seen.
I told a lot of people, we were 4-8 at the end of January a year ago. We had won four games, and we had, obviously, a lot of COVID, but it started last year. I felt like we really got a lot better.
People like Morgan, who were freshmen, got experience, and we got in the NIT, and we came back hungry, and we didn't get out of the blocks.
We lost two of our first three, but we've been a good practice team, and I think when you practice well -- and we've been healthy. That's a huge part.
We've had a really good practice situation this year in terms of people being healthy, and I think when you do that, you can get better.
Iowa State, congratulations to them. They had a great year. They're a great program. Tremendous team.
We have a lot of respect for them, but about these two, somebody referenced Morgan as a bench player the other day, and I said that's kind of an insult. I know she was Sixth Player of the Year, but she's not a bench player. We just don't start her, but she's on the floor a lot.
Then Tatum was incredible tonight. The third quarter, her confidence and her ability to make the plays that she did really kind of flipped the game I felt like. We had a good run at the end of the second quarter to get ourselves into a tie at half, and I felt that really helped us.
We're going to get ready for South Carolina starting in the morning. We're going to swing away. We're going to prepare the right way, and then we're going to come swing away Sunday night.
Q. This is for Morgan. I guess you were doing a TV interview at midcourt, and you got doused pretty good. Most people hold the water until the locker room. Just kind of what was your emotions kind of in the celebration and getting doused on the court?
MORGAN MALY: It was so fun. I guess it's kind of a tradition now that we keep winning, but I just love playing with this team, and it makes the celebrations that much better.
Q. So in that third quarter into the fourth quarter it kind of felt like you guys could do whatever you wanted. They would switch. You guys would slip. They would bring nail help, and you would pop out. What was that process like on the court? Do you have to communicate that stuff when you see it, or do you have it built in to what you are doing out there?
TATUM REMBAO: We have a lot of freedom in practice, and we practice that motion almost every single day, so I feel like it's a little rough when you are in June and July trying to figure each other out. But once you start to build that chemistry, you kind of know who is going to back cut, who is going to curl, who is going to bump and pop, and who you want to bump and pop. So it definitely comes with a lot of practice.
MORGAN MALY: I would just say we have players who make plays. Then they pass it to someone laughing).
Q. Morgan, speaking of making plays, I don't know if any of your three of pointers you were close to the line. They seemed like they were all deep. I don't know if any of them touched the rim either. How did it feel? You were ready to let it go.
MORGAN MALY: That's kind of what I'm used to, just coming off the bench, just letting it fly. My teammates got me great looks. Just kind of read the defense, and once the first one or two go down, it gives me a lot of confidence to keep letting it go.
Q. Tatum, obviously this is your last season. That's getting extended now. How does that just feel?
TATUM REMBAO: I cannot be more grateful that this season has gotten to be extended two more weeks just from the Big East Tournament, and these girls have made it so worth it on and off the court. They're definitely my best friends, and I wouldn't want to go through this with anyone else.
Q. As the final seconds were ticking off, can you just describe your emotions? I mean, the parents and fans behind me were crying. What was it like for you guys?
MORGAN MALY: It was just unreal. The past two weeks hasn't felt real, but it's been amazing to have that lead going into the fourth quarter and do enough to stick it out and have Tatum make great -- make those free-throws at the end. Defensive stops were huge. This is just a great experience.
Q. After you guys lost in the Big East Tournament, did you think this was going to happen? What was your mentality then and how did it take you to now?
TATUM REMBAO: That loss hurt in the Big East Tournament. It's really hard to play a team three times, but that was definitely a game that we shouldn't have lost. And I think everyone came back from Spring Break really eager and ready to go because we know how good we are, and we knew how good we were back then.
So I think we had to change our mindset a little bit to prepare ourselves a little bit better.
MORGAN MALY: Yeah, that one stung, but I think we came back stronger, and we really dialed in on what each of our roles are, and we just kind of focused on meshing and making a run because we knew that we could.
Q. Tatum, as a quick follow-up to that, your parents and family were very emotional. Can you just describe what it means for this program, this fan base, everybody associated with the magnitude of this win?
TATUM REMBAO: Our parents are amazing. As you guys can see, they travel so well, and they all stay at the same hotel, and they all go out to eat before the games, and they hang out after the games, so it really is just one big family here with a lot of love.
Q. This is for both of you guys. It seemed like around I want to say the middle of the third quarter you went on a little run, forced Iowa State to call a timeout. You guys were celebrating and really hyped up as that time was called, everyone on your bench. At what point in the game did you guys really, like, smell blood in the water?
MORGAN MALY: I would say, yeah, in the middle of the third quarter. We had -- our offense was really working well, and a lot of people stepped up and hit a lot of -- hit some shots, and we started rebounding the ball better on the defensive end, and that was I think kind of how they hung in the game, second-chance points. So, yeah, right around there.
TATUM REMBAO: I feel like we're an emotional team, and we're going to celebrate who deserves to be celebrated. So when someone hits a big three and we go into a timeout, we're going to show them all the love.
Q. We were asking the players about their emotions, but what was yours like when the horn finally sounded and you could stop worrying about this game? You went over to the crowd and gave a couple of thumbs up. But what were your emotions after many times have trying to get to this point, and now you're past it?
JIM FLANERY: Yeah, it's -- I don't know. I've enjoyed this team so much that it's -- I told them, you know, you want to keep advancing because that's the goal, but I also want to just keep coaching this team, so that's kind of what I was thinking as I just love coaching this team because it's different people different nights.
We had 30 bench points tonight, and that's typical of us. Emma Ronsiek is our leading scorer, and I didn't play her in the fourth quarter tonight. It wasn't because I didn't trust her. It was because I trusted some other people. Payton Brotzki was unbelievable tonight. She's played the best basketball of her career this year. We just have different people. Molly Mogensen I thought was really solid. Then we got some people who don't get to play who are super unselfish.
I think it's about just continuing to play. What a great opportunity Sunday night to play South Carolina. After watching them play, we came out to the bench, and we were watching Iowa State in front of us warm up and us on the other end warm up, and we all seemed so small. Then they pass it to someone (laughing). Their post players. It will be different. We'll have to -- we'll have our work cut out for us, but just the opportunity to keep coaching and just so grateful.
Tatum mentioned our parents. We're a small -- smaller school, and I think when you are a women's basketball coach, you get maybe just -- you give yourself a little bit more access to parents because, like she said, they are in the same hotel, and they're a part of it. So I'm super happy for our players, but I know what kind of sacrifices their parents made to get them to this point, and that's so cool.
The images I had in my head after we beat Iowa were of our players hugging their parents, and that's what's really cool about where I am right now in terms of viewing what just happened.
Q. Can you describe the composure of your team late in the game? Iowa State is battling back. You make your free-throws. You are able to seal it.
JIM FLANERY: Better than their coaches. I got a little animated a couple of times.
Yeah, good. When we put Tatum and Molly on the floor together, now we have two ball handlers, it helps us. They downsized and went small, and they did that a lot during the game, and we downsized really a lot in the second half, and then down the stretch we were playing five guards too because we had -- I felt like we had a big enough lead as long as we didn't give up threes and as long as we didn't turn the ball over, we were in good shape. The other part of that was we made some free-throws. Tatum stepped up and made them. Lauren made a couple.
Yeah, I think it was a little bit -- you know, part of it's Tatum being a fifth-year and a couple of our kids who are just steady and flatliners, and then just I thought going small where we had a ball handling team on the floor where you look like you're composed because you're not sped up as opposed if we had a bigger line-up on the floor.
Q. Coach, I asked the players about what happened after that Seton Hall loss, and I want to ask you. What were you feeling then, and then what's changed since then to get you guys to this point?
JIM FLANERY: Sure. Well, first of all, Seton Hall is a really good basketball team. They're in the final eight of the NIT. We had a double overtime game with them about two weeks before the conference tournament, so it's not -- there's no shame in losing to them.
I don't know. I think the newness of the tournament helps. I really believe from a style standpoint we're just a little different. When you talk about what we do on offense, we're a little different than what most people see, and I think that helps us in a tournament format where they only have X number of days to prepare and they're trying to find film maybe of teams that play like us, and so I think that's helped us.
Once you win one, your confidence is for sure greater. So we've had three tight games, and so there's some good fortune in winning too. The Colorado game was tighter than the final score. Went down to the last two, three minutes. Obviously, Iowa away went down to the final possession. Today we had a little separation, but not a ton. I don't know.
I think we're -- what I love about this team is our -- I mean, our sophomore class is really good. Our three leading scorers are in our sophomore class, but our upper classmen provide so much. Tonight Tatum was a scorer, but she doesn't have to be.
I think we have that really good combination of youthful enthusiasm and they don't know any better and then good leaders who kind of guide them and reel them in when they try to get a little too either emotional or maybe aren't quite as focused. That to me has been impressive.
Q. Iowa State infamously has a unique fan environment for their games. Especially these kinds of games.
Is there a way you mentally or emotionally prepare your players to deal with that and play through it?
JIM FLANERY: Well, it certainly helped us to play at Iowa City last weekend in front of 15,000, so I think that was a help. I thought it was great. A lot of the -- I know North Carolina men played right after their women, so I did see a lot of Carolina Blue.
But I thought a lot of the South Carolina fans stayed around. That was nice. I thought the atmosphere -- I thought that helped make the atmosphere. But, yeah, Bill has done an incredible job at Iowa State, and what they've built in terms of the success of the program and how they draw and how they're supported is really impressive.
Our players have been in that environment some, and I just think we were ready to play.
Q. It was a tie game at the half. What was your message to the girls before they bent went back out on the court?
JIM FLANERY: That we can play better. I felt like we turned the ball over too much in the first quarter, and then in the second quarter we didn't defensive rebound. I know that -- I think we had five turnovers in the first quarter. Ten for the game. Much better job the last three quarters. And then we gave up 8-0 offensive boards in the first half and only three in the second half.
We cleaned those up, and I said we're tied, and we can play better. We can play quite a bit better. The nerves are hopefully a little bit behind us, but Iowa State probably felt like they could play better too. They missed some open threes in that first half. Other than that, it was just a few tactical things, but a few things that they were running that we didn't defend very well.
Just trying to get them to slow down a little offensively, but I thought we had done that in the second quarter much better than the first.
Thank you.
Iowa State Cyclones (Bill Fennelly, Ashley Joens, Emily Ryan)
Sweet 16 Postgame Media Conference
Creighton 76, Iowa State 68
BILL FENNELLY: Two quick points. First of all, I want to thank the NCAA and the people of Greensboro. On behalf of everyone at Iowa State, phenomenal, phenomenal tournament as always. It was an honor to be here and really thank everyone.
Then, secondly, certainly want to congratulate Creighton. They played a great game. We knew going into this game basketball is a make shot-miss shot game. Especially with these two teams. They made a lot of tough shots tonight, and, unfortunately, we couldn't get the ball in the basket when we needed it. So we certainly congratulate them. They're a class act. Coach Flan does it right. Very impressed with how they run their program.
Lastly, couldn't be more proud of our team. Obviously, tonight hurts. Obviously, tonight is disappointing. It should be. If you invest in something in your life and it doesn't go your way, you should be disappointed, but what they accomplished is amazing. We'll celebrate that at another time, but it was an honor to say that I coached at Iowa State this year. Amazing young people. Amazing.
Q. This is for Ashley. What were they doing defensively to try to make things difficult on you at least from a shooting from the field standpoint?
ASHLEY JOENS: They did a great job defensively just staying on us, kind of knowing our personnel and how to guard. I think they did a really good job, and that kind of helped them out.
Q. How did you guys feel late in the fourth quarter when you were kind of making that run and getting some momentum?
EMILY RYAN: At that point we were clawing ourselves back into the game, and we made some plays that we needed to make to get ourselves in a position to have a chance at it, and ultimately we weren't able to make quite enough of them to get the win.
ASHLEY JOENS: Like Emily said, we just had to keep fighting and clawing our way back into the game, and we weren't able to get it done, but we kept competing.
Q. Coach Fennelly had talked about just how proud he is to have coached you guys, and eventually you guys will celebrate all you've accomplished. What do you guys think about what you have done this year and accomplished as a team?
ASHLEY JOENS: I mean, we had a really great season. It didn't end the way we wanted it to, but looking back, we all stuck together, and it was a great team. We all stuck together and are very connected, which makes it a lot more fun when you can win and be this close.
EMILY RYAN: Going to practice every day was so fun. Really fun team to be around, and just disappointed we can't come back tomorrow and go to work.
Q. This is just for Ashley. Do you know yet whether or not you're going to come back next year after the draft?
ASHLEY JOENS: I haven't thought about that yet. I'll decide soon.
Q. What happened in the third quarter I guess with defense? Some of it's them making shots, but obviously I'm sure you weren't doing some things you wanted to do defensively either.
BILL FENNELLY: No, we got mismatched a couple of times. They hit a couple of -- Rembao banks one in, and she made 19 threes all year, and they hit a tough -- we guarded an inbounds play wrong at the end, and they stuck a three at the end of the shot clock.
We tried to go smaller to keep the ball in front of us, and that was a struggle. We had real match-up problems, and we weren't scoring enough to offset it. Sometimes you have to score when you're not guarding right. But, yeah, third quarter we really struggled to even get any kind of flow defensively. We tried a lot of different things, but to their credit, they always had an answer for it.
Q. I know you had said you're very proud of coaching this team. What is it about this team that has made you so proud to coach them, and when you eventually do start thinking about what they accomplish, what are you most proud of?
BILL FENNELLY: I think what Emily referred to is it was a group that was really fun to be around. They showed up. They did what they were supposed to do. We talked at length about the Iowa State way of doing things, and coming out of COVID you didn't know what was going to happen. Everyone is, like, oh, this is great. Well, sometimes when teams are together, it's not great. This team, it turned out to be an unbelievable thing, and the disappointment of how last year ended motivated them all, and I thought they handled themselves all year.
You win 28 games. You get to the Sweet 16. I think it was a team, Tommy, as you know, I think our fans loved watching this team play because they can tell that they're connected and they play the game the right way. Yeah, like Em said, it's hard tonight, but I could not imagine being more proud of what they've done and how they've done it.
Q. Knowing that, okay, it's a good core coming back too, does that maybe soften tonight a little bit knowing that you're going to still get the chance to coach a lot of them moving forward?
BILL FENNELLY: Yeah. No, obviously, I think not really -- I should have an answer to that, but I can't process next year yet. When you have Emily Ryan and Lexi Donarski, obviously, Ash has not made her decision, but Em and Lex, that's a great way to start a team.
And there will be some work to do, obviously, but it's hard to see them compete to that level. Everyone is going to lose their last game in this tournament except for one, and we all know that, but when it happens, it's sudden.
My grandson, Will, is 7 years old, and he loves our team. He walked into the coach's locker room sobbing. I've spent a lot of time trying to console him. If you don't care, it's okay, but I told him, I said, you know, Will, don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened, and we're going to smile big when we get home.
Appreciate all your time. Especially our folks from home covering us all year. You did a great job. Thank you, all.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
