NICEVILLE, FLA. — Senior guards Morgan Maly and Molly Mogensen each scored 15 points to power Creighton to a 91-63 romp past Wichita State
in the Beach Bracket of the Emerald Coast Classic women’s basketball tournament Monday night. Creighton, which improved to a 3-2 record, will face Syracuse for the championship of the Beach Bracket Tuesday night.
Five players scored in double figures for the Bluejays and shot 51.6 percent from the floor while posting season highs in scoring (91) free throws (19) and steals (12).
Mogensen scored five points to trigger a 13-0 run allowing Creighton to turn a 7-7 tie into a 20-7 advantage.“I thought we were solid,” said Jim Flanery who coached his 700th game for Creighton.”We got contributions from a lot of people. Molly Mogensen got us off to a really good start in the first quarter, we played with a lead and were able to play our bench. Hopefully, that’s going to help us tomorrow.
“Defensively, I didn’t think our second half was as good as we need it to be for tomorrow. Again, hopefully, we will have rested legs and our rotation might be a little bit different. I watched Syracuse on film a few games and I thought what I saw tonight was better than what I had seen on film. They put a complete game together. I thought Missouri was coming into tonight playing pretty well and after the quick 8-1 deficit to start, Syracuse played really well. Their size will bother us and we will have to rebound and defend in the interior, which is always an issue for us because we play 6’1 and under. We have to play smart defensively in terms of how we defend the post and we have to be tough enough to rebound. If we can do that, we can give ourselves a chance tomorrow night.”
Guard Lauren Jensen played a solid floor game for the Bluejays with 13 points, seven rebounds, a game-high six assists and three steals. Junior guard Kiani Lockett and graduate guard Brooke Littrell totaled 10 points apiece. The Bluejays forced Wichita State into 20 turnovers, while scoring 19 points off those miscues.
Redshirt junior forward Jayla Murray led Wichita State with 16 points, while Jasmine Peaks came off the bench to contribute a career high 10 points and four assists for the Shockers.
