BIG EAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 7, 2021

Jim Flanery

Creighton Bluejays

Mohegan Sun Arena

Postgame Media Conference

Marquette- 64, Creighton - 59

COACH FLANERY: 360 days into the year I still haven't figured out how to use the raised-hand function on Zoom. Matt, you might be surprised to know that. I can click on it but I don't know how to actually get to where I can ask a question.

Congrats to Marquette. A really good basketball team, really tough. There's a lot to admire about the way they play and we talked about that after we played them a few weeks ago in Milwaukee. Right, not right after the game, I was probably more concerned about my team's effort, but I asked them a day or two later, I said, what do you guys admire about Marquette.

And our players talked about their toughness, their communication, their body language, all the things that make a winning program. And so I think that you saw -- I think their talent level is pretty good. But I think their whole is even better than the collection of their parts, which is a testament to their kids and their coaches.

And, so, no shame in losing to them. I'm proud of our team. We fought. We had chances. We trailed pretty much the whole game but it never felt like we were out of it. And obviously we weren't because we had a chance to tie or go ahead in the final seconds.

So I'm really proud of the group. And obviously I think Temi is just -- I told her Jaylyn was a really special senior and we've had some special seniors but her senior year was really pretty great. Because I looked out in the fourth quarter and we had Temi, three freshmen and a sophomore on the floor for quite a bit of that fourth quarter. I just admire what she's been for our program and how she's just gotten better in her approach and all that.

But we were right there and yet we couldn't climb all the way up to the top of the hill and over.

Q. When you guys got out of this pause and the way Temi has played down the stretch, really even though you guys, even though the UConn game was lopsided, she played really well in that one. Where does her kind of performance in those do-or-die games that you guys had here when it felt like this could be the last claim she ever played, where does that performance kind of stand out in your mind in terms of players you've coached?

COACH FLANERY: Just right up there, because I think, you know -- Temi is a player of, I would say modest talent, just from a height and quickness standpoint.

But I think she maximized or was close to maximizing her talent as much as she could. She's gotten so much better and just, it became -- we became a better team because there's just so much trust there in terms of, hey, she's never really had to be the top banana before. But she was the top banana all year.

And that's not easy to do when you're 5'7''. And I think she, as Bill Walton would say, she plays her best when her best was called for. That's the mark of a champion, to quote Bill.

Q. You were able to control the boards. Then also 27 bench points. Could you comment on Dee Dee Pryor, I think she had 13 points in this game, just talk about her performance?

COACH FLANERY: Yeah, Dee Dee had a great tournament for us. Obviously she had the game yesterday, made some really big plays yesterday, but I thought she was steady throughout. I thought we needed to play smaller yesterday against Seton Hall because of their team and the way they spread you out.

So we felt we were going to play her more going in. Because she played so well yesterday, she was probably -- earned the opportunity to play even more today. And I thought she was really good. And we need somebody who can get to the basket because Lott is such a great defender. So Temi can't get the looks that she normally gets against smaller or less disciplined or less experienced defenders.

And their bigs do a good job they did a good job on Morgan and Emma. So I think her aggression on offense was great. I'm happy for her because she had some injuries early in the year. But certainly playing her best basketball here at the end.

Q. Marquette was led by Selena Lott. Could you comment a little bit what made it hard to stop her tonight? She put up 27.

COACH FLANERY: Yeah, she played like a senior who didn't want to lose. Probably should have mentioned that in my opening, she's always really good defensively and her assist numbers are really, really good. But she scored the ball better tonight than we wanted her to. She scored in the post, on the offensive glass. She had a couple of baskets there that I thought really hurt us, like I said, a post-up and an offensive rebound basket because she's going to score some off the dribble.

Then she hit a big 3 there late. So I thought she was -- she hurts you in so many ways. The last game we played them she had the best 10-point, five-rebound game I've ever seen. She didn't shoot it that way and had only five rebounds, but she had 11 assists, no turnovers, six steals, three blocks.

So she controlled the game without scoring. Tonight she controlled the game by scoring, and that's what makes her a great player, is she can kind of control the game or really impact the game in a lot of different ways.

Q. Earlier we talked a little bit about the pros and the cons of your freshmen coming in this season and playing so much. When you look at through the tournament the experience they got and yet again today, the numbers that your freshmen were able to put up, how excited does that make you for the future of this program after all of the experience that they just got?

COACH FLANERY: Sure. I mean, yeah, I mean, I probably played Morgan and Emma a little too much because they were tired. But, yeah, we've got a really good freshman class. We're super excited about them. Jayme Horan, I told the team, here's a kid who hasn't played that much this year. And tonight she acted like she belonged, played like she belonged. But it's because she practices the right way. I wasn't afraid to put her in.

Molly Mogensen, a guard who has been out the last couple of weeks, has been a good freshman for us.

And Mallory Brake is a kid who is going to be a good player. So we've got -- we're really excited about that freshman class. We knew it would be good, but I think it's probably better than we thought, which is what you hope. You hope they'll be good, but then you're even more excited when they're a little bit better than you thought.