NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - MISSISSIPPI STATE VS CREIGHTON

March 17, 2023

Jim Flanery

Lauren Jensen

Emma Ronsiek

Purcell Pavilion

Creighton Bluejays

Media Conference

Mississippi State 81, Creighton 66

JIM FLANERY: Yeah, congrats and credit to Mississippi State. They came out and really executed, made shots early, and we played from behind the whole game.

I thought we had our -- kind of had our footing at halftime down ten. Felt like we were in a decent position, but we just couldn't get anything to go.

I think we were 3 for 26 the first -- at some point in the second half and didn't make enough open shots until late. They were the better team. I'm proud of our team. I know -- not to discredit them, but this wasn't the best of what we have shown this year.

But, you know, that's the beauty of the tournament. Last year we had a magical run, but nothing is guaranteed, nothing is given. You know, just wasn't our day. But a lot or most of that had to do with how well Mississippi State played.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes Lauren Jensen and Emma Ronsiek.

Q. Lauren, you matched their intensity. Just weren't getting the shots to drop in to the second half.

LAUREN JENSEN: Yeah, like Flan said, when you shoot, what, 3 for 26 or something like that it's kind of hard to win a game.

We were getting shots we wanted and they just weren't falling. You know, that happens sometimes. There is obviously things we could have done better outside of making shots which we always can control and we started to get some momentum late, but it was a little too late at that point.

Q. Emma, you're one of the three girls that started all the games this year. So you didn't panic. You've seen everything, right?

EMMA RONSIEK: Yeah, I mean, all of us, including me, have been prepared for moments like these. I mean, last year obviously we had that Elite Eight run, but I feel like that doesn't take away from the preparation that we had coming into the game.

Ball just didn't fall our way this game. A lot of credit to Mississippi State, like Flan said. Sometimes the ball just doesn't go your way and that's life, that's basketball.

Q. Could be for either of you guys. When it came to game prep, did you prep for MSU to shoot the three kind of as well as they did today? I know they were really good, but was that kind of pivotal to preparation.

LAUREN JENSEN: Yeah. We didn't really expect them to come out and shoot it like that. I mean, props to them though. Obviously they had a little bit of height on us in the post, so I bet they expected that we were going to try to cater most of our game plan to that.

They like to get downhill so we prepped a lot for that. They came out ready to shoot. I don't know, I think they might have made more threes in the first quarter than they did against Illinois, if that puts it in perspective.

But like Emma said, that's basketball. They had a good game plan. They executed and played well.

THE MODERATOR: Any other questions for the student-athletes?

Q. How do you guys keep your energy up even when you were down so early?

EMMA RONSIEK: Yeah, I mean, I feel like it's just one of those games. When you're in the tournament you're playing for something bigger than just winning a game of basketball. You're playing for your seniors, playing to keep the game that you love alive in the tournament.

So, I mean, I feel like just putting that into perspective just makes you want to keep going regardless of the score or the outcome of the game, because you want to keep going for your seniors and hate to see what the locker room holds after a loss in the tournament.

Q. For either one of you, how do you try to find offense when the threes weren't falling very early?

LAUREN JENSEN: Yeah, so I guess a lot of times when our offense isn't really doing that great we try to find a spark on defense. I feel like we were able to string together some stops, but not super consistently.

We've been down some games and our offense hasn't really been flowing. We've been able to lock in on the defensive end, get stops, and kind of let that fuel our offense.

That wasn't really the case tonight. Like I said earlier, I feel like we were getting good looks and the looks that we wanted, but they weren't falling.

I feel like we could have tried to get a little bit more shots in the paint, a little bit less threes. But, yeah.

Q. Did you guys feel like maybe at times I guess in the first half that MSU was maybe speeding up your game offensively a little bit more than you wanted to or dictating the pace of play?

EMMA RONSIEK: Yeah, I mean, that just comes with playing the teams that we do, especially in non-con and in-tournament. A lot of teams that we are going to play outside of the Big East and even in the Big East are going to be taller, bigger, a little more athletic.

But we heavily rely on our fundamentals and just our IQ of the game of basketball.

Like I said earlier, it's just sometimes the ball just does not go in, and nothing really felt like it was in our favor tonight. But they played really well, so, yeah.

Q. You mentioned playing for your seniors. Can you talk about what Rachael has meant to this team, especially defensively?

LAUREN JENSEN: You know, she's been huge this whole season. I honestly think in the beginning of January, end of December, we weren't really playing our best and the whole team picked it up.

But huge part of that was Rachael, in my opinion. The second half of the season, I mean, she's always been great defensively, but she's been playing awesome offensively as well. She was playing the best basketball I've ever seen her play. She's a huge part of our team on the basketball court and what she brings on offense, defense.

She does what we need her to do, and she's also a leader. Everyone looks to her for that. You know, Carly has been huge as well this year. Kind of the same thing: she can come in and do anything we need her to do.

It wasn't easy the role that she had to play this year compared to last, and not many people would come in and handle that the way that she did and embrace it and we wouldn't have been the team that we were without Carly doing that.

THE MODERATOR: Any other questions for the student-athlete?

Q. I know it's tough in this moment obviously, end of the season with the loss, but when you look at next season and the future, it's similar to last season where a lot of talent returning and you guys, just you're younger players. What do you feel optimistic about as far as the future and building off what this program has done in the last two seasons?

EMMA RONSIEK: Yeah, I'm excited. I mean, I love playing with the team that we have already. I'm definitely going to miss Carly and Rachael, but we do have a lot to look forward to next year with the girls we're bringing in and the development of the freshman and our big junior class.

So I don't know. I'm really excited and mainly really excited for Lexi to get back on the court with us.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Lauren, thank you, Emma.

LAUREN JENSEN: Thank you.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach Flanery?

Q. Did you feel like part of maybe MSU's hot start was it taking a little while for the team, for you guys did get settled in maybe a little bit?

JIM FLANERY: Yeah, well, yes and no. I thought they -- they were shot-ready. If we could re-implement our game plan, we probably we have been a little bit tighter than we were.

But, you know, as Lauren pointed out, their starting group had zero threes the other night against Illinois. I know that's kind of an aberration, but we felt like we had to stay in front of the ball. We were probably willing to live with a lot of the threes that they took; certainly not all of them.

We gave up some threes we didn't want to give up particularly to Jordan. Felt like we gave her, and the second one early to Powe. So we gave up some threes that we didn't. I just didn't think we were urgent or tentative enough to those. You know, credit to them. They came out and made them.

And that makes a huge difference, right? If those shots don't go in early their body language is maybe different. Our body language is different when you're playing from eight to ten points down immediately.

Yeah, I mean, for sure I think if we had it to do over again we would've maybe been a little bit different in terms of how we defended the three, but they also can score in the post and off the dribble, so typically we have to give up one because of our quickness and our height.

So we chose wrong today.

Q. This isn't the first time you've given up a lot of threes early. Thinking back to the Nova game. Is this something that you're going to to look at as an emphasis going forward with the program?

JIM FLANERY: Yes and no. I think when you play a -- you know, we've played -- the last 22 games have been conference opponents, so you have a greater bead on what they do, what their strengths are.

Then you get to a tournament and this isn't an excuse, but we didn't even know who we were going to play until two nights ago.

So you know, when you put together a game plan you have -- you just have a little bit less knowledge because you haven't played them. So we can go back and they played Nebraska who we played. South Dakota State who we played early in the year.

But they're a different team. They have got a first-year coach and several first-year players. Carter didn't play for them last year, so they're a better team than they were given some of those early games.

Now we're watching them against SEC opponents mostly, and now, I don't know. I mean, our three-point defense was, what, 19th in the country coming into the game.

I don't think -- I actually think we defended the three really well over the course of the year.

I mean, you can pick a game or two, but today it was more a game plan than lack of execution of what we were trying to do.

Q. I think you guys had a 10-3 run before heading into the locker room. What did you kind of notice from the team before that and what was kind of your message to them at the break, just kind of closing the gap a little bit?

JIM FLANERY: Yeah. I mean, I said to our staff as we were walking into the locker room, I said I felt like we needed to play better, but I said I felt pretty good being down ten because of the way -- the start that they had and how many threes they had made and how many open threes we had missed.

So I felt like at some point the tables would turn in terms of being able to make open threes. You know, we just didn't get off to the start that we needed to in that third quarter. If that game hovers at ten instead of gets to 15 or 16, you know, it affects both teams, right?

If you're the team that's played from behind and you look up and you're still 15, 16 down, that plays in your mind. And if you're 15 or 16 up instead of 8 or 10 up, that plays differently in the head of the team that's winning.

So, yeah, I felt good at halftime. We just didn't shoot the ball well. I don't know what to say. I felt like we for the most part had good shots.

You know, I do think they did a really good job mix being defenses. They played -- you know they mixed man and zone and kept us a little bit off balance that way.

So I think the predictability of where the shot is going to come from is different when a team changes defenses as well as they did.

But I also felt like we had open shots. And the second half we didn't have offensive rebound the way we did in the first half.

We did a good job on the offensive glass in the first half; not so much in the second half. I felt like we weren't as active there. I thought that was -- that played into it too, because of how poorly we shot it.

When you shoot it that poorly you need extra shots and we didn't get as many in the second half.

Q. You mentioned Jessika Carter and what she can do in the post. Mid-range shots today, three assists, one off her season high. Any part of her game with the versatility that surprised or impressed you today?

JIM FLANERY: Yeah, like you said, I thought her mid-range was solid. Footwork in the mid-post is good.

You know, defensively she did what they needed her to do. We thought she was somebody we could pick on on our offensive end because she's a paint protector. We don't have -- Emma can score, Emma and Morgan can score to the post, but they can also make threes, so we felt like we were different and versatile enough.

She competed defensively in way that certainly helped their team win. Yeah, I thought her mid-post footwork was good and like you said, she had some good passes.

Q. In the first half you outrebounded on the offensive glass 6-2. How do you feel about especially being the smaller team, your team's effort on the glass, especially in the first half?

JIM FLANERY: Yeah, it was there in the first half; it wasn't there as much as it needed to be in the second half based on how poorly we shot the first -- you know, if we had done a little better job the first ten to 12 minutes of the second half and maybe kept the game in play a little bit, then when we started making threes, it's a little bit different.

But, yeah, I thought we had some really good possessions in the first half. I just thought we -- and that's typical. Like when you struggle to shoot it for as long as we did, I felt like we kind of gave up on offensive rebounding in the second half.

That hurt us based on how poorly we shot it.