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

March 23, 2024

Jim Flanery

Emma Ronsiek

Lauren Jensen

Pauley Pavilion

Creighton Bluejays

Media Conference

Creighton 87, UNLV 73

JIM FLANERY: Congratulations to UNLV on a great season and on the job that they've done over the last few years to build that program. To win 33 games is really, really hard, and they're a really good team.

We had a week to prepare, or close to a week, and I felt like even though we weren't perfect, I thought our preparation was good, and then we made a lot of threes today.

Young is a really tough matchup because she's a really good player, but they also surround her with really good players, and they shoot the three -- when you're looking at them, they shoot the three well from so many positions, you can't give up too many threes.

I thought we had a lot of people contribute and a lot of different stars, but I thought just our experience and our preparation were great. We're thrilled to be moving through, and we're excited as heck for Monday.

Q. You had a couple rough games coming into the tournament. What was going through your head at halftime as you moved into that third quarter?

EMMA RONSIEK: Yeah, I used -- not used to be, I still am a really mental emotional player because I care about the game and I want things to go well because I've put in a lot of work. But at the same time, just getting away from caring about what you're personally doing and just focusing on what your team is doing really well because I thought that first half we were up 12, we made a lot of really good offensive possessions. Shots just weren't falling for me in the first half, but I'm tired of getting in my head, so I was just like, we're not going to do that. I was 3 for 10; I think I was 0 for 6 in the first half from three, but I just kept shooting, and I normally don't do that.

Q. What was UNLV doing that was allowing you to take advantage of the perimeter, and in terms of dealing with Young, how critical was Jayme Horan's play, especially in the first quarter and in the first half?

LAUREN JENSEN: I think our motion is hard to guard. That's one of the good things about us going into the postseason is not many teams play like us.

We knew that if we just moved the ball and we played our game that they would maybe struggle to guard it, and I think that was on display tonight.

In terms of Jayme, she's just awesome. She's come in and do anything that you need her to do. She'll rebound. She'll shoot the ball. She was doing that tonight. She'll defend. That was all on display tonight.

EMMA RONSIEK: Everything that Jayme and then the people who come off the bench, I think they just give us really high-quality minutes throughout the entirety of the game, and I think that's something that's really special because I don't think you get that in a lot of teams. Some teams you just see X amount of players just being the stars, and then the rest are kind of the filler kids, but I think our team is just so well-balanced that everyone makes a positive impact on the game throughout it. Not just Jayme, but Jayme has definitely stepped up the last few games and made a bunch of threes and also impacted things on the defensive end.

Q. How big was that run late in the first half because they got within four and then being able to close out the half with a couple of key three-pointers there?

LAUREN JENSEN: Yeah, it was huge. We work on end-of-quarter situations a lot in practice because that can honestly change the momentum of the game.

We had a little rough patch there. UNLV was scoring and defending. But I thought we with stood it pretty well. Then we just did what we did and were able to get to the half with a pretty comfortable lead.

EMMA RONSIEK: Yeah, I think those last two threes of that 9-0 run were Morgan, so I think when you don't find Morgan when she's confident and she's ready to shoot the ball, I think that's what got us those open threes, just because she was confident at the end of the first quarter or first half and just put them in for us.

Q. It felt like every shot you were taking in the first half was completely uncontested. How did it feel when your teammates were getting you those wide-open looks?

LAUREN JENSEN: Yeah, it was nice. Credit to my teammates. They find me well. They know where I like to get the ball. It was nice to be able to have some pretty open looks for a change.

Q. (Indiscernible) you were doing or they weren't doing?

JIM FLANERY: Yeah, I mean, I think, like we said, we're just a little different team. You watch a lot of film, and we're not a patterned offense. We screen, we cut. There's less predictability than there is with a lot of teams. I think that makes us hard to scout if you're newly trying to prepare for Creighton for the first time.

I thought the ball went in the basket today; I'm not saying -- that's part of it, too, but we got open looks because we moved the ball. We screen well. We cut well. We played our bench, so when you do that, then you can stay fresh. You can move at a higher level than if you're tired.

I thought Jayme obviously was huge off the bench from a production standpoint, but we had some other people who did a credible job in terms of just continuing to make them have to guard us in a way that probably they haven't had to guard. We really kind of zeroed in on the teams that were a little bit like us. I think Wyoming was one of those that was like us, and just tried to show them all the opportunities that we're going to have. But we had 23 assists on 31 baskets, so that means the ball was moving, and when the ball is moving, it doesn't always go in, but I think there's a better chance, and we had it spread out.

Like you said, Emma was 0 for 5 the first half and she saw that first one go in in the third quarter, and then we -- I thought we did a great job of continuing to find her, and that doesn't come from the bench, that comes from on the floor.

We start five seniors. They have a really good feel for one another. I thought certainly there were some deficiencies defensively that UNLV exposed, but I think offensively I thought we played really well.

Q. As far as Jayme's play towards the end of the first quarter, how do you think that affected how UNLV played her (indiscernible)?

JIM FLANERY: Sure, well, I think Jayme's 5'10½" and doesn't jump. She's got my vertical. But she's super strong. She's disciplined defensively, and I thought it gave us more confidence to play her on Young. Going into the game, there's a little bit of a back and forth amongst our staff about whether or not Jayme's tall enough to make an impact on her in the post. But one of the things that we always talk about is her strength, her ability to work without the ball so she doesn't get quite as deep a post-up, and that's important.

I thought she did a really good job of showing us early that she could guard her, and then that gave us another option for the last three quarters. I thought Jayme was huge, and she's had some big games for us lately. Just her experience, and she's knocking down open threes, too.

Q. Can you just talk about Kiani's impact especially defensively, got a big steal at the end of the half to close out that 8-0 run?

JIM FLANERY: Yeah, I thought for those of you who don't know, she had missed seven weeks, so she did not come -- Kiani is a sophomore who hadn't come back until our conference tournament, so she only had kind of a two-game runway to get to today.

I think to play on this stage and defensively make the impact that she did and take care of the ball -- if she scores, that's great, but if she just takes care of the ball and defends, and I thought she did a good job. We put her on Jackson, we put her on Kimpson, who are tough covers, and they put you in a lot of tough spots with Jackson and Young in two-player games, I thought Kiani really did a good job for somebody who, like I said, had basically had two months away from the game and only a true sophomore.

Q. In the first half (indiscernible) shooting threes?

JIM FLANERY: Yeah, look, I think if you -- it's just a different philosophy, but I think if you look and you say she was 15 of 19, you'd say, why didn't they double her more, but it's because we played from the lead. I think that's why you saw me get upset when we gave up some kick-out threes is because once we had a lead, we wanted them to have to make tough twos, we wanted to rotate fresh defenders on her, and I felt like we were scoring the ball well enough that we didn't want to give up -- we didn't want the lead to go from 13 to 10, we wanted it to go from 13 to 11 and from 15 to 13 instead of 15 to 12. I think when you play for the lead, it's different.

We worked on trapping her more, and we worked on playing her more single, but the way the game played out when you play from the lead, you decide because you look at their percentages in terms of how well a lot of those players shoot the three, you say, well, we're going to make them beat us with twos.

I knew she had a good game, but 15 of 19, I didn't know she had that good a game until I looked at the stat sheet, but I'll do that all day when you play from the lead against a team that shoots it as well as they do.

Q. Can you just talk about Emma's preparation this week, her mentality in the locker room today. Having those rough games in the Big East Tournament and how she was able to transition into the second half she did today.

JIM FLANERY: Yeah, really proud of her. I loved what she just said about I'm too hard on myself and sometimes I can't move on after I miss shots. But I've gotten -- she's gotten way better at that, and that's what makes her a great player. To come out in the third quarter and do what she did, I think she was 7 of 10 in the third quarter after going 0 for 5, that takes a lot of mental strength. It takes experience.

A freshman is probably not going to be able to do that, but a senior who has been there and has had the success Emma has had has the opportunity to do that.

I also told her she had the benefit of her sister Hannah plays at Colorado State and they played UNLV three times, so she had their scouting report on top of our scouting report, so she had a little bit of an advantage. No, really proud of her. She played unbelievably well in that second half.

I thought she did some good things in the first half, the ball just didn't go in.