With 5 super seniors, Creighton women's basketball is ready for its tough non-conference slate
The question following their NCAA tournament run was will they or won't they.
Creighton women's basketball fans wondered if the team's six seniors — all of whom played instrumental roles in a 26-6 season — would return for an extra season which had been granted by the NCAA due to the pandemic.
The answer was given in early April when the players made a joint announcement via social media. Five of them were coming back, keeping expectations high for the Jays to reach the NCAA tournament for a fourth straight year.
Creighton had the same starting lineup for all 32 games last season and four of those starters return.
"We'll all have to adjust a little bit. We only lost one starter and one main contributor, but it was Emma and she did do a lot," said guard Lauren Jensen, referring to forward Emma Ronsiek.
Ronsiek was a two-time All-Big East first-team selection, a forward who is adept scoring around at the basket and from the 3-point line. Ronsiek also is making use of her extra year to play college ball, only not with the Jays. She transferred to Colorado State to spend a season playing with her younger sister. Last month, Ronsiek was named the Mountain West Conference preseason co-player of the year.
Ronsiek started 109 games and scored 1,622 points in her four seasons at Creighton. Even without Ronsiek, experience is one of the major strengths for Creighton, ranked 21st in the AP preseason poll.
"Our experience, I think, is what makes us so good and so solid early in the year," said forward Morgan Maly, another two-time first-team all-league selection. "We're going to challenge ourselves in the non-con again."
Creighton's nonconference schedule includes UCLA, ranked fifth in the preseason poll, No. 13 Kansas State, No. 23 Nebraska and an opener at Summit League favorite South Dakota State, which is receiving votes.
Maly and Jensen each are on pace to finish at or near the top of CU's career scoring and 3-point charts.
Only three players have topped 2,000 points with Creighton. The left-handed Maly has 1,501 points and is sixth on the 3-point list with 257 — CU's record is 309 3s.
Jensen, who played her first season at Iowa, was scored 1,471 points and 224 3s in three years with CU. Jensen is ninth on 3-point career list. Now the 5-foot-10 guard is ready for her last college season.
"It came up really fast, it's insane," Jensen said. "Time flies when you're having fun and I'm looking forward to one more season."
Point guard Molly Mogensen is entering her third season as a starter, leading the team in assists the past two years. She's 11 assists away from moving into the program's top 10 in that category.
Forward Mallory Brake also returns as a starter, while fellow fifth-year senior Jayme Horan from Millard South gives CU a 3-point threat off the bench.
Horan was the team's fifth starter this summer when it played three games in Europe, but junior guard Kiani Lockett was in the starting lineup during Wednesday's exhibition game against Southwest Minnesota State.
"She gives us defensively something that we need," coach Jim Flanery said of Lockett following Wednesday's game.
Flanery added that he likes how valuable Horan has been coming off the bench and that the team will be more dependent on Jensen as a scorer without Ronsiek.
Lockett finished Wednesday's game with seven assists and three steals. A year ago, Lockett averaged 2.6 points in 15.8 minutes per game.
"I'm an upperclassman now. The game has slowed a lot for me," Lockett said. "I have put a lot of pressure on myself to like get to the level that I am at right now and I think it's just on display all the hard work that I've done. I think now I'm just meeting the expectations that I always wanted to meet for myself and my teammates."
Lockett, Horan and Kennedy Townsend were CU's main bench players a year ago. Townsend is back after averaging 16 minutes a game.
Among the newcomers on the front line are 6-2 grad transfer Brooke Littrell, who was a Division II All-American at Central Missouri, and 6-3 freshman center Elizabeth Gentry.
"She's a big, physical player that we haven't had since I've been here." Maly said of Gentry.
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