University of Northern Iowa
Creighton
Panthers finish a five-game road stand with a matchup at Creighton
12/1/2023 2:19:00 PM | Women's Basketball
UNI women's basketball to face off with RV/#25 Creighton in final road matchup of a five-game stretch.
UNI (1-5 / 0-0 MVC) at RV/#25 Creighton (5-1 / 0-0 Big East)
- 1 p.m. CT | Dec. 3
- Omaha, Neb. | DJ Sokol Arena
- FloHoops
- Panther Sports Radio Network (Chris Kleinhans-Schulz: Play-by-Play)
CEDAR FALLS, Iowa --- The UNI women's basketball squad aims to get back on track with their final matchup of a five-game road stand at Creighton on Sunday. The Panthers and the Bluejays have a storied history of matchups, meeting on 61 different occasions spanning back to their first matchup on Feb. 3, 1987. Out of all the Panther series, the 61-game series with Creighton has the second-most games against current non-conference opponents behind a 77-game series with former conference foe Wichita State. Â
UNI is coming off an 84-65 loss at South Dakota. In that matchup, the Coyotes got off to a quick start with a seven-point run to open the matchup. The Panthers brought it close with a 10-1 run to end the first quarter and held South Dakota scoreless for the first three and a half minutes of the second quarter. The Coyotes broke the matchup back open with a 16-point run and claimed the 19-point victory. Rachael Heittola led the Panther scoring effort against South Dakota with 15 points. Maya McDermott was the only other Panther in double figures with 11 points. She added eight rebounds and went 5-for-5 from the free-throw line.
Forward Grace Boffeli is 15 points away from breaking into the top-10 in the Panther all-time rebounding list. She sits with 685 rebounds, just shy of Julie Street's (1984-94) 700 career rebounds. She is also 69 points shy of crossing the 1,000-point threshold. She would become the 27th Panther to accomplish that feat. UNI continues to lead the MVC with 13.2 turnovers per game, the lowest mark in the conference. and the 37th-lowest mark in the nation. Guard Maya McDermott currently averages 2.71 assists per turnover, the second-best mark in the conference.
Creighton is coming off an 83-69 victory over Michigan State and a 57-46 victory over Georgia Tech in the 2023 Cancun Challenge. The Bluejays remained a perfect 6-0 in their matchups in the Cancun Challenge with 2-0 visits in 2012 and 2019 as well.
Senior guard Lauren Jensen leads the Bluejays with 117 total points and 19.5 points per game. In the game against Michigan State, Jensen scored a career-high 32 points on 60% shooting (12-for-20) from the floor and 6-of-6 from the free-throw line. Jensen owns team single-game season-highs in points (32), assists (6), and steals (4) through six games. Two other Bluejays are averaging double figures this season with senior guard / forward Morgan Maly averaging 17.5 points per game and senior forward Emma Ronsiek averaging 15. Maly remains perfect from the free throw line this season, going 16-for-16 through six games, as does freshman guard McKayla Miller who is 6-for-6 from the line.
Creighton leads the Big East conference with an 81.3% free-throw percentage and 24.7 three-pointers attempted per game. Senior forward Mallory Brake leads the Big East with 10 total blocks, averaging a conference-best 1.67 per game.
