The Bluejays held on after a hot first half to send UConn home.
UConn men’s basketball’s quest for a Big East Tournament repeat fell short Friday night, as a hot first half from 2-seed Creighton lifted the Bluejays past the Huskies on the way to a 72-61 victory. Creighton will take on top seeded St. John’s in the championship game Saturday night.
The Bluejays were lights out from the opening tip, but didn’t lean on the usual duo of Steven Ashworth and Ryan Kalkbrenner. After needing double-overtime to take down DePaul, Jamiya Neal and Jasen Green powered Creighton to victory. Neal, who scored 24 in the Bluejays’ Jan. 18 win over UConn, was red hot to start with 13 first-half points, and Green led all scorers with 15. Both finished with 19, while Ashworth and Kalkbrenner added 12 each.
Hassan Diarra got the scoring started for UConn (23-10), contributing all 11 of his points on the night in the first eight minutes, including two threes to push the Huskies to an early 6-5 lead. It would be UConn’s last lead of the night, as Neal and Green ripped off six-straight points to go up 11-6.
After trailing by as much as six early in the first half after a 3-pointer from Ashworth, a layup from Alex Karaban tied things up at 28 with 6:44 to play. But Creighton ripped off an 11-0 run spearheaded, again, by Green and Neal to lead 39-28 just four minutes later. The Bluejays would stretch its lead to as much as 14 before an Aidan Mahaney 3-pointer at the buzzer cut the halftime deficit to 11.
By the end of the first half, UConn had surrendered 46 points and allowed the Bluejays to hit its last eight shots from the field. Creighton shot 75 percent from the field in the first 20 minutes and 67 percent from three, averaging over 1.7 points per possession.
It only got worse for the Huskies to start the second half, as a clear path foul from Liam McNeeley led to three points for Creighton to start, and a Kalkbrenner hook shot over Samson Johnson stretched the Bluejays’ lead to 15.
Creighton would stretch the lead to as much as 17 before the Huskies, who won four games in the regular season after trailing by 14 points, finally punched back.
A floater from Jaylin Stewart got things going, then Tarris Reed Jr.’s physicality in the post led to a putback. A layup and then a three-point play from Liam McNeeley made it a 9-0 run before another Mahaney three cut Creighton’s lead to five. With the Huskies down 55-50 just before the under-12 timeout, UConn had closed the gap to a manageable amount and gotten the sizable Husky fan contingent at Madison Square Garden back involved.
Ashworth stopped the bleeding with a midrange jumper, but UConn managed to get within three with 6:30 to play after an extendo-arm rebound and put back from Reed with Kalkbrenner draped all over him. It was as close as the Huskies would get, though, as Neal answered with a three — his third of the night — after a controversial deflection off UConn under Creighton’s basket gave the Bluejays the ball.
Creighton ramped the defensive intensity late, and Kalkbrenner’s presence in the post didn’t let the Huskies get any quality looks around the rim. The Bluejays looked to be cruising towards a 69-62 win before an unexpected exclamation point dunk from Neal with 1.5 seconds left led to a 71-62 final score, offsetting technicals to Neal and Diarra and Jayden Ross being ejected.
Solo Ball and McNeeley tied for the UConn lead with 13 points and were joined by Diarra as the only Huskies in double figures. After playing 47 of 50 minutes in the double-OT win over DePaul Thursday night, Kalkbrenner played 39 minutes on Friday night, adding four boards and blocking one shot but altering countless others.
Up next, UConn will have to wait for Selection Sunday to find out its NCAA tournament path for a potential three-peat. The Huskies should comfortably be in the discussion for an at-large bid and are currently expected to receive an 8-seed or 9-seed.