By William S. Paxton

Senior Basketball Writer

As UConn men’s hoops looked to close its season on a high note, a poor start doomed the Huskies on the road against Creighton.

The Blue Jays dominated the first half and then staved off a second-half surge to win 64-62 on Wednesday night in Omaha.

“I know everything I need to know about this team,” UConn head coach Dan Hurley said. “We blew just a tremendous opportunity to get a sixth straight Big East win here with a chance to get our seventh at home and have a chance to go into New York City on a roll…it’s just disappointing we couldn’t come in here and win the game.”

Ryan Kalkbrenner scored 22 points as the Bluejays (20-9, 12-6 Big East) completed the regular-season sweep of the series. Creighton improved to 5-0 against UConn and now holds the tie-breaker advantage on the third seed in next week’s conference tournament at MSG in New York.

The 18th-ranked Huskies (21-8, 12-6) never held a lead and trailed by as many as 16 points in the first half.

Adama Sanogo added 13 points and 16 rebounds, while Tyrese Martin added 11 before fouling out. The loss snapped the Huskies’ five-game win streak.

WHAT WENT WELL

Fight in the Dogs: After trailing 34-24, UConn opened the second half with a 12-3 run (18-3 if you include a 6-0 finish going into the break) to make it a battle. However, despite tying it twice in the final 10 minutes, UConn never held a lead.

Dan Hurley: “It’s just disappointing we didn’t play better to win the game. Digging a hole like that, they really just took it to us.”

WHAT NEEDS WORK

Road Challenges: It was a dreadful first half for the Huskies, who shot 33.3 percent from the field and were 1 of 10 from 3-point range. Kaluma poured in 15 points and the Bluejays led by as much as 16 points. In addition to allowing CU to shoot 51.7 percent from the field and 4-for-8 on 3s, the Huskies got beat up physically with Sanogo, Martin, Polley and freshman Jordan Hawkins all suffering some type of physical ailment.

HURLEY: “We guarded terribly in the first half and Kaluma killed us. We guarded him really, really poorly.”

NO INSIDE EDGE: The Bluejays won the rebounding battle 37-33 again against a team that leads the conference in rebound margin. They also had the stronger inside game with Kalkbrenner and Kaluma collecting 37 points and 15 rebounds. Sanogo not only struggled shooting 6-for-16 from the field against the 7-foot-1 Kalkbrenner, but left him open too often for easy buckets, too.

HURLEY: “Their starting ‘4’ and ‘5’ went for 37 (points) and that was probably the difference in the game.”

MISC. NOTES

Hurley did not provide an update on Hawkins’ status after the game. … UConn’s last six-game win streak came in the 2014 NCAA Tournament where the Huskies won their fourth national title. The last time they won six consecutive conference games was in 2008-09 in the old Big East. … The Bluejays were without freshman point guard Ryan Nembhard, who suffered a season-ending injury on Feb. 23.

UP NEXT

Saturday, vs. DePaul, at Gampel Pavilion in Storrs, Conn., 5 p.m. (FOX)