There’s just something about Creighton men’s basketball. When Dan Hurley goes to sleep, it’s hard to imagine that he doesn’t have nightmares about the Bluejays. As dominant as the now No. 14 Huskies have been against the college basketball landscape over the past few years, their kryptonite has consistently been Creighton.
The teams split their matchups over the past two years, the campaigns that ended in national championships for Connecticut. Creighton also won the six meetings that came before. On Saturday, UConn once again fell to Creighton, an uncharacteristically inconsistent team for the program’s standards. They amazingly have beaten top-10 Kansas and also lost by over 20 to middling Georgetown.
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Just the 42nd time the Huskies have ever lost at Gampel Pavilion, it was a hard-fought game against a squad playing their best basketball. Jamiya Neal, a transfer from Arizona State, played incredibly, scoring a game-high 24 points on 16 shots. He was electric, along with Ryan Kalkbrenner who had a 16-10 double-double.
While hot-shooting was the primary factor in the loss UConn took to Creighton last year, the visitors made a modest 35% on Saturday, a hair better than the Huskies’ 32%. The rebounding was also problematic for Connecticut, getting beaten on the boards by 3, a category they tend to lead in.
The main storyline for UConn was Alex Karaban. The junior 2-time champion had a rough afternoon, going scoreless in the first half. A tweak to his ankle actually seemed to help get him going, managing a few shots. Still, his performance was lacking. He mustered just 8 points on 12 tries, one of his worst outings of the season.
There isn’t doubt yet about his capabilities as the team’s leader, but it’s evident that he and the rest of the team badly misses the tools that injured freshman Liam McNeeley brings.
Even in the loss, Hassan Diarra was great. He was tied as the Huskies’ best scorer with 15 points, along with 7 assists and 6 boards. Diarra brought a ton of energy and did a lot of things right, again far from the reason why UConn didn’t win. He hit timely shots to get Connecticut back into the game late, really growing into one of the team’s best leaders.
Jaylin Stewart also had an excellent afternoon. Averaging just 5 points on the season, the sophomore poured in 14 on the day. He’s often been effective in spurts, though he scored his points over a longer period Saturday. It’s an important piece of growth as he steps into a bigger role with McNeeley out.
Solo Ball was also the team’s leading scorer, but likely could have shown more aggression. He made 3/5 attempts from deep and the team would have benefitted if he shot more. Still, he shot well within the shots he did take, also flashing more of a midrange game recently than in the start of the year.
UConn got out to a very early 10-2 advantage largely thanks to a pair of threes from Ball. After Creighton quickly caught back up, neither side got much separation until late in the half. Over the course of the last 5 minutes until the break, the Bluejays scored 9 of 11 points. That helped them capture a commanding 7-point lead.
Connecticut didn’t waste much time getting back into the game, starting with another Ball trey and a poster dunk by Johnson over Kalkbrenner. Other Huskies helped continue the run, highlighted by Karaban’s first 4 points of the game, even as he tweaked his ankle.
The Huskies were back in the lead quickly, but then Creighton woke back up. A pair of dunks from a surging Neal powered a 9-0 Bluejay run and suddenly their cushion was back. Things began to look dire for Connecticut, with the clock waning and Creighton up nearly 10.
Thankfully for the home side, Karaban found the net on a floater and Stewart drilled one from deep. Ball added a pair of deuces and Johnson used two from the stripe to push ahead. Down after free throws from Steven Ashworth and Kalkbrenner, Karaban hit another floater to reduce the hole to 1.
Ashworth–a 97% shooter from the line–made another pair, giving UConn the ball with the shot clock turned off. Creighton had fouls to give, one of which coming on a controversial play where Diarra began to shoot a triple as he was being fouled. It was ruled as a foul before the shot, so instead Karaban took a late, deep contested three that was missed. Creighton walked away with a victory.
McNeeley clearly has hidden some of the Huskies’ warts this year, but if they can clean them up before he comes back, the team will be so much stronger in the long run. This is a loss that clearly stings, but they need to regroup and refocus. They have two games per week for the foreseeable future, starting this Tuesday.
Their contest against Butler at home should be one of their easier remaining ones, with the Bulldogs having lost 9 of their last 10. That one comes at the XL Center on FS1.
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