UConn Hoops: No. 15 Creighton upsets Huskies behind nuclear shooting night
Storming the court is reserved for only the best of wins. If you lose and it happens to you, it means that you’re doing something right. On Tuesday against No. 15 Creighton, the top-ranked Huskies gave it their best effort, but couldn’t avoid a court storming in a 85-66 loss.
Connecticut came in riding a 14-game win streak, but you can’t win them all. Especially with how tough it is to come out with a victory on the road, this is an appropriate one to drop. Even more so when a team shoots as well as the Bluejays did.
Creighton made 8/15 threes in the first half and 14/28 for the entire game. There wasn’t a shot they didn’t like and there were few they didn’t make. They went on numerous different runs whenever they felt like it in the first half and that caused many a problem for UConn. At the head of the effort was Steven Ashworth, who went completely nuclear in the first half.
Playing the game in honor of his two and a half year old nephew who is recovering from complications involving a brain aneurysm, Ashworth went 4/8 from downtown in the first half en route to a 20 point game. It was easily his best game of the season and was a big factor in Creighton’s win. But there were plenty of others who helped out.
Ryan Kalkbrenner did an excellent job neutralizing Donovan Clingan and also had a night on the offensive end. He finished with 15 points on seven shots and grabbed five boards. The center’s presence was felt every single minute of the game – and he played every minute.
Trey Alexander and Jasen Green each did their fair share in the victory, scoring 16 and eight, respectively. But Green’s eight was perhaps more surprising. The freshman forward is averaging one point per game, but scored eight and hit his first career three against Connecticut. On a night where absolutely nothing seemed to be going right, Green’s outing was another issue of many.
For the Huskies, it was the perfect storm of disaster. Mixed with their lack of production from the bench (four points), their difficulty defending the three point line made the game a near-impossible one to win.
“I think it had more to do with [Creighton],” UConn coach Dan Hurley said after the loss. “We’re going to look at the film and find things, but they made everything they looked at.”
Everybody except for Tristen Newton did not play to their capacity, which is becoming a running theme in losses. UConn has a lot of weapons and can sustain a few not playing well, but certainly not this many.
Newton had yet another excellent night, posting 27 points, 12 rebounds and four assists. He made a number of tough shots and seemed to be the only one bringing any sort of intensity to the game. While the guard doesn’t always deliver in the 30-point blowouts, he’s consistently a lone producer when it comes to the rest of the team being off.
“We were in uncharted waters in terms of the level of adversity we were dealing with,” Hurley said. “Maybe the Seton Hall game was the last time; when Donovan went down. We did a bad job coaching. We were definitely stunned. We knew this was a dangerous game with a quality opponent, but we didn’t expect this to happen.”
As for the rest of the team, everything that worked against Marquette went sideways. Sixth man and hustle guy Hassan Diarra managed two points and no assists in 20 minutes. His impact was less than it often is. Clingan and Samson Johnson were frequently in foul trouble, especially during Creighton’s incredible first half. Alex Karaban and Cam Spencer each had games to forget, combining for 13 on 5/15 shooting. Steph Castle had trouble finding an offensive flow too, missing all of his threes and scoring 10 points.
The good news about the defeat is that it’s on February 20th and not March 20th. Getting a bit of a reality check isn’t a bad thing, since UConn isn’t even in danger of getting moved off the NCAA tournament one-seed line. Yes, they were borderline blown out, but it’s happening to everyone. No. 3 Purdue just lost on the road to Ohio State, a team that fired their coach earlier in the week. A road loss doesn’t tell you much about a squad, especially against a team as talented as Creighton.
It’s one game and as long as they don’t make performances like this a habit, they’ll be okay. It took a lot of things going wrong to lose this one and the Huskies still haven’t lost at home or at a neutral site.
Their next chance will come against Villanova at home on a day that is exciting for a number of reasons. The first is that College Gameday is coming to Storrs for the first time in a decade. The second is the jersey retirement of Rip Hamilton.
Gametime for that one is 8 p.m. and it will be broadcasted on FOX.
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