OMAHA, Neb. – Dan Hurley has been talking about killer instinct and breaking an opponent’s will since the Big East season started for the UConn men’s basketball team.
The call was finally answered on Saturday night with one of the most complete, well-balanced and dominant performances of the season as the Huskies cruised to an 85-58 blowout of Creighton at the normally imposing CHI Health Center.
Enjoying the backdrop of Creighton’s annual “Pink Out” game for cancer awareness, an overflowing crowd all dressed in pink, the Huskies made 16 3-pointers on 31 attempts from beyond the arc (51.6%) and shot a similar 54.1% from the field. They dominated the glass, 37-24, the second-chance points (23-8) and only turned the ball over eight times. This was all while holding the Bluejays to 40.9% shooting from the floor and a rough 5-for-21 mark from beyond the arc, where they were 0-for-11 in the second half.
It was the 17th-consecutive win for UConn, which improved to 21-1 on the year and 11-0 in the Big East, but only its second double-digit margin of victory since its first real test in league play, when it came back to beat Providence in overtime on Jan. 7.
“We’ve been searching for a full 40 and a relentlessness, a ruthlessness, and then just better quality. We made shots today. It looks a lot different when you’re making shots, and we had guys making shots,” coach Dan Hurley said. “If you play elite-level offense, shoot 54% from the field and make 16 3s, you’re plus-13 on the glass and you hold a really good offensive team – like a really good offensive team – to 40% from the field at home, and the 3-point line defense we played… I mean, that’s bulletproof basketball.”
It was UConn’s second-consecutive win in Omaha, where it had been 0-4 before last season.
Creighton fell to 12-10 and 6-5 in the league.
UConn had four players finish in double figures with Braylon Mullins leading the way at 16 points. Alex Karaban had 15 and six rebounds and Silas Demary Jr. also went for 15 points with six rebounds and five assists. Solo Ball added 11 with four boards and three assists, and Tarris Reed Jr. had eight on 4-for-4 shooting from the field.
After Liam McNeeley’s freshman-record 38-point double-double ended the program’s winless history in Omaha last season, it was Mullins’ turn to shine as the Huskies’ star rookie on Saturday. He returned to the starting lineup after clearing concussion protocol and got going immediately, kicking off a series of six-consecutive 3-pointers between both teams just a minute in. Ball made two and Mullins saw a second fall to put the Huskies up, 12-8, after five minutes.
The game hit a bit of an offensive lull as foul trouble sent UConn’s starters to the bench. But after Nik Graves traded 3s with Jaylin Stewart and Isaac Traudt put the Bluejays in front, the Huskies’ starting group was at the scorer’s table, ready to check back in.
UConn shot 8-for-15 from 3-point range in the first half to Creighton’s 5-for-10, and went on a demoralizing 10-2 scoring run over the final two minutes of the half to take a 41-30 lead into the break.
“It was awesome to see the shots going in. I mean, we work too hard, we put up too many shots, we knew eventually that it was going to happen, it was great that it happened here,” Karaban said.
“It was great for us and demoralizing for them to end the half like that,” Hurley said.
In the halftime locker room, the plan was to come out strong in the first four-minute segment and systematically break the Bluejays down.
Mullins started it with his third 3-pointer of the game and Karaban extended the lead to 14 with a pair of buckets inside. Creighton built some momentum and trailed by 10 after the first four minutes, but the Huskies kept their foot on the gas.
Dominating down low without having to deal with the 7-foot-1, four-time Big East Defensive Player of the Year, Ryan Kalkbrenner (who is now a teammate of McNeeley’s with the Charlotte Hornets), UConn’s 10-point lead became 22 in a flash. Then 22 became 30 when Jayden Ross got an open 3 to fall and Mullins came out of the ensuing timeout to hit another, his fourth of the night, with 6:49 left on the clock.
“(Mullins) is a special player. The guy’s a special talent, and I think when we watch the film of this, you’re gonna see the two-way, too. I thought he really guarded well today on the perimeter,” Hurley said.
The Creighton faithful didn’t have much to cheer for in the second half, other than Eric Reibe’s 0-for-2 trip to the free throw line, which earned them free chicken sandwiches. Most of the crowd started heading for the exits with seven minutes left and saw Mullins’ shot push the deficit to 30 on their way out.
“We needed this one bad,” Mullins said. “Coming into the game, the emphasis was the full 40 minutes and we haven’t done that, and we’ve seen the reflection of that on film the past couple of weeks. So when we came into the game today it was just like, hey, we’ve got to put the foot on the gas and we’re not gonna let up. So, I felt like we did a pretty good job of that.”
