NEW YORK -– The UConn men’s basketball team couldn’t overcome the crater it put itself in on Friday night, falling to No. 2 seed Creighton in the Big East Tournament semifinal at Madison Square Garden, 71-62.
The Huskies fell behind by as many as 17 points early in the second half as Creighton made 21 of its first 30 shots from the field (70%). The defense improved, holding the Bluejays to 5-for-20 shooting over the final 15 minutes while the Huskies cut their deficit to three at the 6:31 mark, but ultimately paid for their early mistakes.
It was the program’s fourth semifinal exit in five years since returning to the Big East, the only exception being last season when the Huskies beat Marquette in the championship game.
“It feels a little bit dishonorable not to be able to be there late for the regular season, be here to at least fight St. John’s – at least fight those guys for the tournament championship,” coach Dan Hurley said. “But we don’t deserve to. We’re not as good as we’ve been, and we don’t deserve it. We’re entitled to go wherever we go next, and hopefully we get favorable matchups.”
It will be Creighton fighting No. 1 seed St. John’s Saturday night for the tournament title.
UConn, falling to 23-10 on the year, will wait to learn where it is headed for the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament on Sunday.
“We’re going to flush it out, break down the film, watch our mistakes and come together and try to fix them. We’re going to be ready for the NCAA Tournament,” said graduate point guard Hassan Diarra, who led the Huskies in the first half with 11 points on three made 3-pointers, but didn’t score after the break.
Liam McNeeley and Solo Ball accounted for 13 points a piece to lead the Huskies in scoring. Captain Alex Karaban played only 26 minutes after picking up his fourth foul with 15 and a half minutes remaining and finished with six points on 3-for-10 shooting.
While the defensive effort improved in the second half, UConn shot just 38.7% from the field and 2-for-12 from beyond the arc after the break. The Huskies assisted on just seven of their 26 made shots for the game, tying the program-low assist mark in a Big East Tournament game set in 2011 against Pittsburgh.
Jasen Green, who averaged just 4.6 points per game this season, shot 8 of 10 from the field and scored 15 of his career-high 19 points in the first half. Jamiya Neal scored the first nine points of the night for the Bluejays and finished with 19, plus five rebounds and three assists, while Ryan Kalkbrenner and Steven Ashworth added 12 points a piece.
Taking advantage of a sequence of failed defensive assignments after Karaban tied the game at 28 with six minutes to go in the first half, Green and the Bluejays broke the game open with an 11-0 scoring run.
Aidan Mahaney, who provided 16 productive minutes off the bench in the quarterfinal round Thursday, hit a 3-pointer just before the halftime buzzer – UConn’s sixth on nine attempts – and the team ran off the court, coaches fired up, but not because of the made shot.
The Huskies followed their best defensive half of the season, holding Villanova to 20.8% shooting in the second half Thursday night, with their worst to start Friday’s semifinal. Creighton closed the half with a 46-35 lead, shooting 18-for-24 (75%) from the field and 4-for-6 from beyond the arc with a 15-10 rebounding advantage at the break.
Hurley could be heard yelling in the team locker room during the break, according to multiple reporters, who said they could hear him from the media room across the hall.
“We made too many mistakes defensively, we weren’t guarding the way we were supposed to and we knew we had to do a better job heading into the second half of really limiting their actions and their personnel,” Karaban said.
The second half didn’t start much better.
McNeeley was called for an intentional foul after a 50-50 ball got to Ashworth with a clear path to the hoop, gifting the Bluejays two free throws and possession. Kalkbrenner hit a jump hook and the Huskies turned the ball over on a shot clock violation as Creighton came out of the break on a 9-3 run, its lead swelling to 17 points.
“I thought that we were just wild, we were jumping into (Kalkbrenner) and throwing shots up at the basket and never looking at the roller and never landing and playing off two feet, and hoping to get bailed out by the officials,” Hurley said. “We just took a really immature approach in the second half.”
The Bluejays had to cool off eventually. They went scoreless for over five minutes and UConn capitalized with a 12-0 run, getting within five as McNeeley finished a three-point play, Tarris Reed Jr. made a monster block on a layup attempt from Neal, then grabbed an offensive rebound and kicked out to Mahaney for an open 3-pointer in front of the Huskies’ bench.
Reed made it a three-point game, trading buckets inside with Kalkbrenner with six and a half minutes to go, but Neal made his third 3-pointer and the Bluejays used a 7-2 run to get back up eight in the final three minutes of the game.
“i feel like defensively, that’s where we have to hang our hat on if we want to make a deep run in the (NCAA) Tournament,” Reed said. “This is all we have left. It’s now each game at a time. I feel like we know what to do, and it’s on the defensive end, man, that’s the biggest part of it.”
Late-game dramatics
With the win in-hand, Neal drove to the basket against no defenders and went up for a windmill dunk that he later said he regrets, hanging on the rim with 1.5 seconds still on the clock. Diarra took exception to the play and let him know.
“They were already up with 7 seconds left. He didn’t want to dribble the ball out,” Diarra said. “Went in for a fancy dunk. I just felt it was disrespectful to the game of basketball.”
The pair was called for dual technicals and Jayden Ross, one of several Huskies who ran across the court to back up Diarra, was ejected from the game for leaving the bench.
“I got caught up in the emotions of the game,” Neal said. “Just a lot of emotions going on. So I would like to apologize for that. I respect Coach Hurley and those guys over there. They have a great, great program. Obviously the two-time national champs.”
Originally Published: March 14, 2025 at 11:49 PM EDT
