Men’s basketball wins at #14 UConn, 68-63

STORRS, Conn. — Jamiya Neal scored a career-high 24 points and Steven Ashworth made four free throws in the final minute to help the Creighton men’s basketball team to a 68-63 victory at No. 14 in Connecticut on Saturday, snapping a 28-game home hitting streak for the two-time defending national champions.

The Bluejays have now won five of their last six games to improve to 12-6 overall, while UConn fell to 13-5. Both teams are now 5-2 in BIG EAST play.

UConn scored on five of its first eight drives, including a pair of three-pointers by Solo Ball, to take a 10-2 lead in the first four minutes. Neal helped stem that rally, scoring 10 straight Bluejay points before a deep trey from Steven Ashworth gave CU its first lead at 15-14 to quiet the sellout crowd. Creighton’s first 17 points would come from its senior class before one Isaac Traudt three-pointer with 10:15 left in the first half.

A 6-0 run after a UConn timeout sparked the crowd before Neal’s third triple of the half gave CU a 28-26 lead and started a 10-2 surge that helped the Jays take a 35-28 advantage during the break.

Neal made 7-of-8 shots in the first half and had 17 at halftime, while Kalkbrenner had six points and six rebounds. UConn was led by eight points apiece from Ball and Hassan Diarra, but All-American Alex Karaban, who was all preseason, was scoreless on 0-of-3 shooting.

UConn got three-pointers from Ball and Jaylin Stewart in the first three minutes of the second half to close within 41-39, and Karaban’s first basket at the 15:29 mark tied the game at 41-all. A three ball from Isaac Traudt helped start another Bluejay rally and CU led 57-48 with 6:56 left on a layup by Jason Green. UConn answered once again, getting a floater from Karaban before a Stewart three-pointer that preceded a Bluejay timeout with 6:37 left and CU clinging to a 57-53 lead. The Huskies retook the lead (59-58) with 3:27 left on two free throws by Samson Johnson, only for Kalkbrenner to answer with a bucket to put CU ahead 60-59.

Mason Miller made his biggest play of the day with 1:50 left, taking a layup on Karaban, and Kalkbrenner hit two at the line with 1:32 left to put CU up 62-59. A bucket by Stewart with 1:11 left trimmed CU’s lead to one, but Ashworth made both shots on 1-and-1 with 50.1 left to return the margin to three. UConn pulled within one (64-63) on another Karaban floater with 22.7 left.

Ashworth was fouled with 17.3 to go and made both. CU then used two fumbles it had to give to make one final Huskies possession down by three. With less than five seconds left, Karaban missed a deep three-pointer and Kalkbrenner pulled down the board to secure a double-double. The fifth-year senior then made a pair with 1.4 left to close out the win and improve to 8-2 in her career against the Huskies.

Neal led Creighton with 24 points, while Traudt added 11 and Kalkbrenner had 16 points and 10 rebounds. Ashworth finished with nine assists and 12 points. Creighton shot 47.9 percent for the game, made 34.8 percent of its three-pointers and drained 93.3 percent at the line. The Jays also won the rebounding battle 28-25

Connecticut was paced by 15 points apiece from Ball and Diarra, and Stewart had 14. UConn shot 44.8 percent from the field and was perfect on five free throw attempts. The Huskies outscored CU 40-26 in the paint and 15-10 off turnovers.

Creighton will return to court Tuesday at 8 p.m., when it visits DePaul (10-9, 1-7 BIG EAST).

NOTES: Greg McDermott coached in his 503rd game as Creighton head coach, tied for most all-time with Dana Altman. McDermott owns 337 wins, while Altman had 327 … Creighton has made a three-pointer in 1,038 consecutive games … Steven Ashworth has made a three-pointer in 36 consecutive games … Jackson McAndrew became Creighton’s first freshman to make a three-pointer in seven consecutive BIG EAST games … Ryan Kalkbrenner (984) passed Bob Portman (979) for fifth place on Creighton’s all-time rebounding chart … Ryan Kalkbrenner’s the first blocked shot was the 354th of his career, tying him with Dikembe Mutombo … Steven Ashworth is Creighton’s first player in the last 20 seasons with eight or more assists in three straight road games … Steven Ashworth scored in double figures for the 21st consecutive game … Jamiya Neal joined Maurice Watson Jr. (in 2006-07) as the only Bluejays in the last 20 seasons with three or more assists in each of CU’s first 18 games of a season … Creighton improved to 8-2 all-time against UConn, the best winning percentage of any team to play the Huskies 10 or more times … Creighton’s 5-2 BIG EAST record is its best mark through seven league games since the Sweet 16 team in 2020-21… Greg McDermott‘s 128 wins in league play is tied with Rick Pitino for seventh-most in BIG EAST history … Creighton has now beaten multiple Top 25 teams each of the last 10 seasons … Today was Greg McDermott‘s 40th Top 25 win on the Creighton sideline and 10th Top 25 road win. All former Bluejay coaches had 20 Top 25 wins and three true road wins over Top 25 competition … Creighton is now 3-12 all-time against the defending national champions, with two of the wins coming against Connecticut … Creighton is the third team in the last 10 years to beat the No. 1 team in the country as well as the defending national champion in different games in the same season … Creighton has won eight straight games on FOX … UConn’s 28-game home winning streak was snapped … Creighton improved to 24-2 all-time in BIG EAST road games when leading by seven points or more at the half … Creighton is now 7-0 all-time against UConn in games decided by eight points or less.

title=”YouTube video player” frameborder=”0″ allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share” referrerpolicy=”strict-origin-when-cross- origin” allow fullscreen>