No. 15 Creighton halts No. 1 UConn's 14-game win streak – ESPN

UConn head coach Dan Hurley offers his evaluation of his workforce’s blowout loss at Creighton. (0:36)
OMAHA, Neb. — Creighton went into its sport towards UConn having misplaced all six of its earlier conferences with No. 1-ranked groups and by no means coming nearer than 10 factors.
The No. 15 Bluejays lastly broke via on their seventh attempt, constructing a double-digit lead within the first half and knocking off the Huskies 85-66 Tuesday evening.
“It is a historic sport for our program,” Creighton coach Greg McDermott stated. “I advised the workforce within the locker room, it is actually a end result of a whole lot of work by lots of people over an extended time frame to provide these guys the chance to put on this uniform and play in entrance of the gang we had been in a position to play in entrance of tonight.
“We performed a very good sport and we beat an unimaginable workforce, a workforce that has a professional probability to win a nationwide championship. However we’re fairly good as properly.”
Creighton (20-7, 10-6 Large East) led by 23 factors with 10 minutes left however noticed its lead lower to 10 earlier than holding the defending nationwide champions scoreless on 5 straight possessions, rebuilding its cushion and prompting college students to depart their seats to arrange to storm the courtroom — which they did as quickly because the buzzer sounded.
UConn (24-3, 14-2) had its 14-game win streak — which had been the longest lively streak in Division I — finish three days after it beat then-No. 4 Marquette by 28 factors for one of the crucial spectacular victories of the season — and at some point after it was voted as the first unanimous No. 1 this season within the AP ballot.
“It form of felt like we simply ran right into a buzz noticed there,” UConn coach Dan Hurley stated.
Steven Ashworth scored 16 of his 20 factors within the first half, Trey Alexander completed with 16 factors and Ryan Kalkbrenner added 15. The Bluejays made 14 of 28 3-pointers of their second-best capturing evening from past the arc this season. Creighton was simply 6-of-26 on 3s in its 62-48 loss at UConn final month.
“After I watched that Marquette-UConn sport, I’ve bought to confess I wasn’t feeling heat and fuzzy about our probabilities,” McDermott stated.
Circumstances appeared proper for the Bluejays. They got here into the sport off a pair of 22-point wins and on a three-game win streak, McDermott stated his workforce’s offensive circulation has been nearly as good as it has been all season, and a rowdy sellout crowd was readily available.
The Huskies had been taking part in their third sport in seven days, and Hurley stated his gamers’ physique language wasn’t good in workforce huddles as soon as the Bluejays took the lead and constructed on it.
“I do assume we did a foul job teaching tonight, our gamers did a foul job taking part in, I did a foul job teaching,” Hurley stated. “Your huddles aren’t going to be tremendous energized when you have not misplaced in two-plus months. … We had been positively surprised. This wasn’t the sport we anticipated, we knew this was a harmful sport and a high quality opponent and one of many higher groups within the nation. However we did not anticipate this to occur.”
It was the Huskies’ nineteenth straight highway loss to a ranked opponent, their final such win coming at No. 19 Memphis on March 13, 2014.
UConn’s Tristen Newton scored 17 of his 27 factors within the second half, together with 10 throughout the 18-5 spurt that helped pull the Huskies inside 74-64.
The Huskies made a season-low three 3-pointers on 16 makes an attempt of their most lopsided loss since Houston beat them 84-45 within the AAC match on March 15, 2019. They’d come into the sport off a Large East-record three straight wins by not less than 25 factors.
The Bluejays made simply two of their first 9 photographs, trailed by eight factors early and had main scorer Baylor Scheierman on the bench for eight minutes within the first half after he picked up two fouls. Scheierman completed with 12 factors.
“Even after we bought off to that dangerous begin I did not see any concern, no concern in our faces, we simply continued to play,” McDermott stated.
The Huskies had issues of their very own. Donovan Clingan, their 7-foot-2, 280-pound middle, was referred to as for 2 fast fouls and performed simply 11 minutes within the half, and UConn went via a 2-for-10 spell whereas Creighton was discovering its rhythm.
A number of massive photographs from reserves Francisco Farabello and Jasen Green sparked an 18-2 run. Farabello made two straight 3s and Inexperienced hit one from the nook to wipe out the Huskies’ lead.
Then Ashworth struck from over 30 ft to start a private run of 13 straight factors for the Bluejays, who made 14 of their final 19 photographs of the half and went to the locker room with a 43-29 lead.
“Whenever you’re in your house health club, there is a feeling of confidence, and the followers had been an enormous a part of that,” Ashworth stated. “Undoubtedly a home-court benefit, and in that first half we bought on somewhat little bit of a heater.”
Creighton entered Tuesday boasting three of the highest six main scorers within the Large East — Scheierman, Alexander and Kalkbrenner — nevertheless it was Ashworth who went off towards the No. 1 workforce within the nation, his 20 factors nearly doubling his season common of 10.6.
The Bluejays — who’ve now crushed a top-10 workforce in 9 straight years and clinched a 20-win season for the ninth yr in a row — additionally gave McDermott his 600th profession win in exceptional vogue.
“Initially, I am previous, you have to be in it a very long time to teach sufficient video games to do this, and I’ve coached at some good locations, had some actually good gamers play for me,” McDermott stated of reaching the milestone. “That is one I am going to always remember due to the way it transpired and the way good the workforce was we had been taking part in. Top-of-the-line crowds we have ever had right here, however as I stated earlier, there’s a whole lot of guys which have performed for me right here which have put us able to win a whole lot of video games, as a result of they sacrifice.
“Not all people desires to play the sport the way in which that we play it, unselfish and selfless, however we have got a bunch right here that is fairly purchased into that.”
ESPN Stats & Data and The Related Press contributed to this report.

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