Dan Hurley and the Huskies suffered a rare, bad loss at Gampel Pavilion on Wednesday night.
No. 5 UConn fell apart down the stretch and allowed Creighton, which has struggled all season in a down year in Omaha, to pick up a very solid 91-84 upset win. That was by far the biggest victory of the season for the Bluejays, who sit at just 14-13 and need some help in order to even make the NCAA tournament.
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The loss for UConn was just the team’s third all season, but it both put their hopes at claiming a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament in serious risk and opened the door for Rick Pitino and St. John’s to take the Big East title.
Creighton had no issue keeping up with UConn all night. The Bluejays entered the locker room tied up with the Huskies, and then mounted a huge 14-5 run in the second half while shutting down UConn’s offense almost completely. They forced a stretch in which the Huskies missed 10 of 11 shots, too, and briefly pushed their lead to 12 points before cruising to the seven-point win.
Blake Harper likely sealed the deal, too, after he drilled a huge corner 3-pointer just seconds after a Silas Demary layup on the other end. Harper’s bucket pushed Creighton’s lead to 10 points with just 90 seconds left.
Josh Dix led Creighton with 21 points and eight rebounds, and Nik Graves added 18 points. Harper finished with 12 points off the bench.
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The win seemingly came out of nowhere for the Bluejays, too. They entered Wednesday night’s game having lost six of their last eight. The only wins during that stretch came by a combined two points. They were just 1-8 against Quad I teams up until this point, too.
An NCAA tournament bid is likely out of the question for Creighton, however, unless it manages to knock off No. 17 St. John’s on Saturday in Manhattan and goes on a run in the Big East tournament. Wednesday’s win, however, was a big step to getting that done.
Braylon Mullins led UConn with 25 points and six rebounds, and Demary added 17 points and nine assists. Star Alex Karaban was held to just two points after he shot 1-of-6 from the field, marking his worst output of the season.
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UConn, after starting the season winning 22 of its first 23 games, has now lost twice in its last four after falling at St. John’s last week. The loss moves the Huskies out of first in the Big East standings, however, now half of a game behind the Red Storm. And if they aren’t perfect, or close to it, the rest of the way, securing a top seed in the NCAA tournament could be out of reach.
The rematch between the two teams leading the Big East next week is suddenly that much more important heading into the conference tournament.
