Creighton Men's Basketball Wins at #14 UConn, 68-63

STORRS, Conn. --  Jamiya Neal scored a career-high 24 points and Steven Ashworth made four clutch free throws in the final minute to help the Creighton men's basketball team to a 68-63 win at No. 14 Connecticut on Saturday, snapping a 28-game home win 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 dropped to 13-5. Both teams are now 5-2 in BIG EAST play.

UConn scored on five of its first eight trips, including a pair of three-pointers by Solo Ball, to take a 10-2 lead in the opening 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 an Isaac Traudt three-pointer with 10:15 left in the first half.

A 6-0 run following a UConn timeout brought the crowd back to life 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 at intermission.

Neal made 7-of-8 shots in the first half and had 17 at the break, while Kalkbrenner had six points and six rebounds. UConn was led by eight points each from Ball and Hassan Diarra, but preseason All-American Alex Karaban 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 score at 41-all. A three-ball from Isaac Traudt helped start another Bluejay rally and CU led 57-48 with 6:56 left after a lay-up by Jasen Green. UConn answered once again, getting a floater from Karaban before a Stewart three-pointer that preceded a Bluejay timeout with 6:37 to go 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 to have Kalkbrenner 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 charge 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 of a 1-and-1 with 50.1 left to return the margin to three. UConn drew within one (64-63) on another Karaban floater with 22.7 left.

Ashworth was fouled with 17.3 left and made both. CU then used two fouls that it had to give to set up one final Huskies possession down 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 his 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 rebound battle 28-25

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

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