UConn Men's Basketball

Rapid Recap: UConn falls to Creighton in BET semifinals

By Aman Kidwai

March 14, 2025

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NEW YORK CITY – UConn men’s basketball made its fifth consecutive appearance in the Big East Tournament semifinals. One night after a comeback victory against Villanova in the quarterfinals, the Huskies didn’t have another one in them as they lost to Creighton, 71-62.

UConn fell behind early before tying the game at 15 on an Alex Karaban layup. Hassan Diarra kept the Huskies in it over the first few minutes with two threes for their first six points as he’d scored 11 by the U-12 time out. He would not score the rest of the period, however.

Creighton mounted an 11-0 run towards the end of the half. Its lead would’ve been larger at the break if not for a buzzer-beating three by Aidan Mahaney to make it 46-35 going into the locker room.

Jasen Green, a 4.3 PPG scorer who had 11 points in two previous games against UConn this season, had a career performance with 13 first-half points on his way to 19, while Jamiya Neal added 19 points as well.

The second half started with an intentional foul on McNeeley as the lead grew to 15 two minutes in. It looked like UConn’s wheels were starting to fall off, down big late with nothing seemingly working. Creighton’s shooting percentage stayed over 70 percent through the first 25 minutes of the game and was 75 percent at halftime.

But a 12-0 run sparked by some strong rebounds led to multiple second-chance baskets, including one by Tarris Reed Jr. and a three by Mahaney that put UConn right back into the game. The score was 55-50 at the second half U-12 as Creighton went scoreless for over four minutes and its shooting percentage came down to earth.

Despite the Husky push, Creighton held on. Dan Hurley’s squad made too many mistakes down the stretch and lost too many 50/50 calls in crunch time. UConn took just four free throws on the night, compared to 18 for the victors, and multiple Husky shooters were cold, including Liam McNeeley (6-20) and Karaban (3-10, 0-3 from three).

Next up, the Huskies await their NCAA Tournament fate, which they will find out in Sunday’s Selection show. The Big East Tournament finals will be played on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. on FOX between the top two seeds: Creighton and St. John’s.