STORRS - UConn men’s basketball lost an offensive battle on Wednesday night against Creighton, 91-84, at Gampel Pavilion.
On a night when Emeka Okafor saw his number 50 go up in the rafters, the Huskies failed to get the job done, taking their first home loss since November and their second loss in conference play, third overall.
Braylon Mullins and Tarris Reed Jr. carried the load on offense. Mullins scored a career-high 25 points, including 17 in the second half to help UConn stay in the game, while Reed posted a double-double with 15 points and 12 rebounds.
UConn (24-3, 14-2) was going toe-to-toe for most of the game until around the mid-point of the second half when Creighton broke away and didn’t look back. The Huskies were crushed on the glass and allowed Creighton to hit half its shots.
The Bluejays (14-13, 8-8) entered the game in the midst of a rough skid, starting with the Huskies’ 27-point blowout in Omaha on Jan. 31. The Blue Jays were 1-3 after that, with a loss to DePaul.
UConn set the tempo for a high-scoring first half, as Solo Ball got a friendly roll on a corner three to get the Huskies on the board first.
The Bluejays responded immediately with a three-point play from Nik Graves. The first half saw seven lead changes and was tied for nearly five minutes.
Reed Jr. gave some good production and energy to the Husky attack early, grabbing rebounds and finding space for easy finishes. After taking a perimeter-oriented attack out in Omaha, the game plan focused more on the paint this time.
At the 13:35 mark, Ball picked up his second foul and went to the bench, eventually checking back in and picking up his third. This would just be the beginning of significant foul trouble for the Huskies in the first half, as both Reed and Silas Demary Jr. picked up two fouls as well.
There were times when it felt like Creighton could have pulled away in the first half, but UConn was finding enough to keep pace. One of the few occasions all half that the Huskies were able to make back-to-back buckets without a Bluejay score really ignited the crowd as a Reed finish followed a Malachi Smith three to make it 27-25.
With all the foul trouble, Jayden Ross took advantage and provided some big minutes. He scored six points to trim Creighton’s 40-34 lead down to three.
Then Mullins took caught fire, scoring six points in the final 38 seconds thanks to a three-point play on an elbow jumper and a three that just beat the halftime buzzer to tie the game at 45 at the break.
Mullins kept it rolling in the second half, scoring UConn’s first five points and picking up a key steal to stop an easy Creighton bucket. After that steal, Demary took the wheel and scored the next five to push the Huskies lead to its largest at that point, 55-48. The junior guard finished with 17 points and nine assists.
As expected, the Bluejays fired right back, using an 8-0 spurt to pull back ahead. Mullins responded again with back-to-back threes from the right wing to explode Gampel and make it 63-59 at the under-12 media timeout.
But another Creighton run erased the lead. A 7-0 burst put the Bluejays ahead before a Karaban floater stopped the bleeding. The senior was playing with a noticeable discomfort and had been dealing with a leg injury. Creighton took a 70-65 lead into the next media timeout.
Blake Harper hit a three to push Creighton’s lead to eight, but Mullins answered instantly with a corner three. Fedor Zugic and Harper each hit tough twos around the rim to increase the lead to 77-68, an 18-5 run for the Bluejays since the Huskies last led, that essentially put the game away.
During this stretch, UConn had some tough luck finishing around the rim, capped off by a backrim layup from Smith that clanked out after a nice drive to the rack.
The Huskies tried to play the foul game late, but another triple from Harper pushed the lead to double digits and nothing was falling for the home team.
Creighton looked like a completely different team from their last matchup with UConn, lighting it up from three and looking confident on the offensive end.
The Huskies used more of their bench in this one, in part due injuries, foul trouble, and other struggles. Karaban and Ball each were on the bench for crucial stretches late in favor of Ross and Smith, but that felt like the best five UConn could put together while struggling.
The loss means UConn has lost control of a potential Big East regular-season title, needing to defeat St. John’s and have the Red Storm lose again to claim it. If both teams finish 18-2, St. John’s would get the title due to the tiebreaker rules and head-to-head against the teams in descending order in the standings.
Next up, UConn is on the road for a crucial clash with Villanova on Saturday night at Xfinity Mobile Arena in one of their final Quad 1 games of the regular season. Tip-off is set for 5:30 p.m. and will be televised on TNT.
Led by Kevin Willard, the Wildcats are 21-5 overall and will more likely than not be in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in the post-Jay Wright era. They’re ranked 27th in KenPom overall efficiency (31st Offense, 33rd Defense) and played a close one last time out against the Huskies, losing 75-67 in OT in Hartford.
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