Before facing UConn on Tuesday night, Creighton had faced off against top-ranked teams six times — and had never lost by less than 10 points.
However, the 15th-ranked Bluejays flipped the script in their seventh try and seized control early on with a commanding lead in the first half (43-29). They clinched a convincing 85-66 victory over the Huskies on Tuesday night. Coach Greg McDermott was very happy with his team’s performance.
“It’s a historic game for our program,” McDermott said. “I told the team in the locker room, it’s really a culmination of a lot of work by a lot of people over a long period of time to give these guys the opportunity to wear this uniform and play in front of the crowd we were able to play in front of tonight. We played a really good game and we beat an incredible team, a team that has a legitimate chance to win a national championship. But we’re pretty good as well.”
Creighton (20-7, 10-6 Big East) held a commanding 23-point lead with 10 minutes remaining. UConn trimmed the lead to 10 points, but the Bluejays then held the Huskies scoreless for five consecutive possessions to ice the game.
UConn (24-3, 14-2) saw its 14-game winning streak come to an end. Just days earlier, the Huskies had a resounding 28-point victory over then-No. 4 Marquette — arguably the best win of the year for any team. On Tuesday, however, the unanimous No. 1 team in the AP poll had no answers.
“It kind of felt like we just ran into a buzz saw there,” UConn coach Dan Hurley said.
“I do think we did a bad job coaching tonight, our players did a bad job playing, I did a bad job coaching,” Hurley said. “Your huddles aren’t going to be super energized when you haven’t lost in two-plus months. … We were definitely stunned. This wasn’t the game we expected, we knew this was a dangerous game and a quality opponent and one of the better teams in the country. But we didn’t expect this to happen.”
Amazingly, UConn has now lost 19-straight games on the road against ranked opponents.
