UConn’s title defense, repeat hopes thwarted in BET semifinal loss to Creighton

Jamiya Neal (5) scored 19 points as Creighton ended UConn’s bid to repeat as Big East tournament champions Friday. (Photo by Creighton Men’s Basketball)

NEW YORK — Just as quickly as UConn can turn the page and harken back to its invincibility of the past two seasons, the law of averages applies equally to the other side of college basketball.

All season long, Dan Hurley has not minced words or made excuses for the Huskies’ defense, readily admitting that it was nowhere near as strong as either of the two previous outfits that produced consecutive national championships. With each apparent breakthrough, a stretch would soon follow where UConn reverted to its mistakes that plagued the regular season and made the quest for a three-peat arduous at times.

Friday’s Big East tournament semifinal was more of the same.

After its dominant close to Thursday’s quarterfinal win over Villanova, UConn was unable to sustain that momentum, as Creighton made 19 of its first 25 shots to sink the Huskies and silence Madison Square Garden, walking away with a 71-62 victory and a spot in Saturday’s championship game opposite St. John’s, who defeated Marquette earlier in the day.

“The two teams that are deserving to play for the championship are gonna play,” Hurley lamented as UConn (23-10) allowed four Bluejays to score 12 or more points amid the porous defense in the first half. “Obviously, that first-half defensive performance was not worthy of having a chance to play on Saturday night at MSG against a team like St. John’s. We got exactly what we deserved. We got what we deserved, and we deserve to be going home.”

Even as Creighton torched the Garden nets, UConn’s offense kept the Huskies within earshot throughout the night, and even sparked a 12-0 run after halftime to turn a 17-point deficit into just a five-point hole. But as has too often been the case this season, the minor missteps that proved costly more than usual reared their ugly head once more, as the Bluejays got a second solid effort from Jamiya Neal against the champs to spearhead their winning cause.

“It’s really hard to fix your defense at this point of the year, and there were so many one-on-one battles lost, just an inability to guard the ball,” Hurley said. “We were just so weak guarding the ball. We’ve had an inability to guard the ball the whole year. Part of it is strength, and obviously this team doesn’t have the physicality in the Big East to be able to win a lot of those one-on-one matchups.”

UConn’s resolve was tested late in the game, when Neal—with the outcome already in hand in the final seconds—threw down a dunk in front of Creighton’s student section, prompting a celebration by Bluejay fans but also triggering a fracas on the court as both he and Hassan Diarra were assessed double technical fouls for a war of words after the dunk. Jayden Ross was also ejected for leaving the bench in a sequence that angered UConn’s senior point guard.

“They were already up with seven seconds left,” Diarra recalled. “(Neal) didn’t want to dribble the ball out and went up for a fancy dunk. I just felt it was disrespectful to the game of basketball.”

With the Big East now in the rearview mirror, UConn now sets its sights on the NCAA Tournament, where the Huskies are projected to be either a No. 8 or 9 seed when the field is announced on Sunday. Hurley was asked Friday if he would flush the effort his team just put forth and focus on whatever the upcoming matchup may be, and admitted he would indeed do that, but not before reiterating the main flaw that was once again exposed by Creighton. 

“We’re gonna take the same approach,” Hurley said of UConn’s tournament preparation. “I made that mistake a couple years back in 2022 (UConn lost to New Mexico State that year) by letting it linger. I’m not gonna let it linger. We got what we deserved. We’re not championship quality. We didn’t deserve to win anything in the Big East this year.”