By Pete Janny (@pete_janny)
STORRS, Conn. — Creighton delivered a clutch road performance on Wednesday night at Gampel Pavilion, knocking off No. 5 UConn, 91-84, in a shocking result that sends ripple effects throughout the Big East and the national landscape.
The Bluejays owned UConn in the paint in the second half, pouring it on down the stretch led by a season-high 21 points from Josh Dix and 18 points from the shifty Nik Graves, while spoiling a career-high 25 points from Braylon Mullins on the other side.
The Creighton playmaking on display Wednesday night makes most of its body of work feel like an illusion, given the Bluejays are only 14-13 with just a few games remaining in the regular season. The product on the floor in Storrs was one that was incredibly well-balanced and too much for UConn to stop. Head coach Greg McDermott beamed with pride for how his team played in an uber-hostile territory that responded well to Dan Hurley’s message after UConn’s game against Georgetown this past Saturday.
“Our guys were incredibly connected,” McDermott said. “We were able to take a lot of ways of shot-making by Mullins in particular, and we kept on fighting. Our focus was to set the tempo and get downhill, and we were able to do that.”
Dix brought his A-game when his team needed it the most, and on the heels of the tragic death of his mother two weeks ago. He scored 13 of his 21 points after halftime, and connected on three of four three-pointers.
“The class of recognizing a moment of silence for Josh’s mom before the game,” McDermott said, praising the UConn program. “It’s one of the best programs in the country, but that speaks to the people in charge of the program. I’ve gotten to know Dan well over the last six years in particular. I know people think he’s crazy for the things he does on the sideline every once in a while, but he’s a wonderful human being.”
And in giving his own team its flowers, McDermott said, “I’ve been doing this a long time, but I’m not sure I’ve ever been as proud of a team as I am tonight.”
After a quiet start to the game, Mullins took off at the end of the first half and into the second. Mullins singlehandedly helped erase a late five-point deficit in the first half to knot the score at 45 going into the break. Mullins started the second half with another five points that extended his scoring streak to 11 before Dix and Graves fired back. Much to the chagrin of the Huskies faithful, Tarris Reed, Jr.’s last points of the game came on a free dunk with 15:07 remaining that gave UConn another six-point lead, its largest of the night. Reed was dominant in the first half, with 13 points and six rebounds, but fell off drastically after that.
Despite being undersized, Creighton did a masterful job taking Reed out of the game, with Jasen Green pretty much sacrificing everything he had to the tune of eight points, 11 rebounds, and six fouls drawn.
UConn never recovered from a late 11-3 Creighton run that turned a one-point lead into a mind-easing nine-point advantage. A three-pointer from Mullins was UConn’s only points during that devastating stretch. Howard transfer Blake Harper would only make things worse for the Huskies, hitting his second three of the second half a few moments later. Harper scored 12 points in 8:08 of game time after not seeing any action in the first half.
All in all, UConn was outrebounded by three while watching Creighton go 27-for-32 from the free throw line, including a 17-for-18 mark in the second half. While the UConn defense still left much to be desired after the first half, there were a lot of sequences over the first 20 minutes that ended in tough shot making by Creighton. The same could mostly be said for the Bluejays in the second half, albeit with even more room to operate on the perimeter and inside, with UConn’s second line of defense to blame for letting Creighton finish with 30 paint points. The 91 points scored by the opposition was the most UConn has allowed in a game this season.
“Our defense has just been so bad these last four games,” a dejected Hurley said. “We’ve been around 165th in the country (per KenPom’s defensive metric), so we’ve been playing with fire.”
“Besides Braylon in the second half, the shooting was ice cold,” he added.
And on a night where Solo Ball and Alex Karaban were non-factors due to foul trouble and a nagging injury, respectively, Hurley took aim at the individual defensive deficiencies of some of his players without naming names.
“Their gameplan was to just go at individuals that they identified can’t guard the ball,” he said of Creighton’s offensive attack. “On 27 field goals, they had 10 assists, so they just went at individuals, and that’s what’s been going on the last few games. Coaches are smart, and they’re targeting our guys that can’t guard. If we can’t fix that, we’re obviously going to have issues moving forward.”
Yet again, UConn couldn’t fully crack the code on Creighton, as the Huskies remain without a series sweep of the Bluejays in the all-time series.
UConn will now go back to the drawing board ahead of a visit to Villanova on Saturday before coming back home to face No. 17 St. John’s Wednesday in Hartford. Creighton will look to stay hot when it visits the Red Storm on Saturday at Madison Square Garden.
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