In Big East games, rankings and records go out the window. When the ball tips and ten players take the court, the only thing that matters is the battle unfolding in real time. Every team is a threat—there are no easy wins in this conference.
So when the Bluejays took on UConn at CHI Health Center, with their fresh No. 24 ranking, nine game win streak and perfect record against the Huskies at home, they still knew that it would take a lot more than just the stats to beat the back-to-back national champions.
They needed to be nearly perfect, but as the final buzzer sounded on a 70-66 nail-biter, the Bluejays fell just short. Head Coach Greg McDermott put it best: “We had to be a little more perfect than we were.” On a night where every play mattered, the margin for error proved just too thin.
With their program record nine game win streak stopped in its tracks by the Huskies, here are three takeaways from a game that came down to the final minute.
#1- Fouls and free throws- enough to win but came up short
The story of much of the game was the number of free throws that Creighton was able to attempt due to the plethora of fouls that UConn committed throughout the game. In stark contrast to Creighton’s aggressive yet foul-lacking defense, which helps the Bluejays remain out of foul trouble in a majority of their games, the Huskies were fouling Creighton up and down the court the whole game.
With 9:44 left in the first half, Creighton already found themselves in the bonus thanks to seven personal fouls called on the Huskies, two each for Aidan Mahaney and Samson Johnson, and three for Tarris Reed Jr.
As the story often goes, those free points from the line help to make or break a team. The key is that you have to make them consistently, and especially in the most crucial points of the game.
Creighton did that in the first half. Making nine of their 11 free throw attempts, largely thanks to a perfect 7-7 for Steven Ashworth from the line and 2-2 for Mason Miller, the Bluejays were able to capitalize on the mistakes that UConn made on defense and use it to their advantage. This was a major reason why the Bluejays extended their lead to as many as 14 points with three minutes left in the opening half.
Even as UConn closed the gap to end the first 20 minutes to a manageable eight points, it was the crucial free points from the line that helped the Jays stay ahead.
In the second half, UConn continued to rack up fouls like they were souvenirs from their time in Omaha, but all they had to show for it was foul trouble. Just over five minutes into the second half, Johnson and Reed Jr. already had four fouls each, and the risk of fouling out continued to grow as the night went on.
For the Bluejays, it looked like the golden ticket they needed to punch some free points and make the Huskies pay. But by the end of the second half, during which time the Bluejays shot 19 free throws (almost double their attempts in the first half) they made just 12.
The most crucial free throws turned into the costliest misses. After fouling UConn’s Solo Ball near the end of the game and hoping for a break, the Bluejays got exactly what they needed—he missed. But UConn played smart, immediately fouling Jamiya Neal on the other end with just seconds remaining.
At the line, Neal went 1-of-2, leaving the Bluejays in a deficit of two points. Just two seconds later, Jasen Green had a chance to cut the deficit to one—or sink the first and miss the second for a potential putback. But like Neal, he went 1-of2, leaving the Bluejays just short. Instead of a tie game, Creighton remained stuck, and UConn made them pay by icing the game with two free throws, the final score reading 70-66 in the Huskies’ favor.
“You just got to make your free throws against a good team, and we missed free throws tonight,” McDermott said.
#2- Missed opportunities on block outs and passes
One of the biggest storylines of the game was Creighton’s missed opportunities, which proved costly against a physical UConn team. In the first half, the Bluejays failed to capitalize on second-chance points, getting outscored 4-0. The Huskies didn’t let up in the second half either, dominating the paint 20-8 and owning the offensive glass with a 12-5 edge in offensive rebounds—including a lopsided 9-3 margin after halftime. These breakdowns gave the Huskies extra possessions and, ultimately, the upper hand.
It was these attention-to-detail plays that could have taken away the spark that the Huskies’ began to feel coming into the second half and changed the trajectory of the game. But near perfection was needed to beat a team like UConn, as McDermott said, and it was missed opportunities like these that cost the Jays a chance at winning their 10th straight game.
Another area where Creighton struggled was in their signature connection between Steven Ashworth and Ryan Kalkbrenner, a duo that has often been the backbone of the Bluejays’ offense.
It’s true that Ashworth struggled from the field, shooting just 1-of-8 and missing all five of his three-point attempts. But beyond the cold shooting, something even more noticeable was missing—the usual unspoken chemistry between the veteran guard and center just wasn’t there against the Huskies.
The oh-so-anticipated Ashworth high lobing pass to Kalkbrenner in the paint for a picture-perfect finish, which has proven many times to be Creighton’s saving grace, had the exact opposite effect against the Huskies.
“Honestly, I think a lot of it came down to some unforced errors [on] my part,” Ashworth said about his tough night. “Missing a handoff, bouncing the ball off my left hand and then throwing one to the rafters to Kalk in transition, a lot of that was just me.”
Ashworth did his best to make up for an off-shooting night, diving for loose balls and attacking the rim, where he went 11-of-12 from the free-throw line. However, as mentioned earlier, it wasn’t just his one missed free throw that hurt—Creighton as a team left too many points at the line, and those missed opportunities ultimately dug them into a hole they couldn’t climb out of.
#3- UConn’s Liam McNeeley played lights-out basketball
Liam McNeeley, the UConn freshman forward, missed eight games after a high ankle sprain took him out on Jan. 1, 2025. But after making his return to action on Feb. 7 against St. John’s and then taking the floor against the Bluejays, it looked like he never left.
“We hadn’t seen him before and he was as good as advertised and then some,” McDermott said of the freshman.
Coming into the game, the Bluejays knew that they had to execute a strong game plan against UConn’s top scorers in Solo Ball and Alex Karaban, who had proven they were forces to be reckoned with. But now there was an added layer of difficulty with McNeeley’s return, especially after the freshman came back after more than a month on the bench and put up an 18-point, 11-rebound double-double against the Red Storm, the Big East’s best.
On Creighton’s floor in front of the Bluejay faithful, it didn’t take long for McNeeley to find his groove, and once he did, he became a threat Creighton couldn’t contain.
Creighton did a solid job defending Ball and Karaban throughout the first half, as the pair went a combined 4-9 from the field in the first half. McNeeley, on the other hand, had found his rhythm much to Creighton’s dismay, putting up 15 points on 5-12 from the field, almost triple what any of his other teammates scored in the first half.
The second half unfolded much the same way. Creighton’s’ defensive scheme kept working against Ball and Karaban, who shot 2-10 and 3-10 from the field in the latter 20 minutes, respectively. However, McNeeley took matters into his own hands and dominated the Bluejays in the second half.
The freshman had a 23-point half, and it seemed that whoever was in charge of guarding the 6’8” Husky forward couldn’t do nearly enough to slow him down. McNeeley attacked the paint with aggression and seized the moment when the game was neckin-neck. Unfortunately for Creighton, they couldn’t stop him.
Fittingly for the type of game the freshman had, it was McNeeley who sealed the win for UConn. With Creighton trailing by just two points with four seconds remaining, he calmly sank two free throws, despite an avid Creighton student section cheering and screaming right behind the basket.
In the end, McNeeley’s dominant performance and Creighton’s inability to contain him proved to make a huge difference in a game that slipped away as quickly as it came down to the wire.
Ultimately, it was a game defined by missed opportunities, unforced errors, and timely plays from UConn’s freshman phenom that sealed the outcome—highlighting just how unforgiving the Big East can be. The road ahead doesn’t get any easier for the Bluejays, who remain firmly in second place. With a matchup against St. John’s on Sunday, Creighton will need to turn these lessons into growth if they hope to challenge the top-seeded team on their home floor.