With Selection Sunday still eight weeks away, UConn’s dream of winning a third-consecutive NCAA men’s basketball championship remains firmly alive.
At least one statistical marker of the Huskies’ dominance over the past several years, however, has now vanished.
Behind a career-high 24 points from guard Jamiya Neal, Creighton defeated UConn 68-63 Saturday at Gampel Pavilion in Storrs, Connecticut to snap the Huskies’ 28-game home win streak.
Prior to this weekend, coach Dan Hurley’s team hadn’t lost a home game for nearly two full years, going back to a Jan. 25, 2023 loss to Xavier.
The home win streak was the second-longest in program history, behind only a 31-game run from 2004-07.
UConn had rallied from a nine-point deficit with less than seven minutes remaining to take the lead on a pair of Samson Johnson free throws with 3:27 left, but shortly fell back behind. With his team trailing by three, Huskies forward Alex Karaban misfired on a contested 3-pointer with four seconds remaining, allowing the Bluejays to hand UConn a rare home loss.
Ryan Kalkbrenner and Steven Ashworth added 16 and 12 points, respectively, for Creighton while Hassan Diarra and Solo Ball had 15 points apiece for the Huskies.
It was the second loss in the past three games for UConn, which had an eight-game win streak snapped with a two-point setback at Villanova on Jan. 8. The Huskies’ five losses this season are more than they had all of last season, when they went 37-3 and rolled to a second straight national championship.