Despite Isaiah Whaley’s career-high 20 points the UConn men’s basketball team lost 59-55 against Creighton in a Big East Conference game at the XL Center, snapping a five-game win streak.
With seven seconds left in the game, guard Andre Jackson nailed a 3 to cut Creighton’s lead to 57-55. Creighton’s Trey Alexander was fouled with two seconds left and sank both free throws to put the game out of reach.
One of the few bright spots was Whaley’s play. Creighton dared him to beat them and he took advantage The forward made open 3s, cut to the basket for easy shots and had pivotal offensive rebounds. The game would have been over early if not for Whaley’s play in the first half. He had 11 points and shot 5-for-8 from the field with four rebounds. He shot 8-for-13 overall from the field.
The energy in the second half was completely different on both ends of the court for the Huskies. UConn took smarter shots on the offensive end and on the defensive end played suffocating defense. Unfortunately, the Huskies couldn’t make up for first-half mistakes.
No.17 UConn is now 15-5 and 6-3 in the Big East.
Slow starts and UConn have become synonymous with each other. The Huskies had just nine points at the 11:28 mark in the first half when a media timeout was called. Whaley had all of nine points shooting 4-for-5 from the field while the rest of the team shot an abysmal 0-for-12. At the 11:07 mark, Cole made a second-chance layup to become the second player to score.
The Huskies’ defense kept this game within striking distance. The Bluejays shot 12-for-30 from the field. Rebounding and physicality is typically a UConn strength but was nowhere to be found. The Blue Jays outhustled and outrebounded the Huskies leading to momentum-shifting buckets. Creighton had a 27-16 rebounding advantage, leading to 11 second-chance points. The Bluejays went into the half with a 32-22 lead.
In the second half, the Huskies’ offense woke up. At the 15:33 mark, Whaley knocked down a 3 to bring the Creighton lead down to just six points, 37-31. At 13:18, Whaley made a 3 to tie the game up, 37-37. On the next defensive possession, Whaley immediately followed that up with a block that had the crowd the loudest it had been all game. Adama Sanogo made a hookshot at 10:13 to put UConn up 41-39. At the 3:32 mark, Creighton led 52-48 at the media timeout. The Huskies couldn’t close the gap.
