No. 14 UConn tries to stay perfect at home when Creighton visits Storrs for a Saturday afternoon clash of the top two teams in the Big East preseason poll.
The Huskies (13-4, 5-1 Big East) will be playing their first game since a 68-60 win at Georgetown last Saturday.
“Being able to play a great big game on the road at Georgetown when they’ve got a real good team, that kind of energized us coming out of that Villanova loss (on Jan. 8), that was tough for us,” UConn coach Dan Hurley said.
The Huskies enter Saturday’s game with an 8-0 record at home.
Alex Karaban (team-leading 16.1 points per game) will look to carry his confidence back home for the Huskies, having overcome the “lowest of lows” in his UConn career, missing two free throws with 3.1 seconds left at Villanova.
Karaban was not down for long, though, putting up a stat-stuffing performance — 19 points, six rebounds, four assists, two blocks and one steal — against Georgetown. He made four 3-pointers, reaching that mark for the sixth time this season.
“This is the winningest player in college basketball, one of the greatest players in UConn history and we knew we’d get this type of a response from him, because this guy is one of the best players in college basketball,” Hurley said.
Aside from Karaban, Solo Ball (15 points against Georgetown) has scored in double digits in all but two games.
UConn delivered one of its best defensive efforts this season against the Hoyas. The Huskies forced 15 turnovers, marking their highest total since Nov. 19 against East Texas A&M.
Creighton (11-6, 4-2) trailed for only 3:11 en route to an 84-64 Tuesday win over Providence. Now, the Bluejays hit the road to oppose its second New England foe this week.
While stars Ryan Kalkbrenner and Steven Ashworth scored 20 points apiece, the duo of Isaac Traudt and Mason Miller combined for six 3-pointers in the second half to put the Friars away. Traudt, a sophomore, was 4-for-4 from deep and finished with 13 points.
Miller, meanwhile, shot a league-best 45.5 percent from beyond the arc last season. He currently stands at just 17.2 percent for this campaign.
Especially with Pop Isaacs out following season-ending hip surgery, their contributions will be crucial during the stretch run.
“If we’re gonna reach our ceiling, we need Mason to play at the level that he can,” Creighton coach Greg McDermott said. “And we need Fedor (Zugic) to kind of catch up” after being cleared by the NCAA last month.
Kalkbrenner has logged a team-high 17.8 points and 8.3 rebounds per game, while Ashworth (17.3 points per game) has hit one 3-pointer in 35 consecutive games and scored double-digit points in 20 in a row.
There is no substitute for experience. That senior duo has scored 43.6 percent of the Bluejays’ points this season.
“They’ve played their whole careers for this,” McDermott said. “Their teammates know what they’re going to get out of them every single day.”
The Bluejays have enjoyed great head-to-head success against UConn, going 7-2 since the series began in 2020. However, the Huskies have won two of the three meetings at Gampel Pavilion, the site of Saturday’s game.
–Field Level Media
