In one of the most hyped-up matchups of the season for the UConn men’s basketball team, it was safe to assume that Gampel Pavilion would be the loudest building in the entire state of Connecticut on Wednesday night. That energy was key for the No. 1 ranked Huskies, who took down the Creighton Blue Jays 62-48.
“It was a great crowd. Great basketball environment,” said head coach Greg McDermott.
On $2 Beer Night, in front of a sold-out crowd, fans were treated to plenty of dazzling highlights and plenty of reason to cheer on one of the top teams in the nation. While things would eventually end in a blowout, it certainly didn’t start out that easy for the defending national champions.
From the jump, Creighton would keep it close early. They’d grab the game’s first bucket, courtesy of an impressive Steven Ashworth and one layup. With 19:05 to go, they’d build on that with buckets from Baylor Scheirman and another layup inside from star big man Ryan Kalkbrenner. While UConn was still showing effort on the defensive end, their offense couldn’t keep up with their opponents. By the 15:07 media timeout, they’d trail by one point, 7-6.
Things continued to remain close until the 13:10 mark. Looking to carve some momentum, Connecticut found star guard Tristen Newton, who would drill an open three-point shot to tie the game 9-9. He’d do the same about a minute later, causing Gampel Pavilion to erupt in cheers after the East Carolina transfer tied the game at 12. While the score remained close for both teams, things were about to get a whole lot worse for Creighton.
Following an 11:42 timeout, in stepped the towering Donovan Clingan. As UConn has battled without their star big man since their loss to Seton Hall on Dec. 20th, it’s caused head coach Dan Hurley some trouble with battling the size of other Big East opponents. This issue was certainly aided by the presence of the Bristol native, who made a massive impact on both the rebounding and defensive end for UConn. In turn, this opened up a lot more options for one of the top teams in the nation, a devastating idea for Creighton in this case.
With Clingan in for the Huskies, his teammate, Cam Spencer, proceeded to catch fire on the court. After going one for two at the free throw stripe with 11:39 left in the game, he would have one of the most insane shots of the night. Following Newton’s jumper with 11:08 to go, Spencer would run around a screen from Clingan on UConn’s next possession. Guarded by Ashworth, the Rutgers transfer would drill a contested three-point shot to get his guys an 18-12 lead. The best part for Husky fans? He was just getting started, as No. 12 proceeded to collect two more buckets and escalate his team’s lead over Creighton by nine, 23-14.
But, the Blue Jays fought back and narrowed UConn’s lead to four. That caused a timeout for the home team and an opportunity to collect themselves. After their timeout, Connecticut walked back onto the court and proceeded to energize the crowd once again. With 6:20 left, Spencer found Johnson driving toward the rim for an easy two-hand slam that lifted the Gampel Pavilion fans out of their seat and gave UConn a 25-19 lead.
Fueled by more great play from Clingan on both ends of the court, the reigning national champions gave fans one last highlight before the half. With 3:27 to go, the Huskies got the ball to Stephon Castle, who spun off Schierman for a ridiculous and-one layup.
By the end of the half, Connecticut had a 32-21 lead over their opponents. Fans throughout the building had already gotten to see a heck of a show and with 20 more minutes to go in another exciting night of basketball, the future certainly looked promising.
As the second half came, the offensive firepower for Creighton came slowly as UConn’s defense stifled their opponents from scoring the basketball. By the 11:11 mark in the second half, the Blue Jays offense had recorded just four points in the second half and the Huskies had grown their lead to 28-48 shortly after following a Clingan alley-oop slam.
For much of the second half, UConn stood resilient with their second half lead. It took till the 6:18 mark when Creighton began to make a dent into their opponent’s massive lead. Led by the duo of Ashworth and Scheirman, the Blue Jays diminished the Huskies’ lead to as low as 10 by the 2:33 mark. But, by then, it was much too late. As the final seconds came and went, Connecticut came away with a dazzling victory.
The story of the night on the court was the team’s defense that restricted an explosive Creighton defense from giving the Huskies trouble throughout the night. Coach Hurley remarked that this was the case due to how his staff has harped on their “precipitously” steep dropoff from the beginning of the year.
“That’s what is gonna hold this group back. We’re a tremendous offensive team with Donovan back. We’re gonna become more dangerous and better on both ends of the court and on the backboard. Donovan’s one of the most impactful players in the country,” said the Huskies coach.
But, off the court, it would be hard to miss the energizing crowd of Gampel Pavilion. Hurley and Co. certainly were fueled.
“The crowd was awesome man. It was awesome from the start,” said Hurley. “The crowd was into it. When the crowd’s into it, it’s funny how it has an effect on all of us. I never got crazy out there to try to get the crowd incited. Our players were able to just play the game cause the crowd was on auto-pilot,” said Hurley.
Fresh off this impressive win at home, UConn heads over to Philadelphia, where they’ll take on Villanova on Saturday evening in a classic Big East showdown.