(PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS – REBECCA GRATZ)
UConn had dropped their last four games against Creighton and had never beaten them going into Wednesday night’s showdown, where the Huskies had all of the momentum they would need to beat the Jays.
I’ll spoil the suspense for you. They came out behind once again in a heartbreaking 64-62 loss in Kansas.
UConn trailed early and often, getting close to trailing by twenty early in the first half. Arthur Kaluma refused to miss from anywhere on the court and with whatever time on the shot clock. Connecticut was not playing their best brand of basketball either, missing open shots and not converting offensive opportunities. They found a way to claw back and came into the half with a ten-point deficit on their shoulders.
Once again, the brunt of the load fell on the shoulders of RJ Cole, and he was more than up to the task.
He took a full load of work and more in the second half, bringing the Huskies to a 50-50 game late in the second half. Cole finished with 20 points but needed three more to propel his team to a victory. Typically, this effort would be enough for UConn, but Adama Sanogo and the bigs ran into a huge second-half problem named Ryan Kalkbrenner. Kalkbrenner took over the game in the second half, missing only three shots, scoring 20 points, five of those scores being dunks. He was constantly outpacing UConn on fast breaks and burning their defense with quick backdoor cuts.
Whenever UConn tried to go on a run, Kalkbrenner was there to stop the bleeding. The closest UConn made it was a tie game, and they could not push past that point, and wouldn’t you know it. A Kalkbrenner dunk gave the Blue Jays the spark they needed to hold the lead the rest of the second half.
Cole had a couple of opportunities to pull the Huskies back late but missed both three-point opportunities, which proved fatal to the Huskies’ chances in the game.
The implications of this game are pretty drastic. UConn slips from the three to the four seed in the Big East. If Creighton takes care of business on Saturday against Seton Hall, they will remain the three seed and face either Seton Hall or Georgetown. UConn, on the other hand, slips down to the four-line and looks to be in line to face Marquette in the second round of the Big East Tournament, with a possible second-round matchup looming against the Providence Friars. This, however, is not set in stone as UConn could make a move back to the third seed if they beat DePaul on their senior night on Friday and Creighton loses to Seton Hall. Nobody can predict what will happen, but the likely outcome seems to be UConn slotted in the four-spot come next week at Madison Square Garden.
The Huskies will need a bounce-back performance on Saturday from their whole roster when they face DePaul at 5:00.
The regular-season finale will air on FOX.
Go Huskies!
