OMAHA, Neb. — Steven Ashworth scored 16 of his 20 points in the first half as Creighton built a double-digit lead, and the No. 15 Bluejays knocked off UConn 85-66 Tuesday night for the program’s first win over a No. 1-ranked team.
Creighton (20-7, 10-6 Big East) led by 23 points with 10 minutes left but saw its lead cut to 10 before holding the Huskies scoreless on five straight possessions, rebuilding their cushion and prompting students to leave their seats to prepare to storm the court — which they did as soon as the buzzer sounded.
“Kind of felt like (we) just kind of ran into a buzzsaw there,” UConn coach Dan Hurley noted afterward.
Entering Tuesday, the Bluejays had been 0-6 in the AP poll era against the AP No. 1 team.
UConn (24-3, 14-2) had its 14-game win streak — the longest active streak in Division I — end three days after it beat then-No. 4 Marquette by 28 points for one of the most impressive victories of the season — and one day after it was voted as the first unanimous No. 1 this season in the AP poll.
Trey Alexander scored 16 points and Ryan Kalkbrenner added 15 for the Bluejays, who made 14 of 28 3-pointers in their second-best shooting night from beyond the arc this season. Creighton was just 6-of-26 on 3s in its 62-48 loss at UConn last month.
UConn’s Tristen Newton scored 17 of his 27 points in the second half, including 10 during the 18-5 spurt that helped pull the Huskies within 74-64.
The Huskies made a season-low 3 3s on 16 attempts in their most lopsided loss since Houston beat them 84-45 in the AAC tournament on March 15, 2019. They had come into the game off a Big East-record three straight wins by at least 25 points.
“I do think we did a bad job coaching tonight, our players did a bad job playing, I did a bad job coaching,” Hurley said. “Your huddles aren’t gonna be super energized when you haven’t lost in two-plus months. This doesn’t happen to us very often. … We were definitely stunned. This wasn’t the game we expected, we knew this was a dangerous game and a quality opponent and one of the better teams in the country. But we didn’t expect this to happen.”
The Bluejays made just two of their first nine shots, trailed by eight points early and had leading scorer Baylor Scheierman on the bench for eight minutes in the first half after he picked up two fouls. Scheierman finished with 12 points.
The Huskies had problems of their own. Donovan Clingan, their 7-foot-2, 280-pound center, was called for two quick fouls and played just 11 minutes in the half, and UConn went through a 2-for-10 spell while Creighton was finding its rhythm.
A couple big shots from reserves Francisco Farabello and Jasen Green sparked an 18-2 run. Farabello made two straight 3s and Green hit one from the corner to wipe out the Huskies’ lead.
Then Ashworth struck from over 30 feet to begin a personal run of 13 straight points for the Bluejays, who made 14 of their last 19 shots of the half and went to the locker room with a 43-29 lead.
Creighton entered Tuesday boasting three of the top six leading scorers in the Big East — Scheierman, Alexander and Kalkbrenner — but it was Ashworth who went off against the No. 1 team in the country, his 20 points almost doubling his season average of 10.6.
The Bluejays also gave coach Greg McDermott his 600th career win. McDermott had been 0-7 in his coaching career against AP No. 1 teams before Tuesday. Those seven losses are the most by any coach, before getting their first win, in the last 25 seasons.
Creighton has now beaten a top-10 team in nine straight years; the Bluejays also clinched a 20-win season for the ninth year in a row.
ESPN Stats & Information and The Associated Press contributed to this report.