STORRS, Conn. — Hassan Diarra attempted to draw a foul on his potential game-tying 3-point shot with eight seconds left in UConn’s 68-63 loss to Creighton in Gampel Pavilion Saturday. The foul was called as he went into his shooting motion, but the officials deemed it on the floor, not granting any free throws for the Huskies point guard. Alex Karaban’s final attempt missed the mark and the team took its second loss in three games.

UConn coach Dan Hurley argued the foul in the moment but got over it quickly. In his postgame press conference, officiating was far down his list of concerns.

“Just the theme of our season, obviously we’re not who we’ve been,” Hurley said. “I’m not sure if Liam (McNeeley), when he returns, is going to be able to fix the lack of tenacity that we have right now. Coaches and players, as a program we’re a shell of ourselves from a defensive standpoint. We’ve only won the rebound battle twice in Big East games and the bar is so low for us defensively. We’re just not a tenacious enough team.”

The loss was UConn’s first at home since Jan. 25, 2023 against Xavier, snapping a 28-game home winning streak in a span that featured two national championships. UConn (13-5, 5-2 Big East) is now just 2-8 in its all-time series with the Bluejays.

Creighton’s Jamiya Neal, who came into the game averaging 10.2 points and finished with 24 on 10-of-16 shooting, played a heavy role in taking down the reigning champs as his fifth-year teammates Ryan Kalkbrenner (16 points, 10 rebounds) and Steven Ashworth (12 points, six rebounds, nine assists) drew most of the attention.

“How did we let a dominant righty driver, a guy that loves to go right, just continue to drive the ball right?” Hurley said. “It’s a lack of attention to detail, and it’s a lack of will.”

The Huskies did a decent job on both Kalkbrenner and Ashworth in the first half, holding the veteran duo to just nine points combined on 3-for-11 shooting. But Neal only missed one of his eight shots from the field before the break, single-handedly erasing the early 10-2 UConn advantage bolstered by a pair of Solo Ball 3-pointers.

Ball finished tied for the team-high in scoring with 15 points. Diarra had 15 as well, adding seven rebounds and six assists, a block and a steal. Jaylin Stewart, in the starting lineup for the third time in four games with McNeeley out, scored eight of his 14 points in the second half.

Creighton led for nearly 29 minutes in the game, never by more than eight, and Stewart helped give the Huskies a chance late with a floater that made it a one-point game with 1:12 left. But, on an off night for Karaban (8 points, 3 for 12), UConn ultimately didn’t have enough to overcome the Bluejays, who improved to 12-6 on the year and 5-2 in the Big East.

Karaban had just three shot attempts in a scoreless first half.

“Alex, he should not have taken three shots at halftime. He should’ve taken 16 to 18 shots in this game today. Even with Kalkbrenner in that deep drop, those floaters and those short touch shots at the (Big East) logo were available for him even when they were chasing him over top of the pins,” Hurley said. “He’s just got to fire away in these games. He should’ve went 5 for 17 today, just have no regrets about just letting it rip.”

Three-time Big East Defensive Player of the Year Kalkbrenner disrupted the Huskies’ offense in a major way despite only being credited for two blocks. Because of his reliability inside, Creighton could guard the perimeter the way UConn did last season with Donovan Clingan. As a result, the Huskies only attempted six 3-pointers in the first half and had to attack the long-armed 7-footer.

It worked for a short stretch, as Aidan Mahaney, Stewart and Ball each finished inside to retake the lead with five minutes until the halftime break. But Creighton answered with a 10-2 run to go into the break up by seven.

“We’ve shown tons of vulnerabilities that our past teams have not shown,” Hurley said.

Neal scored the first points of the second half with a layup over Stewart, but Ball answered with his third triple of the afternoon and Samson Johnson (seven points, three rebounds, five assists) rose up for a two-handed slam over Kalkbrenner, drawing a foul in the process. Karaban tweaked his ankle but insisted on staying in the game with a limp and scored his first basket to tie the score at 41 immediately after he was helped to his feet. He made a pair of free throws on the next possession to give the Huskies their first lead since Ball’s floater at the five-minute mark in the first half.

Creighton had an answer for every UConn run. The Bluejays — shooting 55% from the field in the second half to UConn’s 41.9% — answered Karaban’s burst with a 14-5 scoring run. Diarra scored all five of the Huskies’ points during that stretch with a 3-pointer and a transition layup.

Just as it felt the game might be over, the graduate guard blocked a layup attempt from Neal and found Stewart in the corner for 3. Ball made a pair of shots inside and Johnson gave the Huskies a one-point lead from the free-throw line with three and a half minutes to go. Creighton didn’t make another shot from the field for the rest of the game, but sealed the victory with Ashworth and Kalkbrenner at the free-throw line.

“(Hurley) is absolutely right,” Diarra said. “We just haven’t been able to do the hard things well. Rebounding the ball, on the defensive end guarding the ball, getting loose balls — we just haven’t been able to do so.”

UConn will return to action and look to “find a way” when it hosts Butler at the XL Center on Tuesday.

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