Creighton, UConn men’s basketball scuffle at Big East Tournament

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UConn men’s basketball’s quest to successfully defend its Big East Tournament championship ended with some fireworks Friday night.

In the waning seconds of the Huskies’ 71-62 loss to Creighton in the Big East semifinals at Madison Square Garden, there was a scuffle between the two teams after Bluejays guard Jamiya Neal threw down an uncontested dunk with 1.5 seconds remaining.

Neal hung and swung on the rim for about two seconds. After he landed back down on the court, he was confronted by UConn’s Hassan Diarra, who shoved Neal and held up his fists as though he was ready to fight before getting in Neal’s face.

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Creighton all-conference big man Ryan Kalkbrenner quickly intervened and separated the two, with Diarra’s Huskies teammates also rushing in to create a buffer and make sure things couldn’t escalate. Neal and Diarra were both assessed technical fouls.

Neal, who finished the night with a game-high 19 points and three assists, apologized after the game.

“I got caught up in the moment of the game, just a lot of emotions going on,” he said in a postgame news conference. “I’d like to apologize for that. I respect (UConn) coach (Dan) Hurley and those guys over there. They’re a great program, obviously.”

With the victory, Creighton advanced to Saturday night’s Big East championship game against Rick Pitino and conference regular-season champion St. John’s, which is appearing in the league’s title game for the first time since 2000. UConn, meanwhile, fell to 23-10 and will await its seed and matchup for the NCAA Tournament, an event it has won each of the past two years.

Friday night wasn’t the first time this season the Bluejays and Huskies have shared…

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Source link : https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/2025/03/15/creighton-uconn-basketball-big-east-tournament-scuffle-jamiya-neal-hassan-diarra/82443103007/

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Publish date : 2025-03-15 16:36:00

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