Neal’s 19 lead Creighton over UConn 71-62 in Big East Conference Tournament

NEW YORK (AP) — Jasen Green and Jamiya Neal each scored 19 points in second-seeded Creighton’s 71-62 win over No. 3-seed UConn on Friday in the semifinals of the Big East Conference Tournament.

Creighton, the No. 2 seed, will face top-seeded St. John’s in Saturday’s championship game.

Alex Karaban’s layup for the third-seeded Huskies tied the game at 28-28 with under seven minutes left in the first half, but the Bluejays ran off 11-straight points, six by Green, to take a 46-35 lead into the break. Green scored 15 first-half points by hitting all seven of his field-goal attempts, including a 3-pointer. Neal hit 4 of 5 from the floor in the first half, hitting both of his 3-point attempts, to score 13 points before intermission.

Neal also added five rebounds for the Bluejays (24-9). Green finished 8 of 10 from the field. Ryan Kalkbrenner shot 5 for 13, including 0 for 3 from beyond the arc to finish with 12 points.

Solomon Ball led the Huskies (23-10) in scoring, finishing with 13 points. Liam McNeeley added 13 points for UConn. Hassan Diarra had 11 points and six rebounds.

Creighton took the lead with 5:35 left in the first half and never looked back. Green led their team in scoring with 15 points in the first half to help put them ahead 46-35 at the break. Creighton was outscored by UConn in the second half by two points, with Kalkbrenner scoring a team-high eight points after the break.

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.

By The Associated Press