Huskies fall in OT

STORRS, Conn. (AP) — No. 9 Creighton had already lost two close games this season and was facing a third defeat before rallying on Sunday to beat UConn in overtime.

Christian Bishop scored 19 points and the Bluejays used a 9-0 run in the extra frame to secure a 76-74 win over the Huskies in Connecticut’s first conference game since returning to the Big East.

Mitch Ballock added 13 points for the Bluejays (6-2, 2-1 Big East). Denzel Mahoney had 10 points and 13 rebounds and Marcus Zegarowski scored 11 points and pulled down eight rebounds.

“You better get excited for any win that you can get, because it’s a grind-it-out league” coach Greg McDermott said. “Throughout the league, nothing is going to be easy.”

James Bouknight scored a career-high 40 points for the Huskies (3-1, 0-1), who were playing for the first time in 17 days because of coronavirus-related issues.

“We knew not the entire team can score like he can,” Bishop said.

This was UConn’s first Big East game since a 63-59 win over Providence on March 9, 2013, a span of 2,834 days.

Creighton led by as many as 12 points in the first half, but trailed by four points with 21 seconds left and had to rally to send the game to OT.

Zegarowski, who shot 4 of 14, made a layup with just over 13 seconds left to make it a two-point game at 66-64.

UConn’s R.J. Cole, who scored 12 points, had a chance to ice the game for the Huskies, but missed a pair of foul shots on the other end.