University of Connecticut Athletics
University of Connecticut
Creighton
No. 5 UConn Hosts Creighton On Loaded Wednesday Night
2/17/2026 4:36:00 PM | Men's Basketball
STORRS – The No. 5 UConn men's basketball team (24-2, 14-1 BIG EAST) continues the stretch run of conference play when it hosts Creighton (13-13, 7-8 BIG EAST) on Wednesday night at Gampel Pavilion. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. and the contest will air on TNT with Spero Dedes, Grant Hill and Jared Greenberg on the call.
At halftime of the contest the Huskies will lift Emeka Okafor's No. 50 into the Gampel Pavilion rafters. The greatest big man in program history and 2004 Final Four Most Outstanding Player will become the third men's basketball player with his number retired at Gampel, joining Ray Allen's 34 and Rip Hamilton's 32.
Wednesday night is a $2 Miller Lite Night and a Gampel Pavilion WHITE OUT. T-shirts will be available on every seat and $2 libations will be available while supplies last beginning with doors at 5:30 p.m. 21+, please drink responsibly.
The Huskies continue their pursuit of a league title on Wednesday night, currently sitting atop the BIG EAST standings with a 14-1 record in league action. Connecticut is looking for a regular season sweep over Creighton for the first time in the history of the series, one which began in 2020 and has seen CU hold a 9-4 advantage. UConn is looking for Creighton to join Butler, DePaul, Georgetown, Providence and Xavier among swept foes by the Huskies this season. In the first meeting on Jan. 31 in Omaha, the Huskies drilled 16 threes in an 85-58 rout, marking the largest margin of victory in the series.
UConn was last in action on Saturday night, never trailing in a 79-74 victory over Georgetown at Gampel Pavilion. The win was the 116th in the career of redshirt senior Alex Karaban, elevating Karaban to the winningest player in the history of UConn men's basketball. It was also his program-record 136th start.
Solo Ball led five Huskies in double-figures against the Hoyas with 20 points, following up a 24-point effort on Feb. 11 to earn BIG EAST Player of the Week or the first time this season. Karaban added 18 points and made clutch shots down the stretch, while Silas Demary Jr. missed a triple-double by a hair with 15 points, a career-high 12 rebounds and nine assists. The freshman duo of Braylon Mullins and Eric Reibe scored 10 points apiece as UConn dished out 20 assists on 25 field goals while hitting 11 threes in the win.
Ball leads the Huskies this season with 14.7 points per game and is hitting 2.2 triples per contest, including 11 in his last two outings – most in a two-game span in the junior's career. Tarris Reed Jr. adds 13.6 points along with team-highs of 7.5 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per game and is shooting a league-leading 63.6 percent from the floor. Karaban stuffs the stat sheet with 13.4 points and 5.5 rebounds per game and shoots 42.2 percent from downtown, while Demary Jr. leads the BIG EAST with 6.4 assists per game along with 11.4 points a night. Mullins averages 11.8 points per game to give the Huskies five regulars in double-digits.
Creighton visits Gampel with a 13-13 record on the year and a 7-8 mark in BIG EAST play. The Bluejays are 2-7 in true road games this season, incuding a 2-5 mark in league games away. Josh Dix (12.0 ppg) and Austin Swartz (11.5 ppg) lead the Jays offensively, part of an offensive attack that ranks first in the BIG EAST with 10.1 made 3-pointers per game.
Following Wednesday night in Storrs the Huskies play their penultimate road game of the regular season when they travel to Philadelphia for a Saturday evening match-up at Xfinity Mobile Arena vs. Villanova.
