By SEAN BRENNAN
BIGEAST.com
 
For 25 minutes in Friday night’s BIG EAST Tournament semifinal game, Creighton had that look. They were out-hustling, out-defending and out-shooting defending tournament champion UConn. The Bluejays shot 75% from the field in the first half. Who does that against UConn? And along the way the Bluejays built themselves a rather hefty 17-point lead five minutes into the second half.
 
Maybe, just maybe, the Bluejays would finish the night by clinching their fifth trip to the tournament championship game and moving within one victory of winning - finally - their first BIG EAST Tournament title after the previous four trips yielded zero championships.
 
That quest is what has driven the Bluejays as a team, and Ryan Kalkbrenner, in particular, all season. Capture that elusive title. It was the main reason Kalkbrenner said he returned to Creighton for a final season. But you just knew it wasn’t going to be easy. Is it ever with UConn?
 
So the two conference heavyweights slugged it out over the final 15 minutes, with the Huskies shaving the Creighton lead to just three points on three different occasions. That virtual sure thing was suddenly not looking so sure for the Bluejays.
 
But with Creighton nursing a precarious four-point lead with just over 5:00 to play, Kalkbrenner sank both ends of a one-and-one to kick start a 9-4 Bluejays run to close the game as Creighton is heading back to the championship game for the third time in the last five years and fifth time overall after its 71-62 victory over No. 3 seed UConn.
 
Second-seeded Creighton (24-9) will now battle top-seeded St. John’ for the title Saturday at 6:30 p.m. The Bluejays have yet to win a title since joining the BIG EAST for the 2013-14 season while the Johnnies are currently in the middle of a 25-year championship drought.
 
“Hopefully, five is our lucky number,” Creighton coach Greg McDermott said.
 
Creighton was seemingly on its way to Saturday’s final after Steven Ashworh (12 points) drilled a three-pointer with 16:26 left in the game that gave the Bluejays a commanding 55-38 lead. Everything just seemed to be going the Bluejays’ way.Even the throng of UConn fans at the Garden fell silent and the Huskies looked bewildered at their situation. But UConn is battle-tested and they don’t go away easily. You don’t win back-to-back national championships by folding your tent when things get difficult. So the Huskies mounted their comeback. You knew it was coming. It’s in their DNA.
 
And just nine minutes and 24 seconds after Ashworth’s three-ball, there was UConn, breathing down Cfreighton’s neck after a 16-4 Huskies’ run brought them within 57-54 with 7:02 to play. Now it was game on. Over the next three minutes and change the two teams went shot for shot with each other with the Bluejays maintaining a slim four-point lead.
 
But then Kalkbrenner (12 points) ignited that pivotal game-deciding run with his free throws, a run that ended with an ill-advised dunk by Jamiya Neal with 1.5 seconds left that brought some chirping and shoving between the two teams before order was restored and Creighton was off to the championship game. One win away from that elusive first tournament title, the hardware, the confetti shower. The whole deal.
 
“Our strength is our togetherness,” McDermott said. “We’ve had a lot of adversity this year. I’ve heard coaches talk all year long that we lost because we didn’t have this player or that player. We lost our second-leading scorer eight games in and here we are in the BIG EAST championship game and finished second in the league. We could have hung our heads and felt sorry for ourselves but instead this group went to work.”
 
They did indeed.
 
Neal finished with 19 points as did sophomore Jasen Green, who enjoyed something of a coming-out party at the Garden Friday night. Green shot 8-for-10 from the floor and added four rebounds, three assists and a steal and his 19 points were a career high. It was a performance that went a long way in saving the Bluejays’ championship dream.
 
“It was definitely a great feeling getting a career-high in the first place and especially in a place like Madison Square Garden,” Green said.
 
Now it’s “bring on St. John’s,” a physical team that likes to battle you in the paint. No problem, McDermott said. Despite their undeserved reputation as being a finesse team, McDermott said his Jays are ready to go toe-to-toe with the Johnnies.
 
“I got news for you, I got some tough dudes in my locker room,” McDermott said. “You don’t beat UConn a couple of times in a season if you don’t have tough dudes.”