Paige Bueckers leads UConn to win over Creighton, securing the Big East's top seed
Paige Bueckers scored 24 points, Aaliyah Edwards added 20 and No. 15 UConn beat No. 21 Creighton 73-53 on Monday afternoon to secure at least a share of the Big East regular-season championship and the top seed in the conference tournament.
Ashlynn Shade added 15 points and nine rebounds for the Huskies (23-5, 15-0), who gave coach Geno Auriemma win No. 1,203, moving him past former Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski and into second on the all-time wins list behind Stanford's Tara VanDerveer (1,209).
Lauren Jensen had 20 points and Morgan Maly scored 16 for Creighton (21-4, 12-3), which saw its 11-game winning streak snapped.
The teams were tied at halftime and Creighton led by five points after a 13-0 run that stretched from the second into the third quarter.
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But UConn went on a 17-0 run from there, taking its first double-digit lead at 47-36 after a jumper from the foul line by Edwards.
The Huskies led 58-41 after three quarters.
UConn had led by as many as eight points in the first half, the last time after a steal and three-point play by Bueckers, which put the Huskies up 31-23.
But Creighton scored the final eight points of the half, helped by a technical foul on Auriemma, who became incensed after Edwards was knocked to the floor with no call.
Creighton's last loss came to UConn in Omaha, a 94-50 blowout on Jan. 3. The Bluejays hit just 4 of 24 shots from 3-point range in that one. They were 6 of 30 from behind the arc on Monday.
The regular-season conference title is the 30th for the Huskies, who have won 11 straight dating to their days in the American Athletic Conference.
Creighton returns home to face Villanova on Saturday. UConn goes to DePaul on Sunday.