Things got a bit chippy at the end of Friday night’s Big East tournament semifinal after Creighton’s Jamiya Neal slammed a dunk and hung onto the rim in the final seconds of the game. The Bluejays were already beating the UConn Huskies 69–62 when the guard went up, bringing the final score to 71–62.
Neal was greeted with a shove from UConn’s Hassan Diarra as soon as he dropped back to the hardwood. Neal then appeared to get fired up in return before Creighton center Ryan Kalkbrenner separated the two. As that was happening, officials blew whistles and players from both benches stood up on the sidelines.
Watch that below:
After Neal’s dunk, UConn’s Diarra pushes Neal and words are exchanged. pic.twitter.com/C7upaurX6q
— FOX College Hoops (@CBBonFOX) March 15, 2025
Diarra later clarified that he felt Neal was being “disrespectful” by going for such a big-time play at the end of the game despite the Bluejays being seconds away from victory.
“I mean, they were already up with seven seconds left,” the guard said. “He didn’t want to dribble the ball out. Went in for a fancy dunk. I just felt it was disrespectful to the game of basketball.”
And Neal, for his part, “got caught up in the emotions of the game,” the Bluejay senior explained. “Just a lot of emotions going on. So I would like to apologize for that. I respect Coach Hurley and those guys over there. They have a great, great program. … Yeah, I apologize. Just got caught up in the moment, and I shouldn’t have did it.”
Bluejays head coach Greg McDermott and Huskies head coach Dan Hurley were already going in for a handshake when the dunk happened, per The Associated Press. The former then seemed to apologize to the latter after the fact and again when the contest was officially over.
Both Neal and Diarra received double technicals for the altercation, while UConn reserve forward Jayden Ross earned an ejection for coming off the bench.
The Blue Jays will now advance to face the Rick Pitino-led St. John Red Storm in the title game on Saturday night.
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