No. 6 Marquette routs Xavier 65-51 to win first Big East title

NEW YORK (AP)— The final night of the Big East Tournament never sounded likethis before.

Tyler Kolekand No. 6 Marquette raced out to a hefty lead and didn’t look back,beating No. 15 Xavier 65-51 on Saturday to win its first Big Eastchampionship after 18 seasons in the conference.

As the clockwound down on an historic victory by a storied program that hadbeen longing for an elusive title, chants of “We are, Mar-quette!”echoed through Madison Square Garden.

“Marquette isa special place that has had a special basketball program for along, long time,” coach Shaka Smart said as he accepted the trophy.“We’re so proud to bring a championship back to Milwaukee.”

Kolek had 20points and eight rebounds as the top-seeded Golden Eagles (28-6)dominated a Big East final that brought a Midwestern flavor toMidtown Manhattan.

The brash BigEast player of the year, who vowed his team would prove doubterswrong before the season, shared hugs with his family and friends asconfetti poured down on the Golden Eagles after the game.

“All themoments they’ve been through with me have led up to this momentright here,” Kolek said. “To share that with my high school coach,my brother, my dad, my two best friends, it’s special. There is nobetter feeling.”

Smart’ssurprising team will head into the NCAA Tournament with a nine-gamewinning streak. Marquette’s first appearance in the Big Eastchampionship game resulted in one of its best performances of ascintillating season.

Kolek’s stealand layup made it 51-27 with 14:12 left. Less than a minute later,after two offensive rebounds by the Golden Eagles, David Joplinmade a corner 3 to double up second-seeded Xavier (25-9).

Joplinfinished with 12 points. Kolek was selected the tournament’s MostOutstanding Player.

Adam Kunkelscored 12 points to lead the Musketeers, who had a five-gamewinning streak snapped. Leading scorer Souley Boum was held to onepoint on 0-for-9 shooting.

“I thoughttonight there are times when their effort level and theirquickness, their togetherness, their communication, it was likethere were six players on defense against us,” Xavier coach SeanMiller said. “We couldn’t get a good shot, and that is to theircredit.”

Smartdescribed his team’s defense as “violent.”

“Coming uphere to New York, we’ve really played for the most part very, verysticky, tough defense,” Smart said. “We’re going to need that if wewant to advance in the NCAA Tournament.”

This was thefirst Big East title game since the conference dropped football in2013 to not feature any of its longstanding Northeast members.

Still, theMilwaukee school, which joined in 2005, and the Cincinnati school,which joined in 2013, filled The Garden for the first 1 vs. 2 seedBig East Tournament final in 19 years.

It lookedmore like a 1-16 NCAA Tournament game for a while.

Marquettejumped out to a 21-4 lead, and never relented.

“It washuge,” Smart said. “And our guys played with real force to startthe game.”

During aparticularly splendid 2 1/2 minutes, Stevie Mitchell swished acorner 3, Kolek came off a screen to make another 3, Kam Jones gotfree for a reverse layup after a nifty hesitation move on thebaseline and Kolek converted a layup off a give-and-go with OsoIghodaro.

At thatpoint, Marquette was up 33-10 with 7:02 left in the first half andthe Golden Eagles had not yet committed a turnover.

Marquette’sonly previous league tournament title was as a member of ConferenceUSA in 1997.

Twenty-sixyears later, the Golden Eagles were able to clear the bench in thefinal minute of the Big East championship and their fans werefinally able to make The Garden feel like home.

BIGPICTURE

Xavier: TheMusketeers played what Miller called one of their best two-waygames of the season in the semifinals Friday night againstCreighton. Less than 24 hours later, they did almost nothing well.Xavier shot 34% from the field, forced only four turnovers and washeld 12 points under its previous season low. The Musketeers fellto 0-2 in Big East championship games.

Marquette:Smart, who took VCU to a Final Four but never could find thatconsistent winning formula at Texas, guided a team picked to finishninth in the Big East in the preseason coaches’ poll to maybe itsbest season since Dwyane Wade led Marquette to a Final Four in2003. The Golden Eagles tied a school record for victories set in1970-71.

UPNEXT

Xavier:Miller will have the Musketeers back in the NCAA Tournament for thefirst time since 2018.

Marquette:The Golden Eagles will be making their second straight trip to theNCAA Tournament and figure to earn perhaps a No. 2 seed.