Big East Conference Tournament Recaps

New York, NY (SportsNetwork.com) – Sterling Gibbs hit a step-back jumper at the buzzer as Seton Hall stunned third-ranked Villanova, 64-63, in the quarterfinals of the Big East Tournament.

Seton Hall called a timeout with 3.7 seconds remaining after Darrun Hilliard spun in the lane and hit a floater to give Villanova, which won its first regular-season conference title in eight years, a 63-62 lead.

Gibbs handled the inbounds pass and shook a defender before nailing the game- winning shot from near the top of the key.

“It was supposed to get in my hands, and I was supposed to create a shot for my teammates or create a shot for myself, and I just stepped back and hit the jumper,” Gibbs said about the final shot.

Big man Eugene Teague netted a season-high 19 points to go with a game-best 12 rebounds as the eighth-seeded Pirates (17-16) withstood a huge second-half run by Villanova.

Patrik Auda scored 13 points and Gibbs finished with 10 points and six assists for Seton Hall, which will play fourth-seeded Providence in a Friday semifinal. The Pirates were coming off a one-point victory over ninth-seeded Butler Wednesday night.

Josh Hart paced the top-seeded Wildcats (28-4) with 18 points. The loss snapped Villanova’s six-game winning streak and very likely spoiled its hopes of securing a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

The Wildcats swept the season’s two meetings with Seton Hall by a combined 33 points, but found themselves trailing by 15 in the first half on Thursday.

“We had a tough game with them at their place. They’re a very, very good offensive team,” Villanova head coach Jay Wright said. “I thought they played smart defense tonight, gave some of our guys shots that they wanted to give shots to, and we let those guys take them. We just didn’t make them. I thought they were a very smart defensively tonight. And it paid off for them.”

Villanova trimmed its deficit to 34-26 at halftime and used a 16-0 run to move ahead. Hilliard buried a straightaway 3-pointer to cap the surge and give the Wildcats their first lead at 47-44 with 8:03 remaining.

Seton Hall responded with an 11-3 run and led 55-50 after Brandon Mobley knocked down a trey with 4:51 to play.

The teams went back and forth down the stretch, with two Teague free throws putting the Pirates up 59-58 with 1:17 left.

After JayVaughn Pinkston made 1-of-2 at the foul line to tie the game, Ryan Arcidiacono poked the ball away from Auda and Hart’s fastbreak layup gave Villanova the lead.

Jaren Sina hit a left-corner three to make it 62-61 in favor of Seton Hall with 17.2 seconds remaining.

Game Notes

The Pirates won for only the second time in the last 14 meetings … The Wildcats’ 26 points marked the fewest in any half this season … Villanova shot 46.9 percent in the second half after making only 26.9 percent of its first-half attempts … The Wildcats were only 4-of-19 from 3-point range … Hilliard and Pinkston each had 11 points.

Final Score: Providence 79, St. John’s 74

New York, NY (SportsNetwork.com) – Josh Fortune scored a career-high 24 points to lead Providence in a 79-74 win over St. John’s in the quarterfinals of the Big East Tournament.

LaDontae Henton and Kadeem Batts each recorded a double-double for the fourth- seeded Friars (21-11), who advanced to the semifinals of the Big East tourney for the first time in 17 years. Henton had 16 points and 11 rebounds and Batts finished with 13 and 12.

Providence will next face Seton Hall on Friday after the eighth-seeded Pirates stunned third-ranked Villanova on Sterling Gibbs buzzer-beating shot.

D’Angelo Harrison tallied 21 points, 10 boards and four assists for fifth- seeded St. John’s (20-12), which nearly climbed out of a 17-point hole.

The Friars appeared to own a comfortable lead after a Henton layup made it 63-46 with 6:24 remaining. The Red Storm, however, used a 22-6 run to get within 69-68 with 1:15 to play.

Harrison then made contact with Bryce Cotton while going for a steal. The foul sent Cotton, who was 1-of-10 from the floor, to the free-throw line and he sank both attempts with 31 seconds remaining. Cotton made four more free throws to wrap up a 10-for-13 effort at the charity stripe.

Rysheed Jordan added 17 points for St. John’s.

Final Score: (14) Creighton 84, DePaul 62

New York, NY (SportsNetwork.com) – Doug McDermott put on a show at Madison Square Garden in Creighton’s Big East Tournament debut, pouring in 35 points as the 14th-ranked Bluejays rolled to an 84-62 quarterfinal victory over DePaul.

McDermott led a shooting clinic by Creighton from the perimeter, draining 7- of-10 attempts from 3-point range in his 32 minutes of time. The Bluejays finished a sizzling 14-of-22 as a team from beyond the arc, with Jahenns Manigat accounting for four of those makes in a 14-point effort.

“I think McDermott, once again, proves that in my opinion, he’s the best player in the country,” DePaul head coach Oliver Purnell remarked.

The win propels the second-seeded Bluejays (25-6), a first-year member of the realigned Big East, into Friday’s semis against Xavier. The fourth-seeded Muskeeters held on for a 68-65 win over Marquette in Thursday’s final quarterfinal.

DePaul (12-21), the tournament’s 10th seed coming off an opening-round upset of Georgetown, was paced by Brandon Young’s 22 points and eight rebounds.

The Blue Demons had no answer for McDermott as the unanimous Big East Player of the Year piled up 27 first-half points on a 10-of-14 shooting rate that included seven makes in nine tries from the beyond the arc.

“I was just feeling in the rhythm, in the zone, and I felt like I could make [any shot] out there,” said McDermott. “They were doing a good job [on defense]. I just happened to get going, and my teammates recognized that I had the hot hand.”

Manigat was on fire as well, knocking down 4-of-5 shots from 3-point distance to help Creighton build a commanding 49-29 lead at the break.

Three of Manigat’s triples came in a span of less than two minutes early on, part of a 17-5 run that McDermott capped with a pair of threes that staked the Bluejays to a 20-8 advantage midway through the opening period.

DePaul managed to briefly close the gap, pulling within 25-18 following Jamee Crockett’s layup and free throw just past the eight-minute mark, and it was an eight-point game with just over five minutes left in the half until the Bluejays started hitting shots at will once again.

Creighton scored on its next five possessions to increase the margin to 42-25, and another McDermott three with 1:07 remaining in the frame closed out a 16-4 tear that put the Bluejays up by a 47-27 count.

McDermott couldn’t quite keep up his prolific pace after the intermission, enabling the Blue Demons to close the gap behind a 10-0 run early in the second half. Crockett was fouled while burying a 3-pointer with just under 15 minutes left and sank the ensuing bonus shot to cut DePaul’s deficit to 54-41, and Young hit two free throws shortly afterward to trim the differential to 11 points.

DePaul trailed just 60-50 after Billy Garrett’s basket with 9:30 to go, but Creighton answered with a 12-2 surge that all but put the game away. Austin Chatman and Ethan Wragge each had 3-pointers during the sealing spurt, which ended on McDermott’s second-chance bucket that made the score 72-52 with under six minutes remaining.

“I would have liked to have seen us throw that knockout punch the first five minutes of the half,” said Bluejays head coach Greg McDermott. “But to DePaul’s credit, they didn’t allow us to do that.”

Game Notes

Doug McDermott became just the sixth player in NCAA history to record 800 or more points in three separate seasons, joining Oscar Robertson, Pete Maravich, Larry Bird, Wayman Tisdale and Freeman Williams … Manigat’s four 3-pointers gave him 201 for his career … Garrett, the Big East’s 2013-14 Rookie of the Year, was held to seven points on 2-of-8 shooting … Creighton is seeking its third straight conference tournament title, having claimed the Missouri Valley Crown in each of the last two seasons … The Bluejays won all three meetings between the schools this season and have taken five straight in the overall series.

Final Score: Xavier 68, Marquette 65

New York, NY (SportsNetwork.com) – Justin Martin scored 19 points, 10 of which came in the second half, and Xavier advanced to the Big East Tournament semifinals with a 68-65 victory over Marquette.

Semaj Christon added 18 points and five assists to help the fourth-seeded Musketeers (21-11) earn a matchup with 14th-ranked Creighton in Friday’s semis, with Isaiah Philmore contributing 10 points to the win.

Xavier was able to move on by outperforming the Golden Eagles at the free throw line, hitting 17-of-23 foul shots compared to an 8-of-14 success rate for Marquette.

The Golden Eagles (17-15) were also hurt by turnovers, committing 15 giveaways that were turned into 15 Xavier points and which offset a 57.8 field goal percentage.

Deonte Burton netted a game-high 23 points on 9-of-14 shooting in the loss, with Todd Mayo finishing with 21 while going 8-of-13 from the field.

Xavier trailed 48-47 midway through the second half before forging ahead to stay behind a 10-3 run that Matt Stainbrook capped with a layup with 4:33 to go, putting the Muskeeters up by a 57-51 count.

Marquette closed within 59-58 on Jamil Wilson’s bucket with 2:10 remaining, before four straight Martin free throws pushed the lead back to five with 49 seconds on the clock.

The Muskeeters were still up by five when Mayo buried a 3-pointer with 25 seconds left that cut Marquette’s deficit to 65-63. Mayo missed from beyond the arc on the Golden Eagles’ next possession, however, after Christon went 1- of-2 from the line to extend the lead back to three.

Christon came down with the rebound on Mayo’s miss before sealing the win by again hitting one of his two bonus attempts.

Categorized in: NCAA Basketball