Marquette routs Xavier to win first Big East title
NEW YORK CITY– The final night of the Big East competition never ever seemed like this before.Tyler Kolek and No.
6 Marquette raced out to a large lead and didn’t recall, beating No. 15 Xavier 65-51 on Saturday to win its very first Big East champion after 18 seasons in the conference.As the clock wound down on a dominant efficiency by a
storied program that had actually been longing for an evasive title, chants of” We are, Mar-quette!”echoed through Madison Square Garden. “Marquette is a special location that has actually had a special basketball program
for a long, long time,”coach Shaka Smart stated as he accepted the prize. “We’re so proud to bring a championship back to Milwaukee.”Editor’s Picks Kolek, the Big East player of the year, had 20 points and 8 rebounds as the top-seeded Golden Eagles(28-6
)controlled a Big East last that brought a Midwestern flavor to midtown Manhattan.Smart’s unexpected team will head into the NCAA competition with a nine-game winning streak. Marquette’s first appearance in the Big East national championship led to among its best efficiencies of a scintillating season.Kolek’s take and layup made it 51-27 with 14:12 left. Less than a minute later on, after two offensive rebounds by the Golden Eagles, David Joplin made a corner 3 to double up second-seeded
Xavier( 25-9). Joplin finished with 12 points. Kolek was chosen the tournament’s Most Exceptional Player.Adam Kunkel scored 12 points to lead the Musketeers, who had a five-game winning streak snapped. Leading scorer Souley Boum was held to one point on 0-for-9 shooting.”They played great tonight, “Xavier coach Sean Miller said of Marquette.”I do not know how they feel, however their defense has actually really enhanced. It felt like there were six players out there for them.”Smart described his group’s defense as”violent.” “Coming up here to New York, we have really played, for the many part, sticky, hard defense, “he said.This was the very first Big East title game because the conference dropped football in 2013 to
not include any of its longstanding Northeast members.Still, the Milwaukee school(Marquette, which participated 2005)and the Cincinnati school( Xavier, which participated in 2013)filled The Garden for the first 1 vs. 2 seed Big East tournament last in 19 years.It looked more like a 1 vs. 16 seed NCAA tournament game for a while.Marquette jumped out to
a 21-4 lead– and never relented. “It was substantial,”Smart stated. “And our men played with genuine force to start the game. “During a particularly superb 2 1/2 minutes, Stevie Mitchell swished a corner 3
, Kolek came off a screen to make another 3, Kam Jones got
complimentary for a reverse layup after a cool doubt move on the
baseline and Kolek transformed a layup off a give-and-go with Oso Ighodaro.At that point, Marquette
was up 33-10 with 7:02 left in the first half, and the Golden Eagles had actually not yet committed a turnover.The Musketeers responded with a 14-5 go to end the period, but the Golden Eagles went into the break up 39-24. Marquette’s only previous league tournament title was as a member of Conference USA in 1997.Twenty-six years
later on, the Golden Eagles had the ability to clear the bench in the last minute of the Big East national championship, and their
fans were lastly able to make The Garden seem like home.The Associated Press added to this story.