No. 6 Marquette cruised to its first Big East tournament title in school history with a 65-51 victory over No. 15 Xavier on Saturday in New York.
Tyler Kolek had 20 points, eight rebounds and three steals for top-seeded Marquette (28-6), which was playing in its first tournament final since arriving from Conference USA prior to the 2005-06 season. Kam Jones added 11 points, five rebounds and four assists for Marquette, which has won nine straight games and 14 of 15.
Second-seeded Xavier (25-9), which saw its five-game winning streak end after scoring its fewest points this season, was led by Adam Kunkel’s 14 points. Jerome Hunter finished with 10 points and eight rebounds for the Musketeers, who were playing in the title game for just the second time since arriving from the Atlantic-10 before the 2013-2014 season.
Leading by 15 at halftime, the Golden Eagles put the game away by opening the second half on a 15-3 run to take a 54-27 advantage following David Joplin’s 3-pointer with 13:18 left in the game. Marquette dominated from the opening tip, jumping out to a 21-4 lead in less than eight minutes before taking a 39-24 halftime advantage.
No. 1 Houston 69, Cincinnati 48
Jamal Shead and J’Wan Roberts each scored 16 points to make up for the injured Marcus Sasser as the Cougars rolled to a win over the Bearcats on Saturday in an American Athletic Conference tournament semifinal game in Fort Worth, Texas.
Houston (31-2), the top seed in this event, advanced to Sunday’s title game to play second-seeded Memphis (25-8). The Cougars led by 15 at halftime and were never seriously challenged in the second half. The only drama in the game is the ongoing availability of Sasser, Houston’s top scorer and the AAC Player of the Year. He suffered an apparent groin injury and exited at the 6:57 mark of the first half and did not return.
Landers Nolley II scored 14 points to lead fourth-seeded Cincinnati (21-12), which shot just 25.5 percent from the floor and missed 12 of its 28 free throws.
No. 8 Arizona 61, No. 2 UCLA 59
Azuolas Tubelis scored 19 points with 14 rebounds and Oumar Ballo added 13 points with eight rebounds as the Wildcats won their second consecutive Pac-12 Conference tournament title with a victory over the Bruins at Las Vegas.
Courtney Ramey scored just three points for the Wildcats (28-6), but it was a 3-pointer with 18 seconds remaining to put Arizona on top for good.
Amari Bailey scored 19 points for UCLA (29-5) and Tyger Campbell added 16 as the Bruins failed to follow a Pac-12 regular-season title with the conference tournament championship. The Bruins have not won the Pac-12 tournament title since 2014.
No. 7 Texas 76, No. 3 Kansas 56
Dylan Disu scored 18 points on 7-of-9 shooting and the Longhorns rolled over the Jayhawks to win the Big 12 tournament championship at Kansas City, Mo.
Marcus Carr and Sir’Jabari Rice scored 17 points apiece as the second-seeded Longhorns (26-8) won the tournament title for the second time in three seasons.
Jalen Wilson scored 24 points for top-seeded Kansas (27-7), which could be hurt by the large margin of defeat in its quest to land the No. 1 overall seed in the upcoming NCAA Tournament. Joseph Yesufu added 11 points for the Jayhawks.
No. 4 Alabama 72, No. 25 Missouri 61
Brandon Miller collected 20 points and 12 rebounds to lift the Crimson Tide over the Tigers in a Southeastern Conference tournament semifinal in Nashville, Tenn.
Noah Clowney added 19 points and Charles Bediako 10 as top-seeded Alabama (28-5) advanced to the title game on Sunday. The Tide will face second-seeded Texas A&M (25-8), which beat sixth-seeded Vanderbilt 87-75 in the other semifinal Saturday.
D’Moi Hodge recorded 21 points and nine rebounds, DeAndre Gholston scored 17 and Noah Carter had 10 to lead the fourth-seeded Tigers (24-9). Missouri made its deepest run in the tournament since joining the SEC for the 2012-13 season.
No. 5 Purdue 80, Ohio State 66
Zach Edey scored 32 points and grabbed 14 rebounds to lead the Boilermakers to a victory over the Buckeyes in a Big Ten tournament semifinal in Chicago.
The Boilermakers are trying to win their first conference tournament title since 2009. If Purdue wins, it would be the first time it wins both the Big Ten tournament and regular season titles in the same season.
No. 13 seed Ohio State (16-19) — a team which at one point lost nine consecutive games and 14 in a 15-game stretch — saw its remarkable run in the conference tournament end. Ohio State became the lowest seed to ever advance to the Big Ten semifinals.
No. 21 Duke 59, No. 13 Virginia 49
Jeremy Roach scored 11 of his 23 points in the final five minutes and Kyle Filipowski scored 20 points as the Blue Devils fended off the Cavaliers in the title game in Greensboro, N.C.
Duke (26-8) scored the game’s last six points to win its first ACC tournament since 2019 and gave coach Jon Scheyer a championship in his first season. A first-year coach hadn’t won the tournament since North Carolina’s Bill Guthridge in 1998.
Virginia (25-7), the regular-season co-champion, didn’t have a player reach a double-figure point total until about three minutes to play. Reece Beekman had 12 points and Isaac McKneely finished with 10 points.
No. 18 Texas A&M 87, Vanderbilt 75
The Aggies advanced to the SEC tournament championship game for the second straight year with a victory over the sixth-seeded Commodores in the semifinals in Nashville, Tenn.
Wade Taylor IV had 25 points and four assists for the second-seeded Aggies (25-8), who will play No. 4 and top-seeded Alabama (28-5) for their first tournament title since joining the league prior to the 2012-2013 season. Vanderbilt (20-14), which saw a five-game winning streak end, was led by Jordan Wright’s 17 points, seven rebounds and six assists. Tyrin Lawrence had a team-best 18 points.
Texas A&M dominated from the outset, jumping out to a 14-point lead in less than eight minutes before taking a 49-25 halftime advantage. The Commodores didn’t get closer than 11 the rest of the way.
Penn State 77, No. 19 Indiana 73
Jalen Pickett had 28 points and eight rebounds as the Nittany Lions advanced to the Big Ten championship game by holding off the Hoosiers in Chicago.
The 10th-seeded Nittany Lions, who have never won the tournament since its inception in 1998, will face top seed Purdue on Sunday afternoon. Penn State’s only previous appearance in the title game came in 2011, when it lost to Ohio State.
Seth Lundy supplied 16 points for Penn State (22-12), while Andrew Funk contributed nine points. Kebba Njie chipped in six points and nine rebounds. Trayce Jackson-Davis led Indiana (22-11), the tournament’s No. 3 seed, with 24 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists.
No. 20 San Diego State 62, Utah State 57
Matt Bradley scored 16 points and Jaedon LeDee had 13 off the bench to lead the Aztecs to a win over the Aggies in the championship game of the Mountain West tournament in Las Vegas.
The top-seeded Aztecs (27-6) won the event for the third time in six years under coach Brian Dutcher to advance to the NCAA Tournament.
Steven Ashworth scored 13 points and Trevin Dorius had 12 for third-seeded Utah State (26-8), which entered the game shooting 40 percent from 3-point range but shot only 16.7 percent from beyond the arc on Saturday.
–Field Level Media
