Xavier advances; Trinity women in Elite 8

Souley Boum scored 23 points, Jack Nunge added 17 and No. 15 Xavier cruised into the Big East Tournament championship game with an 82-60 victory against No. 24 Creighton on Friday night in New York.

Coach Sean Miller's second-seeded Musketeers (25-8) faced top-seeded and sixth-ranked Marquette (27-6) on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden in a matchup of teams that were looking for their first Big East Tournament title.

Xavier has played in the final just once since joining the conference in 2013-14, losing to Villanova in 2015.

The Musketeers seemed to have the smallest contingent of fans at The Garden on semifinal night, but they practically had the place to themselves to celebrate as the clock wound down on a decisive victory.

Boum made a 3-pointer from the wing with 13:55 left to increase the lead to 18 and Creighton (21-12) couldn't get enough stops to make a run. Xavier shot 52% in the second half and 47% for the game.

Ryan Kalkbrenner led Creighton with 18 points on 7-for-7 shooting. The rest of the Bluejays went 14 for 49 from the field.

Trinity 63, Wisconsin-Whitewater 56: At Northampton, Mass., the Trinity women's basketball team moved another step closer to its first Final Four in impressive fashion.

Led by Emma Wax's 16 points and eight rebounds, the Bantams got on a roll in the final period and defeated Wisconsin-Whitewater, 63-56, at Smith College. Trinity advanced to an Elite Eight meeting on Saturday night against host Smith (29-1), a 68-65 winner over the University of Mary Washington in overtime in Friday's other Sweet 16 game.

The Bantams (25-5) trailed by a point heading into the final period but then the offense came to life, shooting 64 percent from the field and converting 8 of 11 free throws in outscoring Whitewater, 22-14.