Marquette knocks off Xavier in final

Tyler Kolek and No. 6 Marquette raced out to a hefty lead and never looked back, beating No. 15 Xavier 65- 51 on Saturday night to win the Big East Tournament for the first time.

Kolek, the Big East Player of the Year, had 20 points and eight rebounds as the topseeded Golden Eagles ( 28- 6) dominated a Big East final that brought a Midwestern flavor to Madison Square Garden.

Coach Shaka Smart’s surprising team will head into the NCAA Tournament with a ninegame winning streak after Marquette’s first appearance in the Big East championship game resulted in one of its best performances of a scintillating season.

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

Joplin finished with 12 points. Kolek was selected the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player.

Adam Kunkel scored 12 points to lead the Musketeers, who had a five- game winning streak snapped.

This was the first Big East title game since the conference dropped football in 2013 to not feature any of its longstanding Northeast members.

Still, the Milwaukee school ( Marquette, which joined in 2005) and the Cincinnati school ( Xavier, which joined in 2013) filled The Garden for the first 1 vs. 2 seed Big East Tournament final in 19 years.

It looked more like a 1- 16 NCAA Tournament game for a while. Marquette jumped out to a 21- 4 lead, and never relented.

Marquette’s only previous league tournament title was as a member of Conference USA in 1997.