No. 6 Marquette routs Xavier to win 1st Big East men’s title
NEW YORK – The final night of the Big East Tournament never sounded like this before.
Tyler Kolek and No. 6 Marquette raced out to a hefty lead and didn’t look back, beating No. 15 Xavier 65-51 on Saturday to win its first Big East championship after 18 seasons in the conference.
As the clock wound down on a dominant performance by a storied program that had been longing for an elusive title, chants of “We are, Mar-quette!” echoed through Madison Square Garden.
“Marquette is a special place that has had a special basketball program for a long, long time,” coach Shaka Smart said as he accepted the trophy. “We’re so proud to bring a championship back to Milwaukee.”
Kolek, the Big East Player of the Year, had 20 points and eight rebounds as the top-seeded Golden Eagles (28-6) dominated a Big East final that brought a Midwestern flavor to Midtown Manhattan.
Smart’s surprising team will head into the NCAA Tournament with a ninegame winning streak. 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 second-seeded 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.
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 don’t know how they feel, but their defense has really improved. It felt like there were six players out there for them.”
Smart described his team’s defense as “violent.”
“Coming up here to New York, we have really played, for the most part, sticky, tough defense,” he said.
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.
“It was huge,” Smart said. “And our guys played with real force to start the game.”
During a particularly splendid 2 1/2 minutes, Stevie Mitchell swished a corner 3, Kolek came off a screen to make another 3, Kam Jones got free for a reverse layup after a nifty hesitation move on the baseline and Kolek converted a layup off a giveand-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 not yet committed a turnover.
The Musketeers responded with a 14-5 run 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, the Golden Eagles were able to clear the bench in the final minute of the Big East championship game and their fans were finally able to make The Garden feel like home.
BIG PICTURE
Xavier: The Musketeers played what Miller called one of their best two-way games of the season in the semifinals Friday night against Creighton. Less than 24 hours later, they did almost nothing well. Xavier shot 34% from the field, forced only four turnovers and was held 12 points under its previous season low. The Musketeers fell to 0-2 in Big East championship games.
Marquette: Smart, who took VCU to a Final Four but never could find that consistent winning formula at Texas, guided a team picked to finish ninth in the Big East in the preseason coaches’ poll to maybe its best season since Dwyane Wade led Marquette to a Final Four in 2003. The Golden Eagles tied a school record for victories set in 1970-71.
UP NEXT
Xavier: Miller will have the Musketeers back in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2018.
Marquette: The Golden Eagles will be making their second straight trip to the NCAA Tournament and figure to earn perhaps a No. 2 seed.