St. John's was not satisfied with winning solely the Big East regular-season crown, so the Johnnies went out and put the finishing touches on their first Big East Tournament title since 2000. Thanks to 27 points from RJ Luis and another 20 from Zuby Ejiofor, St. John's ran away from Creighton, 82-66, in front of a raucous Madison Square Garden crowd.
Creighton center Ryan Kalbrenner scored a team-high 15 points in the final Big East game of his illustrious career. But the Bluejays had no answer for the Johnnies in a buzzsaw-like second half. It was a similar script that Butler and Marquette ran into in the quarterfinals and semifinals, respectively.
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St. John's improved to a sizzling 30-4. Up next? Selection Sunday.
Below are the entire results from the Big East Tournament.
Location: Madison Square Garden -- New York
Live stream: fuboTV (Try for free) | Follow live: CBS Sports App
All times Eastern; some start times approximated
Championship — Saturday, March 15
Game 10: No. 1 St. John's 82, No. 2 Creighton 66 | 6:30 p.m. on Fox | Recap
Semifinals — Friday, March 14
Game 8: No. 1 St. John's 79, No. 4 Marquette 63 | Recap
Game 9: No. 2 Creighton 71, No. 3 UConn 62 | Recap
Quarterfinals — Thursday, March 13
Game 4: No. 1 St. John's 78, No. 9 Butler 57 | Recap
Game 5: No. 5 Marquette 89, No. 4 Xavier 87 | Recap
Game 6: No. 2 Creighton 85, No. 10 DePaul 81 | FS1 | Recap
Game 7: No. 3 UConn 73, No. 6 Villanova 56 | FS1 | Recap
First round -- Wednesday, March 12
Game 1: No. 9 Butler 75, No. 8 Providence 69 | Recap
Game 2: No. 10 DePaul 71, No. 7 Georgetown 67 | Recap
Game 3: No. 6 Villanova 67 vs. No. 11 Seton Hall 55 | Recap
Follow below for updates, analysis and highlights throughout the event.
No. 1 St. John's 82, No. 2 Creighton 66
St. John's picked a pretty spiffy time to play its best offensive half of the season. The Johnnies shot an absurd 72% from the field in the second half to run away from Creighton, 82-66, in Saturday's Big East Tournament championship tilt. St. John's closed the game splashing 17 of its final 19 shots.
Give the rubber match to Creighton. The Bluejays outlasted UConn 71-62 to earn a spot in the Big East Tournament championship game. A late-game skirmish couldn't dampen one heckuva showing from two role players who could have a huge say on Creighton's March Madness stay. Jasen Green delivered 19 points to help build a 17-point, second-half lead, and Jamiya Neal also chipped in 19, including delivering the knockout blow to Dan Hurley's crew after UConn reeled off a massive 16-2 run to trim the deficit to three with less than seven minutes to go.
Solo Ball and Liam McNeeley scored 13 points apiece to lead UConn. The defending champions will enter Selection Sunday without any Big East hardware.
Zuby Ejiofor erupted for 33 points and nine rebounds to spark St. John's to a dominant 79-63 win over Marquette. It's the third time this season that the Johnnies have had Marquette's number, and Rick Pitino's bunch earned a spot in Saturday's Big East Tournament championship game.
Kadary Richmond flirted with a triple-double and settled for a 12-point, 10-rebound, six-dimes showing.
Marquette was led by Kam Jones who scored 24 points, including a flurry of 15 in the first half. But St. John's scored a whopping 44 points in the paint and coasted to its 29th victory of the season.
When UConn needed to play its best defense of the season, it delivered 20 minutes of fury. UConn outscored Villanova 42-20 in the second half to advance to Friday's semifinal dual against second-seeded Creighton. Alex Karaban connected on four 3-pointers and scored 15 of his team-high 18 in the second half.
UConn held Villanova star Eric Dixon, who entered the night leading the country in scoring, to just eight points on 2 of 15 shooting. Wooga Poplar had 25 points for Villanova, but UConn turned his water off in a second-half romp.
For Villanova, all eyes turn to the status of embattled head coach Kyle Neptune, who has to live with the reality that Villanova will not go dancing … again.
No. 2 Creighton 85, No. 10 DePaul 81, double overtime
DePaul held an 11-point lead and was less than two minutes away from notching the biggest victory of the Chris Holtmann era. But tournament time has a way of bringing out the magic. Fedor Zugic hit two enormous 3-pointers, and Steven Ashworth elicited a classic, old-school Gus Johnson call with a clutch game-tying 3-pointer to force overtime.
Despite Layden Blocker's heroics at the end of the first overtime, Creighton would not be denied. Ryan Kalkbrenner finished with 32 points, nine rebounds, two assists and five blocks. He's the first high-major player with at least 30 points and five blocks in a conference tournament game since Texas' Kevin Durant in 2007.
DePaul, who has never made the Big East Tournament semifinals in program history, is 20 minutes away from notching arguably the program's biggest win in well over a decade. DePaul eviscerated Creighton's normally rock-solid halfcourt defense to the tune of 1.24 points per possession in the first half. Maybe most importantly, it kept Bluejays star guard Steven Ashworth scoreless.
March is March-ing ...
The best initial pairing of the Big East Tournament more than lived up to the hype. Marquette erased a double-digit, second-half deficit to hand Xavier a crippling 89-87 loss. Kam Jones was brilliant, pouring in 28 points, but it was a David Joplin 3-pointer in the closing minute that proved to be the nail in the coffin.
Xavier guard Ryan Conwell scored an insane 38 points on 18 shots. He splashed seven 3-pointers but to no avail. Xavier will have to sweat out Selection Sunday, while Marquette advances to Friday's semifinal duel with top-seeded St. John's.
Big East Player of the Year RJ Luis poured in 20 points and collected seven rebounds to lead St. John's to a stress-free, 78-57 win over Butler in the Big East Tournament quarterfinals. Aaron Scott splashed three triples on his way to 15 points. Kadary Richmond flirted with a triple double with 15 points, nine assists and eight rebounds.
Butler finishes the season 14-19 overall. Patrick McCaffery had 16 points in a losing effort.
Eric Dixon -- the leading scorer in all of the nation -- did not score a single point in the first half, but foul trouble and Shaheen Holloway's well-schooled defense could not hold him down for long. Dixon erupted for 19 points in the final 20 minutes to steer Villanova to a 67-55 victory over Seton Hall. Dixon moved past Scottie Reynolds into second place in Villanova's all-time scoring list. His trusty running mate Wooga Poplar chipped in 13 points to help Villanova build a 35-17 halftime lead without its All-American.
Seton Hall won 25 games last year. It finishes 2025 with ... 25 losses.
DePaul made history in its 71-67 win over Georgetown to the Big East Tournament, beating a conference foe three times in a season for the first time since joining the league in 2006. Big man NJ Benson was tremendous, pouring in 18 points in 18 minutes. Arkansas transfer Layden Blocker splashed four 3-pointers and finished with 16 points. It's just the second Big East Tournament victory for DePaul in the last four years. Chris Holtmann's club will get a crack at No. 2 seed Creighton in the quarterfinals.
It's a disappointing end to a Georgetown campaign that showed some semblance of progress but evaporated down the stretch after the season-ending injury to potential first-round pick Thomas Sorber. Micah Peavy put a bow on his tremendous, lone season at Georgetown with a 26-point, seven-rebound, three-assist showing. But the Hoyas shot just 5-for-20 from downtown and lost the 3-point battle by a dozen.
Pierre Brooks was none too pleased that he didn't make it onto any of the All-Big East teams, and he let Providence have it in Butler's 75-69 opening-round victory with a game-high 25 points. Butler held Providence at arm's length for the final 32-plus minutes of regulation to advance to Thursday's quarterfinal clash against top-seeded St. John's.
Providence finishes the season 12-20 overall, and Kim English faces a huge offseason. Can he get Bryce Hopkins back for another year? Big man Oswin Erhunmwunse looks like a keeper, but the rest of this roster could look drastically different in two months.
Providence and Butler open the Big East Tournament in similar spots. Butler finished 6-14 in Big East play and did not beat one of the Big Five: St. John's, Creighton, Marquette, Xavier or UConn. Providence is in the same boat. The Friars are a woeful 1-9 since Feb. 1. A massive offseason could be 40 minutes away for Kim English.
Villanova-Seton Hall and Georgetown-DePaul are the other two games slated to tip off on Wednesday. Unfortunately, star Hoyas center Thomas Sorber is done for the season, but Micah Peavy has been terrific down the stretch. He torched DePaul for 29 points, 10 rebounds and three dimes on Saturday, but the Demon Deacons hummed to the tune of 1.22 points per possession in the 83-77 victory. What will the rematch –– four days later, I might add –– have in store?
Villanova may look like the clear-cut sleeper in this tournament, but it better not look past Seton Hall, which is well-schooled and highly physical. Eric Dixon dropped a 25-piece and a 32-burger on Seton Hall in the two regular-season matchups, but Shaheen Holloway did a nice job of turning the water off on Villanova's supporting cast. That might be the recipe for the Pirates to pull an upset.
