NEW YORK (AP) — Donovan Clingan scored 22 points and Jaylin Stewart gave No. 2 UConn an unexpected boost with three second-half 3-pointers during a decisive run as the top-seeded Huskies beat No. 10 Marquette 73-57 on Saturday night to win the Big East Tournament for the first time since rejoining the league four years ago.
The Huskies’ eighth Big East Tournament title matched Georgetown for the most in conference history and was their first since 2011, when Kemba Walker led UConn to five wins in five days — and then a national title.
Stewart, a freshman who was averaging 2.4 points off the bench, scored nine in about a four-minute span as UConn (31-3) pulled away from a game Marquette team playing without injured star Tyler Kolek (oblique) for a sixth straight game.
Kam Jones led the third-seeded Golden Eagles (25-9), the defending tournament champions, with 13 points, eight rebounds and four assists.
UConn improved to 8-3 in Big East finals.
NO. 7 IOWA STATE 69, NO. 1 HOUSTON 41
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Keshon Gilbert wrapped up a spectacular Big 12 Tournament for Iowa State with 16 points, and the seventh-ranked Cyclones blitzed No. 1 Houston to begin the second half, allowing them to roll to a win and their sixth championship in six appearances in the title game.
Milan Momcilovic had 18 points and Hason Ward scored 13 for the Cyclones (27-7), who have beaten five different programs to raise the trophy, including Oklahoma, which at the time was led by current Cougars coach Kelvin Sampson.
He probably felt even worse than he did in 2000. Iowa State turned a 30-23 lead at halftime into the kind of blowout Sampson has rarely experienced with an 18-3 run to start the second half. That gave the thousands of Cyclones fans that paint Kansas City red and yellow every March plenty of reasons to stand on their feet and roar their approval.
Doesn’t seem to matter who is coaching them, either. T.J. Otzelberger is the fourth to win the tournament for Iowa State.
Jamal Shead had 10 points on 3-for-17 shooting for Houston (30-4), which was outscored 39-18 in the second half. L.J. Cryer was held to seven points and Emanuel Sharp to five as the Cougars shot 4 of 22 from the 3-point arc and 15 of 56 from the field.
WISCONSIN 76, NO. 3 PURDUE 75, OT
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Max Klesmit made a runner in the lane with 4.8 seconds to play in overtime and Wisconsin beat Big Ten Tournament top-seed No. 3 Purdue for a spot in the conference championship game.
Klesmit’s clutch shot followed his teammate Chucky Hepburn’s in regulation, when Hepburn made a layup as time expired to force overtime.
Hepburn finished with 22 points. AJ Storr had 20 points and Klesmit had 12 points, five assists and five rebounds for fifth-seeded Wisconsin (22-12).
Zach Edey led No. 3 Purdue (29-4) with 28 points and 11 rebounds. Edey surpassed Rick Mount’s school record of 2,323 career points (1967-1970) with about seven minutes remaining in the second half. He finished the game with 2,339 career points.
The reigning Big Ten player of the year was limited by foul trouble in the first half and missed a crucial free throw late in regulation, but he hit eight straight free throws in overtime and finished 14 for 19 from the line.
The Boilermakers were trying to match Michigan State (1999, 2000) as the only Big Ten program to win both the outright regular season title and the conference tournament in consecutive years.
Wisconsin will play Sunday in the conference championship against Illinois.
NC STATE 84, NO. 4 NORTH CAROLINA 76
WASHINGTON (AP) — DJ Horne scored 29 points, forward DJ Burns Jr. had 20, including the first 3-pointer of his college career, and North Carolina State is returning to the NCAA Tournament after beating fourth-ranked North Carolina in the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament title game..
Led by the two DJs, 10th-seeded N.C. State (22-14) capped an improbable run, knocking off the Tar Heels (27-7) who have looked like a national championship contender for much of the season. Horne starred while playing 32 minutes through foul trouble, going shot for shot with UNC’s unanimous ACC player of the year RJ Davis, who was spectacular with 30 points.
The Wolfpack, who came in on a four-game skid, became the first team to win five games in the ACC Tournament. They were the only team since it became a five-day event to even reach the final after playing on Tuesday, beating Louisville, Syracuse, Duke and Virginia and then UNC as a double-digit underdog.
NO. 12 AUBURN 73, MISSISSIPPI STATE 66
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Dylan Cardwell scored his only points on consecutive dunks in the final minutes as No. 12 Auburn held off ninth-seeded Mississippi State to reach the Southeastern Conference Tournament championship game.
With the SEC’s top three seeds losing their openers Friday for the first time in this tournament since 1983, that left a wide-open path for Auburn (26-7) to win the event for the first time since 2019. The Tigers are in the title game for the fifth time in program history.
They will play Florida as they try to win Auburn’s third title.
Chad Baker-Mazara led five Tigers in double figures with 14 points. Denver Jones and Jaylin Williams each added 13. Johni Broome and Tre Donaldson had 10 apiece.
Josh Hubbard scored 17 of his 20 points in the second half, trying to rally Mississippi State (21-13). The Bulldogs go home shy of the championship game continuing a drought that started after their last berth in 2010.
D.J. Jeffries had 12 points for Mississippi State, and Tolu Smith II had 10.
NO. 13 ILLINOIS 98, NEBRASKA 87
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Terrence Shannon Jr. scored a career-high 40 points for a Big Ten Tournament record to lead a second-half surge by 13th-ranked Illinois in a victory over Nebraska in the semifinals.
Marcus Domask added 16 points, eight assists and seven rebounds and Luke Goode made four 3-pointers for the Illini (25-8), who fell behind by 15 points early in the second half before seizing control to move to the conference championship game against Wisconsin on Sunday.
Brice Williams had 23 points, Keisei Tominaga added 18 points and Rienk Mast scored 15 for the Huskers (23-10), who hit the wall hard down the stretch in their first appearance in the Big Ten semifinals in 13 seasons in the league.
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