Seton Hall beats No. 3 Villanova
Isaiah Whitehead scored 26 points, including the deciding three-point play with 18 seconds left, and Seton Hall won the Big East tournament for the first time in 23 years, beating No. 3 Villanova 69-67 on Saturday at Madison Square Garden.
The Wildcats (30-4) finally started hitting from three-point range in the second half and took their first lead since 3 minutes into the game when Kris Jenkins’ three gave them a 67-64 lead with 50 seconds to play.
A.J. Hammons had 27 points and 11 rebounds for the Boilermakers (26-7), who will play Sunday their first Big Ten Tournament title since 2009.
After Houston Kessler’s jumper got Georgia within one, Ulis scored five points while Murray made a layup during the critical run that pushed second-seeded Kentucky ahead to stay and into Sunday’s championship against No. 17 Texas A&M. Yante Maten had 20 points, J.J. Frazier 19 and Kenny Gaines 16 for sixth-seeded Georgia (19-13), which led most of the game before faltering down the stretch.
Tonny Trocha-Morales scored 13 points as the Aggies (26-7) reached their first conference tournament championship game since 1994.
At Las Vegas, freshman Brooke Salas scored 20, Sasha Weber added 16 points and top-seeded New Mexico State cruised to an 80-53 victory over Texas Rio Grande Valley in the WAC tournament championship game to advance to the NCAA Tournament for a second consecutive season. ...
At Birmingham, Ala., Reggie Upshaw made two free throws with 2.9 seconds left to lift Middle Tennessee to a 55-53 victory over Old Dominion in the Conference USA tournament championship game. ...
At Norfolk, Va., Reginald Johnson Jr. had 21 points and eight assists and top-seeded Hampton beat South Carolina State 81-69 to win its second consecutive Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference tournament title.