Tuesday’s home teams – Villanova and Marquette – built double-digit leads in the second half of their games, then had to survive comeback attempts to nail down conference wins.
In a battle of ranked teams, Villanova, ninth in the AP poll, defeated No. 13 Butler 76-61 at Finneran Pavilion. The Wildcats led 43-26 in the second half before the Bulldogs cut the deficit to 49-45 midway through the period. Villanova (15-3, 5-1 BIG EAST) pulled away with the help of a balanced scoring attack. Jermaine Samuels paced five players in double figures with 20 points. Kamar Baldwin had a game-high 21 points for the Bulldogs (15-4, 3-3).