Marquette beats West Virginia, moves on to Big East quarterfinals

• Marquette University

Marquette University

Talk about it

NEW YORK - The Marquette University men’s basketball team made the quarter-finals of the Big East Tournament by upsetting 20th-ranked West Virginia last night, 67-61 in New York. The Golden Eagles appear to have sealed their sixth straight NCAA Tournament berth.

They’ll play third-seeded and 14th-ranked Louisville tonight in the conference quarterfinals. West Virginia, the sixth-seed in the Big East, made 7-of-11 from three-point range to go take a seven-point lead over Marquette at the half. But the 11th-seeded Eagles displayed a stifling defense for most of the second half. And they took the lead for good with 4:44 left with the first of two big three-pointers by Darius Johnson-Odom. The Mountaineers were within three with a half-minute to go. But Marquette made three-of-four free throws down the stretch to nail down its victory.

Junior Cadougan led Marquette with 15 points and five assists. Kevin Jones had 15 points for West Virginia, the defending Big East Tournament champions who made the NCAA Final Four a year ago. The Mountaineers fell to 20-11. Marquette improved to 20-13 – and it’s the only one of the eight conference finalists which is not in the AP Top-25.

Tags: wisconsin sports, proam, basketball, marquette