Villanova faces Butler in Big East semis

Villanova had little trouble dispatching seventh-seeded Marquette 94-70 in the quarterfinal round of the Big East tournament.

The next step looks to be much more challenging.

The second-seeded Wildcats (28-4) will face No. 6 seed Butler (20-12) in the semifinals Friday night at Madison Square Garden.

It will be the 20th time in program history that the Wildcats reached the semifinals of the Big East tournament.

Villanova has won nine of its last 10 Big East tournament games with the lone loss coming to Seton Hall in the championship game of the 2016 event.

Butler won its first Big East tournament game in five tries thanks to a tip-in by Tyler Wideman with 3.6 seconds remaining to prevail 75-74 against Seton Hall. Wideman grabbed an offensive rebound off a miss by Kamar Baldwin for the winning basket.

Baldwin led the way with 32 points, Kelan Martin added 17 while Wideman and Sean McDermott each had 10.

"I'm so proud of our guys, the way they battled," Butler head coach LaVall Jordan told FS1 in a postgame interview. "Those guys beat us twice in the regular season."

Wideman knocked down all four of his shots with the last one sending the Bulldogs to the semifinals.

"It's poetic justice that our senior tips it in," Jordan said. "Kamar had a great look at the rim. I'm glad Tyler had the tip-in."

Butler and Villanova split a pair of regular-season matchups with the home team winning each time. The Bulldogs won 101-93 on Dec. 30 while the Wildcats were victorious, 86-75, Feb. 10 at the Wells Fargo Center.

Junior forward Mikal Bridges was outstanding against Marquette with 25 points, eight rebounds and four assists while shooting 7 of 12 from the field and 4 of 7 from beyond the 3-point arc.

The balanced Wildcats also received 21 points from National Player of the Year candidate Jalen Brunson with 21 points. Phil Booth scored 15 points, Eric Paschall added 13 and freshman Omari Spellman had nine points with three clutch 3-pointers in the second half.

"Jalen and Mikal are our leaders," Villanova head coach Jay Wright told reporters. "They know, to start the game, they've got to get us going. And then after that with those two, their experience allows them to just read how the defense is playing them. So they stay aggressive. Then they start finding their teammates and the team adjusts and starts taking them away and then they find their teammates."

Villanova was 11 of 17 from 3-point territory in the second half on its way to another conference tournament victory.

"After the game, everyone was talking about shooting," Brunson told reporters. "Now that I look back at it, yeah, we were really shooting well, but that was the last thing on my mind. We really were just trying to focus on defending and rebounding and playing for each other."

The win was Wright's 414th at Villanova, breaking the previous mark held by Alexander Severance from 1936-61.

Wright has already won a national championship in 2016. A second one is certainly possible.

But he has always been uncomfortable discussing personal accolades.

"I'm mostly proud to be the coach of Villanova, honestly," Wright said. "The wins and everything don't matter. I know I'll look back on it later."

Villanova has won at least 28 games for the seventh time since the 2005-06 season.