Peyton Siva is voted Big East tournament MVP
Tournament MVP Peyton Siva, a graduate of Franklin High School in Seattle, helped Louisville beat Cincinnati 50-44 in the Big East Conference tournament final at Madison Square Garden in New York.
NEW YORK — Louisville guard Peyton Siva, a graduate of Franklin High School in Seattle, was voted most valuable player of the Big East Conference tournament after helping the Cardinals beat Cincinnati 50-44 in Saturday’s title game at Madison Square Garden.
Siva, a junior, had 10 points, four rebounds and five assists in the final.
In four tournament games, he averaged 13.8 points, 6.3 rebounds and 5.8 assists.
“My teammates are really the people who deserve this trophy,” Siva said of the MVP award as the nets were being cut down.
Louisville coach Rick Pitino is 42-13 in conference tournaments and has won 10 titles. The Cardinals earned an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
“Nobody really expected us to even get this far,” Siva said. “It just feels good because a lot of people wrote us off. Coach P had a lot of faith in me. I’m very thankful for that. Everybody really showed a lot of heart today.”
It was the lowest-scoring Big East title game and the first time in the 34 years the tournament has been held that at least one of the original seven members of the conference wasn’t in the final.
“The problem with this game is, Cincinnati and Louisville know each other too well,” Pitino said. “The coaches know each other, they’ve worked together. So you can’t run one play without the coaches on the other side yelling it out.
“So defense has to win it.”
Chris Smith led the Cardinals (26-9) with 15 points.
Cashmere Wright scored 16 points for the Bearcats (24-10).
Louisville leads the all-time series 54-41, and this was the third different conference tournament in which the teams have met.
Big 12
No. 5 Missouri 90,
No. 12 Baylor 75
Kim English capped a phenomenal conference tournament with 19 points, Phil Pressey added 15 points and eight assists and the Tigers (30-4) beat the Bears (27-7) to win their second conference-tournament championship in four years.
English wound up 29 of 40 from the field in a virtuoso performance in Kansas City, Mo., and was named the tournament’s most valuable player.
Missouri is headed to the Southeastern Conference later this year.
Perry Jones III led Baylor with 16 points and 11 rebounds.
Atlantic Coast
No. 4 North Carolina 69,
North Carolina St. 67
Kendall Marshall banked in a shot with 10.2 seconds left and the Tar Heels (29-4) edged the Wolfpack (22-12) in a rugged ACC semifinal game in Atlanta.
North Carolina advanced to play No. 17 Florida State in Sunday’s final.
Alex Johnson went flying on Marshall’s drive, but there was no whistle from the officials. The Wolfpack got one more crack with 1.2 seconds left and Richard Howell thought he was fouled trying to get off a shot. A frustrated Howell had to be pulled away from going after an official by a couple of teammates after the play.
No. 17 Florida St. 62,
No. 6 Duke 59
The Seminoles (23-9) lost a 10-point lead in the second half before recovering to beat the Blue Devils (27-6) and reach the second ACC tournament-championship game in the program’s history.
Michael Snaer scored 16 points, including a three-pointer with 3:27 remaining that gave the Seminoles the lead for good. But Florida State had to survive some last-minute scares — including missed three-point attempts by Duke’s Austin Rivers and Seth Curry in the final six seconds.
Florida State ended a run of three straight ACC tournament championships for Duke.
Rivers led the Blue Devils with 19 points and Curry added 13.
Southeastern
No. 1 Kentucky 74,
No. 22 Florida 71
Anthony Davis had 15 points and 12 rebounds to help the Wildcats (32-1) get past the Gators (23-10) in an SEC semifinal game in New Orleans.
Terrence Jones added 15 points and nine rebounds for Kentucky, which will play Vanderbilt in Sunday’s title game.
Vanderbilt beat Mississippi 65-53 in the other semifinal.
Big Ten
No. 7 Ohio St. 77,
No. 10 Michigan 55
Jared Sullinger scored 24 points and Deshaun Thomas added 22 points to help the Buckeyes (27-6) rout the Wolverines (24-9) in Indianapolis.
Ohio State will play Michigan State in Sunday’s title game.
The Buckeyes shot 49 percent from the field to earn a chance at their third straight Big Ten tournament championship. Michigan shot 31 percent and was 4 for 25 (16 percent) on three-pointers.
Tim Hardaway Jr. led Michigan with 13 points, but made a mere 3 of 10 shots.
Wolverines coach John Beilein was impressed by Ohio State.
“I’ve seen some really good teams that have played some really good games,” he said. “That’s as good of a game as I’ve ever seen a college team play.”
No. 8 Michigan St. 65,
No. 14 Wisconsin 52
Draymond Green scored 14 points and had 16 rebounds to lead the Spartans (26-7) past the Badgers (24-9).
Michigan State is playing for the Big Ten tournament title for the first time since 2000.
Wisconsin’s Jordan Taylor scored 19 points.
Mountain West
New Mexico 68,
No. 18 San Diego St. 59
Tony Snell and Kendall Williams scored 14 points each to help the Lobos (27-6) beat the Aztecs (26-7) in the final in Las Vegas.
Big West
Long Beach St. 77,
UC Santa Barbara 64
Casper Ware scored 33 points as the 49ers (25-8) defeated the Gauchos (20-10) in the title game in Anaheim, Calif.
UCSB has lost four of its last 17 games, with three of those defeats against Long Beach State.