NEW YORK—Hard to believe Connecticut had gone six years since its last victory at the Big East tournament.Kemba Walker and the Huskies stopped that skid against overmatched DePaul.The star guard scored 26 points and UConn won a Big East tournament game for the first time since 2005, beating the Blue Demons 97-71 on Tuesday in the opener of a conference showcase loaded with NCAA contenders.Jeremy Lamb, playing on a sore knee, had 17 of his 19 points in the first half for the 21st-ranked Huskies (22-9), who got back on track after losing four of their final five regular-season games. No. 9 seed UConn advanced to play Wednesday against No. 22 Georgetown, the No. 8 seed at Madison Square Garden.The Huskies had lost six straight Big East tournament games since beating Georgetown in the 2005 quarterfinals, a surprising streak of futility for a school that has won two national championships and six Big East tourney titles under Calhoun, its Hall of Fame coach.The slide included that classic, six-overtime loss in the 2009 quarterfinals to Syracuse, which handed the Huskies four of those six consecutive defeats.Alex Oriakhi, left out of the starting lineup following a recent slump, had 13 points and 19 rebounds for UConn, which held a 46-22 edge on the glass against the undersized Blue Demons.The Big East is expected to set a record by sending at least 10 of its 16 members, including Connecticut, to the NCAA tournament, expanded this year from 65 to 68 teams. The number could reach 11 if Marquette gets off the bubble and into the field.The 16th-seeded Blue Demons (7-24) twice cut the deficit to seven midway through the second half, but Walker and his young teammates held off DePaul and won going away.Walker, a first-team all-Big East selection and a contender for national player of the year, scored 19 points in the second half and left to a warm hand with 2:26 remaining. He also had seven rebounds and five assists.Brandon Young scored 20 points to lead the Blue Demons, who lost their last six games following their lone conference win of the season at Providence on Feb. 17.DePaul closed its first campaign under Purnell with 18 losses in 19 games against Big East opponents and heads home after a brief postseason trip to Manhattan.

NEW YORK—Darius Johnson-Odom scored 23 points and Jimmy Butler added 19 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists to lead Marquette to an 87-66 victory against Providence on Tuesday night in the opening round of the Big East tournament.The 11th-seeded Golden Eagles (19-13), considered by many to be the last of the 11 teams from the Big East with a chance at making the NCAA tournament’s field of 68, will play seventh-seeded and 20th-ranked West Virginia (20-10) in the second round on Wednesday night.Vincent Council had 21 points and seven assists for the Friars (15-17) and Marshon Brooks, whose 24.8 average led the conference in scoring and is second in the nation, finished with 20 points. They both were 7 of 19 from the field but Council was 6 of 9 on 3s and Brooks was 3 of 7. Marquette scored the first 17 points of the game, making six of its first eight shots from the field including all five 3-point attempts.Providence missed its first 11 shots from the field and it wasn’t close misses. Brooks finally scored on a drive 5:31 into the game to make it 17-2.Two free throws by Devonte Gardner gave Marquette its biggest lead of the half, 41-17 with 3:28 to go.The only thing that made the halftime score close to respectable was Council’s 9-1 run over the final 1:25, all