NEW YORK—Pat Connaughton scored 18 points on six 3-pointers and Jack Cooley had two big offensive rebounds in Notre Dame’s game-changing run as the 24th-ranked Fighting Irish beat No. 12 Marquette73-65 on Thursday night to reach the Big East tournament semifinals for the fourth straight year.Unfortunately for the Irish (25-8) the road has ended there each time – the last two times against No. 4 Louisville, who they will face in Friday night’s semifinals at Madison Square Garden. The second-seeded Cardinals, the tournament’s defending champions, advanced with a 74-55 win over Villanova.The teams had quite a meeting in the regular season with Notre Dame prevailing 104-101 in a five-overtime epic.This will be Notre Dame’s last chance to win the Big East tournament since it is leaving for the Atlantic Coast Conference next season and the Irish will try to do it in the fluorescent green uniforms they unveiled this week.Jamil Wilson had 16 points and Junior Cadougan added 14 for the third-seeded Golden Eagles (23-8), who shared the regular season title with Louisville and top-seeded Georgetown.The second half was one of lead changes and more lead changes. There were 13 in all and the last one came at 52-50 when Notre Dame’s Garrick Sherman converted his own miss with 6:32 to play.Those were the first points of Notre Dame’s 9-2 run. Cooley, an all-Big East selection, came up with two big offensive rebounds. The first he put back for a 54-50 lead and the last was one he fed Connaughton for a closing 3 that made it 59-52 with 3:30 left.Both times the 6-foot-9 Cooley, who had six points and six rebounds, pumped his fist and the second time he did it after raising himself from the court where he made the feed to Connaughton, who had a season-high 21 points and six 3s in the second-round win over Seton Hall.Sherman finished with 16 points and six rebounds.Notre Dame was able to offset a 42-31 rebound disadvantage by going 18 of 21 from the free throw line, led by Jerian Grant’s 8-for-9 effort among his 17 points. They forced Marquette into 16 turnovers while committing just seven themselves.Notre Dame led 29-25 at halftime after an opening 20 minutes that saw Marquette take a 17-4 lead only to see the Irish close it on a 25-8 run. Notre Dame started the game 2 for 17 from the field and Marquette closed it by making 3 of 17 from the field.

COLUMBUS—Patrick Kane set up Johnny Oduya’s goal late in the second period and then got the decisive score in the shootout, leading the Blackhawks to a 2-1 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday night.Corey Crawford stopped 29 shots to help the Blackhawks end a two-game losing streak after they set an NHL record by getting at least a point in each of their first 24 games.Jack Johnson scored the tying goal for Columbus 52 seconds after Oduya put the Blackhawks ahead, and Sergei Bobrovsky finished with 39 saves for the Blue Jackets, who set a franchise record by picking up a point in their ninth game in a row.Columbus, 5-0-4 in its point streak, has reached overtime in eight of the last nine games.Crawford and Bobrovsky traded sterling saves in a wild, end-to-end game.A crowd of 15,009, including a large percentage of Hawk fans, gave both teams a lengthy standing ovation after they swapped scoring chances in a blizzard of offensive moves – followed by outstanding work by the goalies.Columbus’ Artem Anisimov and Jonathan Toews each scored to open the shootout. After Crawford stopped Ryan Johansen, Kane moved in slowly on Bobrovsky and then lifted a backhander into the net. Crawford then stopped Derick Brassard’s attempt before he could even threaten.With the score tied at 1 in the third, the Blackhawks turned up the heat and dominated play in the opening minutes of the period.Bobrovsky made yet another big save when a ricochet ended up on the stick of Brandon Bollig just right of the cage. Bobrovsky gloved the shot from 12 feet away.Crawford then fought off a rising wrister by Anisimov to keep the score tied.The Blackhawks, 11-1-0 coming in when scoring first, took the lead at 16:45 of the second, thanks to a spectacular set-up pass from Kane. From near the end of the right blue line, he saucered a pass through two defenders all the way across the ice to the left circle to Oduya who was racing to the net. The defenseman settled the puck and then beat Bobrovsky high on the stick side.The goal broke a 39-game drought for Oduya. It was also Kane’s 400th career point (140 goals, 260 assists in 426 games).Not long after Sheldon Brookbank headed for the penalty box for holding, the Blue Jackets evened it with a power-play goal.Derick Brassard won a faceoff in the circle to Crawford’s right, with the puck sliding to the high slot. Johnson stepped into it for a hard one-timer for his fourth of the year.The Blue Jackets came in ranked 29th in the NHL with a man advantage.Bobrovsky had a goal-saving stop just 2 minutes in when he smothered a point-blank one-timer from Andrew Shaw.Crawford also made a glittering save in the scoreless first period when he gloved Fedor Tyutin’s blast from the left point despite congestion in front of the net.Columbus’ previous mark of eight games in a row with points (4-0-2-2) came from Jan. 15 to Feb. 6, 2009.

NOTES—The Blackhawks won the teams’ first three meetings, winning all three by a goal. … During the first break early in the game, the Blue Jackets’ move to the Eastern Conference (along with Detroit) was heralded on the center-ice monitors. … The Blackhawks began a four-game road trip that will also take them to Dallas, Colorado and Anaheim.

Shavon Shields scored 19 points, Brandon Ubel added 16 points and eight rebounds and Nebraska beat Purdue 57-55 Thursday in the first round of the Big Ten tournament.The Cornhuskers (15-17) hung on after Purdue’s Terone Johnson missed two shots in the closing seconds and will meet No. 10 Ohio State in the quarterfinals.They started the second half on a 9-0 run to turn a two-point lead into a 39-28 advantage and withstood a late push by the Boilermakers (15-17) to come away with a surprising victory.It was 54-53 after Purdue’s D.J. Byrd made a 3-pointer with 40 seconds left. Nebraska’s Ray Gallegos then made the first free throw and missed the second, but the Cornhuskers recovered the ball.Ubel then hit the second foul shot after missing the first to make it 56-53 with 28.6 seconds left. Byrd put back a missed 3 by Ronnie Johnson to pull Purdue within one with 13 seconds left.Gallegos then made 1 of 2 free throws to make it a two-point game. Purdue had one last chance but Johnson missed two shots in the lane and Gallegos grabbed the rebound to secure the win.

Trey Burke scored 21 points and No. 6 Michigan beat Penn State 83-66 in the first round of the Big Ten tournament on Thursday, avenging a shocking loss to the Nittany Lions during the regular season.Tim Hardaway Jr. and Nick Stauskas each had 15 points for the Wolverines (26-6), who will play fourth-seeded Wisconsin in the quarterfinals on Friday. Freshman reserve Mitch McGary added 10 points and 11 rebounds, helping Michigan to a 28-15 advantage in second-chance points.D.J. Newbill scored 20 points for Penn State (10-21), which faded after a fast start. Sasa Borovnjak scored 10 of his 15 points in the first half, and Ross Travis finished with 12 points and 11 rebounds.Michigan had a chance to grab a share of the Big Ten title when it hosted Indiana on Sunday, but the Hoosiers won 72-71 after Jordan Morgan’s last-second putback rolled off the rim. The Wolverines then slipped all the way to the fifth seed for the conference tournament, giving them a game on the first day at the United Center while the top four seeds rested.The one payoff was a chance to avenge a shaky performance against the Nittany Lions just two weeks ago, when Michigan blew a 15-point lead in the second half of an 84-78 loss at Penn State.This one had a much different finish, with the Wolverines breaking open a close game with 18-3 run in the second half. Hardaway got it started with a jumper and Morgan added a layup to make it 50-45 with 13:36 left. After Jermaine Marshall scored inside for Penn State, Burke made another jumper and the rout was on.Jon Horford converted a three-point play and Hardaway dunked on a fast break to extend the lead to 64-48 with 9:49 remaining.Now Michigan gets another chance for revenge when it takes on the Badgers, who rallied for a 65-62 victory over the Wolverines on Feb. 9 in one of the best games of the season. Ben Brust hit a tying 3-pointer from just inside midcourt at the end of regulation, then hit another big 3 with 39 seconds left in overtime to lead Wisconsin to the win.If the Wolverines were at all motivated by the shocking loss at Penn State, it sure didn’t show at the start. Borovnjak had eight quick points as the Nittany Lions bolted to a 14-3 lead with 14:27 left in the first half.Michigan eventually settled down and led 35-33 at halftime. McGary had 10 points and 10 rebounds in the first half, providing a big lift after Morgan got off to a slow start.Horford scored seven of his 11 points in the second half as the Wolverines pulled away. They shot 46 percent from the field and went 19 for 23 at the foul line in their fifth victory in the last seven games.t

If he has hit a bigger shot than this, Brandon Paul couldn’t remember it. He’d have a hard time matching it.Paul nailed a fadeaway jumper at the buzzer and finished with 25 points to lead Illinois to a 51-49 victory over Minnesota in the first round of the Big Ten tournament on Thursday.

“I didn’t want to lose. We worked too hard to get to this point,” Paul said. “This team has so much character. My mindset was just to be aggressive. Coach told me to stay aggressive. I basically wanted to attack on offense and do other things. I’m more excited about I didn’t turn the ball over today.”

Illinois (22-11) led by as much as 12 but was trailing by three when D.J. Richardson nailed a 3 with 47 seconds left to tie it at 49. That basket came after the Illini missed four shots on the possession.The Gophers (20-12) had a chance to win it, but Austin Hollins stepped on the sideline after catching an inbounds pass with 14 seconds left. Paul then went the other way and pulled up left of the free throw line for the winner as time expired, sending the eighth-seeded Illini to the quarterfinals Friday against top-seeded and third-ranked Indiana.

Paul was the only player to score in double figures for the Illini, who shot just 32.1 percent and were outrebounded 38-26. They pulled this one out, anyway, because they had more offensive rebounds (12) than Minnesota (11) and committed just six turnovers while the Gophers had 19.

Coach John Groce said he was “50-50” about calling a timeout before the winning shot but “decided to ride with it.The big thing that we were trying to do there is make sure he didn’t go until between five and seven on the game clock because we wanted to make sure we got the last shot,” Groce said.

Now, they’ll get Indiana again, a team they beat last month. The Gophers will have to wait and see what’s next.Austin Hollins, who thought he might have been pushed on that out of bounds play, led Minnesota with 16 points. Andre Hollins added 13 points and eight rebounds for the Gophers, who still are a good bet for the NCAA tournament even though it’s been a disappointing stretch for a team that was ranked No. 8 at one point.

“I think we have a good resume,” coach Tubby Smith said after his team’s third straight loss and seventh in 10 games. “We haven’t played well of late, but when you look at the entire body of work . but it’s not up to us. It will be a sweat-it-out type of thing.”

Illinois was leading 32-22 early in the second half when Minnesota went on a 19-4 run.

The Gophers scored 10 straight, getting back-to-back 3-pointers by Andre Hollins and a three-point play by Andre Ingram to tie it before Nnanna Egwu scored on a put-back for Illinois. Minnesota continued to pour it on, though, and Austin Hollins finished the run by hitting three free throws to make it 41-36 with 8:35 remaining.It remained tight right up until Paul hit that jumper at the end, sending a loud roar through the arena.That came after a huge basket by Richardson, who had missed two 3-pointers on that possession before tying it. He was just 2 of 12 in the game but delivered the end.

“My teammates found me, I kept shooting,” Richardson said. “I’m a shooter, that’s what coach wanted me to do. I didn’t think about (the missed shots).”

All that came after a first half that was nothing short of ugly.Paul scored 12 as Illinois built a 25-16 lead despite hitting just 9 of 24 shots, but as bad as things were for them, multiply it a few times for Minnesota.The Gophers were 6 of 22 with 11 turnovers, and that barely tells the story. They got outscored 19-2 over a 12-minute stretch after jumping out to a 7-2 lead and went nearly eight minutes without a point.

“It’s not a feeling that you want to go into Selection Sunday,” Andre Hollins said. “We haven’t played our best basketball these past three games. We still want to have faith. We have a pretty good resume. A tough strength of schedule, a good RPI.

SACRAMENTO—Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau was standing next to his team’s bench late in the fourth quarter, hands in his pockets and a grimace on his face.The pained expression and the negative body language were the result of another Bulls loss, this one in embarrassing fashion.Tyreke Evans had 26 points and seven assists in the Sacramento Kings’ most lopsided victory of the season, a 121-79 rout of the Bulls on Wednesday night.The Kings opened the second quarter with a 26-4 run against the lethargic Bulls to hike their lead to 34 points. It was an almost error-free first half for the Kings, who committed just one turnover and took a 65-36 lead into intermission.The Bulls have dropped a season-high five straight road games and have a 7-12 record since beating Milwaukee on Jan. 30. It was the most one-sided loss all season for the Bulls and Sacramento’s largest margin of victory ever against the Bulls.

“It was embarrassing, man. It’s hard to put into words,” Bulls forward Carlos Boozer said.

Boozer will get no argument from Thibodeau. The Bulls shot 38 percent, missed 19 of 21 3-point attempts, and committed 17 turnovers.However, what was not in the stat sheet afterward was effort. The Bulls were lacking in that department as well.

“Our level of intensity was very poor. Our readiness to play was very poor,” Thibodeau said. “But I’m probably most disappointed in me. It’s my job to have them ready. We can’t come out like that, that’s on me. I have to drive (them) harder and I will.”

Boozer scored 21 points and Nate Robinson had 19 for the slumping Bulls, who lost their second straight and fourth in five games.The short-handed Bulls continued to play without injured forward Taj Gibson (knee) and veteran guards Richard Hamilton (back) and Kirk Hinrich (foot), who are all out indefinitely.

“We’re not playing well offensively or defensively,” said Joakim Noah, who had six points and nine rebounds. “It’s no time to make excuses (about injuries). We need to find a way to bounce back. We just have to move on fast and get ready for Golden State (on Friday). They are a lot better team than this team (the Kings).”

The Kings shot 54 percent, had a season-low five turnovers and scored 27 fast-break points. It was the Kings’ largest margin of victory since Jan. 2, 1993, when they beat the Philadelphia 76ers 154-98.

Making his first start of the season, Patrick Patterson had 14 points and nine rebounds, and Jason Thompson had 12 points for the Kings, who snapped a five-game losing streak against the Bulls.

“I was just picking and popping and my teammates were finding opportunities for me,” said Patterson, who came to the Kings in a February trade with Houston. “I was just being in the right place at the right time.”

At least for one game, it mattered very little that Sacramento played without DeMarcus Cousins, the Kings’ leading scorer and rebounder. He missed the game due to a sore left knee.Cousins picked up his 12th technical foul of the season and was ejected from Sunday’s game against Milwaukee after picking up a Flagrant 2 for elbowing Mike Dunleavy in the head.Though there was speculation Cousins would be suspended by the NBA and miss the game, the volatile center was spared of his third league suspension this season.

“We just opened the court up a little more (with Cousins out) and had our guards attack,” guard Isaiah Thomas said. “We were in attack mode from the jump. We know they’re a great defensive team and we wanted to just stay back in attack mode. I think Tyreke started it off and that got me going a little bit, then other people got going.”

There was no letting up in the third quarter for the Kings, who didn’t allow the Bulls to cut into their 29-point deficit. Thomas had 11 points and continued to push the tempo for Sacramento, which took a 93-60 lead into the fourth.Evans had 18 points in the first half, when the Kings shot 58 percent. Sacramento began the second quarter with an 11-2 run and the lead remained in double figures the remainder of the game.

“It’s not so much the winning or losing right now, it’s the way we’re playing,” Noah said. “Is it the readiness? I wish I knew.”

It was a horrible first half at both ends of the court for the Bulls, who shot 35 percent, committed eight turnovers, and allowed 15 fast-break points. Boozer was the only bright spot with 16 points.Patterson helped get the Kings off to a fast start, making all five shots and scoring 11 first-quarter points. Sacramento shot 65 percent in the opening quarter and led 34-20.

“We need to get our swag back; get our confidence back,” Boozer said. “The only people that can fix it are in this room. (Maybe) we need a game like this to wake us up. The playoffs will be here in the blink of an eye.”

Notes—-Derrick Rose worked out before the game. Rose, who tore his anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee last April, is still contemplating a return to the Bulls this season.. Evans has averaged 23.7 points in his last three games.. Kings reserve forward James Johnson missed his second straight game due to personal reasons.. Attendance was 14,426. … Marco Belinelli missed all nine shots for the Bulls, including five 3-point attempts.

NEW YORK—Notre Dame will get at least one more day at the Big East tournament, something the Fighting Irish have gotten used to.Pat Connaughton scored a season-high 21 points and led Notre Dame’s impressive show from 3-point range as the 24th-ranked Fighting Irish beat Rutgers 69-61 on Wednesday night in the second round of the Big East tournament.Tom Knight had a career-high 18 points for sixth-seeded Notre Dame (24-8), which will face third-seeded and 12th-ranked Marquette in the quarterfinals Thursday night.The Irish have reached the semifinals in each of the last three years but haven’t been able to get that first tournament title – and this is the Fighting Irish’s last chance since they are leaving for the Atlantic Coast Conference next season.

“We expect to be here a while, no question,” Notre Dame coach Mike Brey said. “We love New York City. I’ll take that over South Bend for a while, so we’re going to stay.”

It appeared that it would be an easy second-round win for the Irish, who led by 14 points at halftime and then were able — with Connaughton’s shooting the key — to hold off several runs by the Scarlet Knights.

“We were really mature and poised, and in the second half they were coming at us,” Brey said. “We made great plays out of timeouts. We defended. We had putbacks. We had great rebounds. We made big free throws. We made big 3s tonight.”

Connaughton finished 6 of 8 from 3-point range as Notre Dame, which led the Big East in 3-point percentage (36.9), was 10 of 17 from beyond the arc (58.8 percent).

“The chemistry on this team, everybody likes each other and picks each other up,” Connaughton said. “That’s helped me keep the confidence and keep shooting. That’s something they’ve been on me to do.”

Senior forward Austin Johnson had a career-high 18 points for the Scarlet Knights (15-16), who were able to cut into Notre Dame’s lead several times in the second half only to see Connaughton find a way to start the Irish offense in a hurry.Myles Mack had 18 points for Rutgers, which was 4 of 15 from 3-point range and 5 of 11 at the free throw line. The Irish were 15 of 19 from the free throw line.Rutgers coach Mike Rice was upset with the way the Scarlet Knights played in the first half.

“I just questioned their heart. You know the things you do in coaching. Question their pride,” Rice said of his halftime talk. “Austin spoke up, and I think Jerome [Seagears] spoke up. And, again, they responded. Pressed and did some things to pick up the level of intensity and energy, but, again, it still wasn’t enough because, when it got close, when it got to two possessions.”

Notre Dame, which came into the tournament having lost two of three, led 33-19 at halftime but the Scarlet Knights opened the second half on a 7-0 run. Jerian Grant and Connaughton both hit 3s to open the lead back to 11.Rutgers got within 41-36 with 13:23 to play only to see Connaughton hit a 3 that started a 6-0 run. He did it again with just under nine minutes to play when he buried a 3 just after Rutgers had gotten within 49-43.Rutgers beat DePaul 76-57 in the opening round Tuesday and the Scarlet Knights were looking to win a second game in the tournament for the first time since 1998. Rutgers is leaving for the Big Ten after the 2013-14 season.Wally Judge led the Scarlet Knights in the win over DePaul by tying a Big East tournament record by going 9 for 9 from the field and finishing with 20 points and 10 rebounds. It was a lot different against Notre Dame for Judge, who was 1 for 6 from the field and had two points and one rebound.

“He just let Cooley and Knight and all of those guys knock him off balance, and he just didn’t shoot a balanced shot,” Rice said. “The second half, he had two or three really good plays. One of them went in, the other two didn’t. That’s what we saw the other night against DePaul. He wasn’t letting the defense take him. They were knocking him off post and knocking him out of position. You can’t do that as a defensive player.”

Knight was playing the part of the inside presence usually taken care of by all-Big East forward Jack Cooley.Knight had 10 points and four rebounds in leading the Irish to the 14-point halftime lead. Knight was 5 of 10 from the field while Cooley, who was second in the conference at 58.2 percent, was just 1 of 6.Cooley finished with two points but he and Knight both had nine rebounds.

“I came out for the games wanting to give energy where the team needed. If it was rebounds or scoring, that’s what I was going to try to do, and today was scoring,” Knight said. “I’m going to try to work off of that, just hit the ground running every game.”

Poor shooting was a problem for the entire Rutgers team in the first half except Kadeem Jack, who was 4 of 5 from the field. The rest of the Scarlet Knights were 4 of 22 from the field including making just one of eight from beyond the arc.

VALPARAISO—Bryce Drew and Valparaiso are heading back to the NCAA tournament.Finally.A year after blowing home-court advantage in the league tournament’s title game, and then after wasting an 11-point halftime lead Tuesday night in another league championship game, Drew’s team somehow collected itself, went on an 18-4 run and pulled away from third-seeded Wright State 62-54 to lock up the Horizon’s automatic tourney bid.Afterward, students rushed over and jumped up and down with the Crusaders, who are making their first NCAA appearance since 2004.

“They’re both special,” Drew said when asked to compare going as a player 15 years ago and now as a coach. “As a player you’re kind of in the moment. But this one is special because I’m so excited for all the other people to get see them go and see them celebrate Selection Sunday.”

It sure wasn’t supposed to be this hard for a team that had won just about everything except the postseason crown during the past two seasons.Valpo (26-7) captured the regular-season title in 2012 when Drew, who made a memorable buzzer-beater to send the school to the regional semifinal run in 1998, was named coach of the year in his first season after replacing his father, Homer. This year, Ryan Broekhoff and Kevin Van Wijk were all-league selections and LaVonte Dority was named the league’s sixth man of the year.But it was another guy who stole the show Tuesday.In a game that nearly spun away from the Crusaders, all-league defensive player Erik Buggs came up big on the offensive end. He finished with a career-high 22 points, three assists and four steals and settled down the struggling Crusaders late in the second half. Will Bogan scored 14 points and Van Wijk added 10 points and 10 rebounds.Buggs was named MVP and seemingly everyone, including longtime Valpo coach Homer Drew, helped cut down the nets.

They’ll head into the tourney on a six-game winning streak and after breaking the school’s single-season record for victories. The previous mark of 25 was set in 2001-02 when Bryce Drew was playing pro basketball and his dad was still the Crusaders’ coach.They won despite scoring just six points in the first 13 minutes of the second half and committing a season-high 25 turnovers.

“We got ourselves in a little bit of a hole, we turned the ball over but we found a way to win,” Broekhoff said. “That’s what’s different between this year’s team and last year’s. We find ways to win, even sometimes when we probably shouldn’t.”

For the Crusaders, this journey was two years in the making.For Wright State (21-12), the nation’s 11th youngest team and one of only five schools that did not start a senior all season, it was another chance to defy the odds.After being picked last in the league’s preseason poll, the Raiders finished in the upper half of the Horizon League and then upset defending tourney champ Detroit in Saturday’s semifinals on a buzzer-beating shot from behind the backboard. And after going more than nine minutes without a basket in the first half Tuesday and looking lost at times, Wright State nearly pulled off the impossible by winning on Valpo’s home court after getting swept during the regular season.But the Raiders couldn’t close it out against a senior-dominated team that was playing in front of a sell-out crowd that was poised to party.Reggie Arceneaux scored 14 points for the Raiders (21-12). Nobody else reached double figures for Wright State.

“The game was won by them in the first minutes and in the last five minutes and that shows their experience, their basketball I.Q.,” said Wright State’s Billy Donlon, this year’s Horizon League coach of the year.

Valpo used an early 11-0 run to take control and still led 36-25 at halftime.Then came the bevy of turnovers and Wright State turned the tables on the preseason conference favorite.The Raiders scored the first five points of the second half and finally tied the score at 40 and again at 42. That’s when Arceneaux hit a 3-pointer to give Wright State a 45-42 lead, its first since 3-2. Jerran Young followed with a dunk and when Matt Vest knocked down a 3 with 5:35 to play, Wright State led 50-44.Drew tried desperately to get his team in sync by calling timeouts and calling plays. At first they didn’t respond.Buggs changed everything in the closing surge.After Van Wijk hit a short jumper in the paint, Buggs stole the ball and drove in for a layup. He tied the score at 50 by making two free throws with 3:59 to go, then gave Valpo the lead by making 1 of 2 from the free-throw line with 2:53 left. Buggs then found Broekhoff for an open 3 in the right corner to make it 54-50 and the Raiders didn’t score again until 8.3 seconds were left. By then, the party was already in full swing.

NEW YORK—Wally Judge was perfect and so was Rutgers for one of the rare times this season.Judge hit all nine of his shots and scored a season-high 20 points to go with 10 rebounds, leading the Scarlet Knights to an impressive 76-57 victory over DePaul on Tuesday night in the first round of the Big East tournament.

“I thought for 40 minutes the energy, the intensity and the ability to play for one another was there,” Rutgers coach Mike Rice said.

Judge had plenty of help.Myles Mack added 19 points to help the No. 11-seeded Scarlet Knights (15-15) advance to the second round of the nation’s showcase college basketball tournament for only the sixth time in 14 trips to Madison Square Garden. Jerome Seagears added 15 points and Mike Poole scored all eight of his after intermission.Rutgers will face sixth-seeded and No. 24 Notre Dame (23-8) in the late game Wednesday night. The Irish beat the Scarlet Knights 69-66 in South Bend, Ind., in a game that came down to the final possession.

“It’s exciting just to be there,” Rice said.

Judge’s 9-for-9 performance matches a Big East tournament record for accuracy. Boston College’s Craig Smith in 2005 and Ricky Wright of Villanova in 2001 were both 9 of 9 in conference tournament games.

“Wally and the whole team, no matter what happened this year continued to work,” Rice said. “It’s not a doubt in my mind that he’s improved every single day because of it. It allowed him to have a night like this, a record-setting night like this. Again, shows you the potential.

Judge said the one thing that has pushed him has been the belief that Rutgers can turn it around at any point.

“Anything can happen,” he said of March Madness. “You’ve seen Connecticut do it. You’ve seen George Mason do it. That’s how we have to play every game, like 0-0.”

The 19-point win was Rutgers’ largest in a Big East tournament game and this one was a rare laugher for Rice, who will be back next season, according to university athletic director Tim Pernetti.

“I’m glad he did it but my focus completely is on this team,” Rice said.

Cleveland Melvin had 25 points for DePaul (11-21), which ended the season with only one win in its last 17 games – and it came against Rutgers.The win was also the second straight for the Scarlet Knights, the first time they have done that since early January. It also was only their third in the last 14 games, something that had many thinking Rice’s job was in jeopardy.Rutgers won with phenomenal shooting and strong play underneath the baskets, where it held a 36-20 rebounding edge.The big difference was the shooting. The Scarlet Knights hit 23 of their first 33 shots, nearly 70 percent, with the remarkable statistic being their start to the second half. After shooting nearly 61 percent in the first 20 minutes, they came out and hit nine of their first 10 after intermission with Judge scoring the first two baskets inside.The run turned a one-point lead into a double-digit margin that was never threatened.

“I thought they made six or maybe eight of their first eight shots in the second half,” DePaul coach Oliver Purnell said. “That kind of gave them a little bit of a working margin. I thought we got a little unnerved at that point. That happened to us so many times this year. We felt like we were down further than we really were.”

Brandon Young added 15 points for DePaul, which was held to 41.6 percent shooting. The Blue Demons were horrible from long range, making only 3 of 13 attempts, but extended their streak of hitting at least one 3-pointer to 611 games.Rutgers shot nearly 61 percent and outrebounded DePaul 17-8 in the first half, with the margin coming courtesy of a last-second 3-pointer by Mack, who was 8 of 15 from the field.The reason it was so close was Rutgers’ 11 turnovers, which led to a 13-2 Blue Demon advantage on points off the miscues.Neither team led by more than five points in a half which featured six lead changes. There were also some gaffes by the teams that combined to win seven of 36 conference games, with Rutgers getting five of those.The win also provided a small measure of revenge for Rutgers, which not only lost to DePaul in Chicago recently but also saw leading scorer Elijah Carter break his right leg in the loss.

SIOUX FALLS—North Dakota State will return to the championship game of The Summit League Men’s Basketball Tournament for the first time since winning the title in 2008 after defeating Western Illinois 55-43 in the semifinals Monday night.The Bison will take a 24-8 record into the championship game against defending league champion South Dakota State (24-9). The teams split during the regular season, each winning on its home court.NDSU, which lost to WIU twice during the regular season, led 24-20 at the half and opened a 37-28 lead on a layup by Kory Brown with 11:38 to play.Western Illinois cut it to 37-34 on a jumper by Adam Link before TrayVonn Wright buried back-to-back three pointers to put the Bison back in charge.Wright led the Bison with 19 points, hitting 5-of-8 three-point shots, and also had seven rebounds. Taylor Braun added 14 points and seven boards.Link was the only player in double figures for Western Illinois, with 12 points.  The Leathernecks lost all-league guard Ceola Clark III to an injury with 9:20 to play and were already playing without all-league post player Terell Parks, sidelined with an injury.NDSU out-shot WIU 46.2 percent (18-of-39) to 35.7 percent (15-of-42) and had a 30-21 rebounding advantage.

NOTES—Attendance was 6,676. That total is the highest semifinal session attendance in Sioux Falls and the most since the 1994 tournament in Rosemont…–Through three days of the 2013 Summit League Championships, attendance is 32,171. That figure is 3,560 more than at the same time last year when the total attendance record of 40,269 was set…..North Dakota State is the first No. 3 seed to reach the championship game since 2009 (Oakland) and only the second in the past 15 tournaments.
–The 98 combined points were the lowest total since 89 were scored in a 1993 quarterfinal (UIC 46, Green Bay 43)