BRANDON SLATER

David McCormack muscled his way to 25 points, Ochai Agbaji added 21 and hot-shooting Kansas withstood every Villanova run for a 81-65 victory Saturday night that sent the Jayhawks back to the national title game.

R.

Justin Lewis had 19 points and nine rebounds, and No. 24 Marquette never trailed in an 83-73 victory over No. 12 Villanova.

Santiago Vescovi scored 23 points for Tennessee (2-1), which had opened the season with lopsided wins over Tennessee-Martin and East Tennessee. Villanova scored the game’s first nine points, holding Tennessee without a basket for over six minutes. A dunk from Samuels, who had 11 rebounds, on a lob pass from Justin Moore capped a 14-0 first-half run that pushed the Villanova lead to 33-11. But he picked up his fourth foul a few seconds later and the Wildcats' lead was never challenged. “We learned it from those guys and now we’re in that position.”UP NEXT:Villanova plays the winner of the second game Saturday between No.

Jermaine Samuels scored 14 points and grabbed 11 rebounds as No. 5 Villanova eased to a 71-53 win over No. 17 Tennessee Saturday in the opening round of the Hall of Fame Tip-Off tournament in Connecticut.

McDermott’s use of a phrase evoking slavery overshadowed what was expected to be fantastic showdown between the top two teams in the Big East. 10 Villanova capture the Big East title with a 72-60 win over 14th-ranked Creighton. “The pain I saw in their eyes was immense,” McDermott said after the game. The Big East title was a formality on the Main Line — Villanova is 114-26 with two national titles since the conference was reconfigured in 2013. BIG PICTURECreighton: McDermott isn’t off the hot seat yet.