Friars' first title since '94; Cotton leads Providence to Big East championship.

• Position: Sports

BIG EAST

Providence 65, Creighton 56: Bryce Cotton scored 23 points and Providence won its first Big East tournament title since 1994 with a great defensive effort against Doug McDermott and No. 14 Creighton in New York.

The fourth-seeded Friars (23-11) used a 2-3 zone to hold the second-seeded Bluejays (26-7) 24 points below their season average and to an 8-for-30 effort from behind the 3-point line.

Cotton, the senior guard who finished second to McDermott in the conference scoring but was also a unanimous first-team All-Big East selection, was the scoring star in the championship game and he was selected the tournament MVP.

McDermott, who came in leading the nation in scoring with 26.5 average, finished 10 for 19 from the field, including 5 of 12 from 3-point range, for 27 points.

AMERICAN

Louisville 71, UConn 61: Connecticut was much better one week later -- just not good enough to topple Louisville.

The 21st-ranked Huskies never really threatened in the second half of a loss to the No. 5 Cardinals in the championship game of the inaugural American Athletic Conference tournament.

Connecticut (26-8) had won five of six, but the lone loss was an 81-48 rout by Louisville in regular-season finale. The Huskies stayed in the game this time, but were never able to put together enough of a charge to worry the Cardinals. The 10-point deficit at the end was as close as the Huskies got in the second half.

DeAndre Daniels led the Huskies with 17 points and 10 rebounds, and Amida Brimah finished with 14 points, seven rebounds and a pair of blocks. Napier had 16 points on 4-of-12 shooting.

It was Connecticut's third loss in three games this season against Louisville, all by double digits.

MOUNTAIN WEST

New Mexico 64, San Diego State 58: New Mexico won the Mountain West Conference tournament the last two seasons, and the Lobos weren't prepared to let the title go.

Trailing by one with a little more than a minute left, Cameron Bairstow scored five of the Lobos' last eight points to help 20th-ranked New Mexico win its third consecutive tournament title, with a victory over No. 8 San Diego State.

Bairstow finished with 17 points, and the victory gives the Lobos the automatic berth into the NCAA tournament. The 6-foot-9 senior forward was named tournament MVP after averaging 20.3 points per game and 9.0 rebounds per game.

The No. 2 seed in the Mountain West tournament is now 6-0 all-time when playing the No. 1 seed.

MID-AMERICAN

Western Michigan 98...