NEW YORK _ With all the success the team enjoyed in winning the 2016 national championship, Villanova still remembered the sour taste of having lost the championship game of the Big East tournament.
The second-ranked Wildcats played Saturday night as if they didn't want to experience that again.
Josh Hart, the conference's player of the year, sparked a strong offensive effort late in the first half en route to a 14-point lead, and the Wildcats rolled on to a 74-60 victory over the Bluejays to win their second Big East tournament title in the last three years.
With the win, Villanova (31-3) appeared likely to be awarded the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament when the seedings and pairings are announced Sunday.
The Wildcats came up short last year in the Big East final, losing, 69-67, to Seton Hall. Although they then swept through all six games in the NCAA Tournament and brought home a championship trophy, they remembered the lessons learned against the Pirates.
On Saturday night, before a sellout crowd of 19,812, the Cats created some distance by outscoring the Bluejays, 14-2, in the final five minutes of the first half to take a 36-22 lead. They extended the margin to 20 early in the second half and kept Creighton (25-9) from getting any closer than 12.
Hart led the Wildcats with 29 points, 15 in the first half, and was named the tournament's most valuable player for the second time in three years, joining Louisville's Peyton Siva and Georgetown's Patrick Ewing as two-time winners of the award. Jalen Brunson added 17 points and Kris Jenkins 14.
Hart, Brunson, and Jenkins were named to the all-tournament team.
Villanova was particularly effective in shutting down Creighton's potent 3-point attack, allowing only six 3s in 24 attempts. The Cats also outscored the Bluejays, 21-7, in points off turnovers.
Marcus Foster and Cole Huff scored 13 points each to lead the Bluejays.
Hart began his first-half scoring midway through the period with a 3-point basket that broke an 11-11 tie. That sparked a personal run of 11 consecutive points that gave the Wildcats a 22-17 lead. The Bluejays got a trey from Huff that got them to within two points with 5:13 remaining.
From that point, however, it was all Villanova the rest of the first half as it outscored Creighton, 14-2. Brunson touched off an 8-0 run with a 3-point basket and a conventional three-point play in a 21-second span, followed by Hart's baseline drive and layup.
Foster then hit a jumper that would be the Bluejays' last points of the half. Hart and Jenkins sank perimeter jumpers and Jenkins' diving steal led to a layup by Brunson that extended the Cats' lead to 14 by the break.
The Wildcats connected on nine of their last 14 field goal attempts and shot 46.7 percent in the half. Exactly half of their 14 field goals came from 3-point range, or two more than they knocked down in the tough 55-53 win over Seton Hall the night before.
Hart's 3-point basket with 15:06 to play gave Villanova its largest lead of the night, 46-26. Creighton could get only as close as 12 points on three occasions, the final time at 62-50 on Foster's two free throws with 3:47 to play.
But the Wildcats got their next eight points from the free-throw line to increase their margin to 15 and coasted home.
