At least Gerry McNamara went out on his own terms.
With a record Carrier Dome crowd cheering his every move, McNamara scored a game-high 29 points for Syracuse, but Allan Ray had 28 points to lead No. 4 Villanova to a 92-82 win on Sunday.
Randy Foye added 21 points for the Wildcats (24-3, 14-2), who earned a tie for the conference title with Connecticut and a second seed in the Big East tournament. It was the 10th loss in 13 games for the sinking Orange (19-11, 7-9).
PHOTO: AP
"If I was going out with a loss, that's the way I wanted to go out -- fighting," said McNamara, whose pull-up 3-pointer with 6:35 left in the first half broke the Big East record of 178 career 3s in league play he shared with former Miami star Steve Edwards.
"It's tough to go out with a loss, but if I'm going to lose my last game in the dome, it's going to be to a top-five team, and they're as good as any team in the country," said McNamara, who has made 130 straight starts, tops in the nation. "I'm happy to say we stuck with them every step. It came down to the end, and they just had a little more."
Mike Nardi scored 12 points for Villanova, which made 13 of 31 3-pointers and outrebounded Syracuse 43-35.
"I'm proud of our guys, that our senior class can be called champions," Jay Wright said after his 100th victory as head coach at Villanova. "Over a 16-game schedule in this conference, to win a championship is a great accomplishment. I think we're playing our best basketball right now."
McNamara, one of the most popular players in Syracuse history, is the only one with 2,000 career points, 600 career assists and 250 career steals, and he was treated as royalty by the sellout crowd of 33,633, an NCAA on-campus record.
No. 9 Ohio St. 76, Purdue 57
No one can overlook Ohio State now.
Terence Dials scored 20 points and the ninth-ranked Buckeyes broke the game open with a 14-2 blitz to start the second half to beat Purdue 76-57, clinching their first outright Big Ten title in 14 years.
Dogged by a lingering NCAA investigation involving people no longer with the program, and coming the year before a banner recruiting class, Ohio State never was mentioned when the talk turned to preseason favorites in the Big Ten.
"No one gave us a chance," Dials said. "People across the country forgot about the Buckeyes it seemed. We didn't get the credit we thought we deserved. We wanted to go out and prove a lot of naysayers wrong."
J.J. Sullinger had 16 points for the Buckeyes (23-4, 12-4), who have won their last five games and are the top seed for this week's Big Ten tournament in Indianapolis. Jamar Butler added 15 points.
"We've kind of flown under the radar to this point," Sullinger said, referring to the Buckeyes' late appearance in and slow rise in the polls. "But you've got to remember Ohio State now when you talk about [national] contenders."
In the waning moments, with the outcome long decided, the Ohio State student section chanted, "Big Ten champs!" and "Thank you, seniors."
"It's a great life lesson for these guys," second-year coach Thad Matta said. "If you commit to something and stay the course, anything's possible."
Despite a dreadful shooting day -- he missed his first 11 shots from the field -- Je'Kel Foster contributed eight points, eight rebounds, five assists and five steals -- and got the loudest reception when he left the game with a minute and a half left.
The Buckeyes have prospered with a lineup that includes three fifth-year players and another senior who always seemed to make plays when most needed.
"It was a good day to be a Buckeye," Sullinger said. "It was an even better day to be a senior."
The Buckeyes were eighth, ninth and sixth the last three years in the conference.
The outright title is the school's first since Jim Jackson was the star in 1992 -- and only the second since 1971. It also marked the first time a Big Ten school has captured outright titles in men's and women's basketball in the same season.
Gary Ware scored 25 points for Purdue (9-18, 3-13), which lost four in a row to finish last in the Big Ten for the first time in 40 years.
RUTGERS 82, ST. JOHN'S 70
Gary Waters is not going anywhere, at least for a few days.
Waters, who announced his resignation as Rutgers' coach Wednesday after agreeing to a buyout package, received a going-away present from his team on Sunday.
Rutgers earned a spot in the Big East tournament and extended its season with an 82-70 victory against St. John's (12-15, 5-11) at Carnesecca Arena in Queens in what amounted to a play-in game for the conference tournament. The winner would earn the 10th seeding in the tournament; the loser would not be invited. Twelve of the Big East's 16 teams take part.
"It was monumental," Waters said of the victory. "You can call it that. It was something our kids wanted. A lot of people are going to say they were playing for me. No. They were playing to better themselves, and I want to see them have success. Once this thing is over with, they're not going to see me much anymore."
Rutgers, which finished the regular season at 17-12 and 7-9 in the Big East, will play seventh-seeded Seton Hall (18-10, 9-7) tomorrow in opening-round play.
Southern Illinois 59, bradly 46
For a college basketball league determined to shed its midmajor label, the Missouri Valley Conference still celebrates like Cinderella.
After second-seeded Southern Illinois finished a grinding, 59-46 victory against fifth-seeded Bradley on Sunday in the conference's tournament final, about 300 students stormed the Savvis Center court. As red, white and blue streamers fell, the Salukis' players gathered in a mosh pit at center court, mugging for a national television audience to the chants of "SIU, SIU, SIU."
The triumphant scene resembled something that would follow an upset victory, not necessarily a championship performance worthy of a bid to the NCAA tournament.
"We didn't want to leave it up to anybody else to let us know if we're in the tournament or not," said guard Jamaal Tatum, who scored 16 points for the Salukis. "We won this game, and now it's not up to anybody else. We're in the big dance, baby. We're there."
The tournament title is the fifth for Southern Illinois (22-10), which is headed to the NCAA tournament for the fifth year in a row.
It also gives Chris Lowery his first tournament championship as the team's coach, making him the first person in conference history to win the event as a player and a coach. He was a point guard on the Southern Illinois teams that won the conference tournament in 1994 and 1995.
The sophomore forward Randal Falker, who was named the tournament's most valuable player, scored a game-high 17 points and grabbed a career-high 16 rebounds for the Salukis. He entered the game averaging 8.8 points and 7.7 rebounds.
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