Quentin Goodin, now an outright Big East champion, dribbled the ball up calmly. He dumped it in to Sean O’Mara, who swung it to J.P. Macura for a layup that extended Xavier’s lead to 65-62.
After that basket, the Musketeers needed to string together nearly two minutes of flawless defense against last placed DePaul to finish what they came here to accomplish.
“We wanted to be standing by ourselves with the Big East Championship,” J.P. Macura said. So Naji Marshall tracked down DePaul forward Brandon Cyrus on the fast break and pinned his layup attempt off the backboard with 45 seconds to go.