On the Beat at the Big East Conference Women's Tournament

The DePaul Blue Demons won the Big East Conference Tournament. Thanks to the hospitality of the Big East Conference, I literally had a front row seat for the weekend of basketball entertainment.

Fortunately for me, I am more of a features writer than a beat reporter. This allowed me to cheer for my alma mater DePaul, although fairly quietly, as I was in Press Row, where cheering is not encouraged, except in general for good play.

Because I still get a thrill gaining Press Credentials for events like this, I arrived as early as possible. I love being in a near-empty arena and watching it come alive as the game start gets closer. As you can see in the picture above, I had a pretty good seat. I was under the south basket, about 3 feet diagonally from the team bench, which was DePaul's bench for the championship game.

The Tournament started on Saturday with two "play in" games, won by Butler and Seton Hall. This brought the tournament to eight teams for the first round on Sunday. Marquette, Creighton, DePaul and Georgetown won their games to advance to the Semifinals on Monday.

Six games into the Tournament, I had correctly picked five winners. That sounds more impressive than it was, because I picked all of the favorites and my only loss was Villanova losing to "underdog" Georgetown. For Monday's games, I picked Marquette and DePaul (again the favorites) to bring my record to 7-1.

The stage was set for Tuesday's showdown between Marquette and DePaul. The teams, separated by 90 miles, are part of the natural Chicago-Milwaukee rivalry. How fitting that the #1 seed would face the #2 seed in the championship game. I finally picked the underdog, my #2 seeded Blue Demons.

The Blue Demons won 98-63. It can be argued that the game wasn't even as close as the score would indicate. The Demons were in control right from the opening tip. Up by 5 points at the end of the 1st quarter, DePaul blew open the game with a 30-12 2nd quarter.

DePaul hit 16-of-35 (45.7 percent) from 3 point range and 38-of-74 (51.4 percent) overall. The 16 3 pointers fell one short of a tourney record. DePaul also set the record for most points by the title game winner in tourney history. The 35 point victory margin was the 4th largest in any tourney game. DePaul's 40 3 pointers set a conference tourney record.

This was DePaul's third conference title in five years. They had previously won back-to-back titles in 2014 and 2015. While the DePaul men's team is trying to regain their once prominent spot, the lady Demons have been a force for many years.

Individually, DePaul's Amarah Coleman was named the Big East Tournament Most Outstanding Player. The All-Tournament team was announced as Sydney Lamberty (Creighton), Cynthia Petke (Georgetown), Amani Wilborn (Marquette), Mart’e Grays (DePaul) and Kelly Campbell (DePaul).

All told, the thousands of fans, who attended games over the weekend, saw great basketball action. Obviously, DePaul enjoyed a bit of a home court crowd, but I did see fan contingents for every team, especially for the Golden Eagles. Plenty of Marquette fans made the 90 mile trek to cheer for their team.

The Tournament was played at the beautiful new Wintrust Arena, which will also host it in 2019 and 2020. Located on the near south side by McCormick Place, the Wintrust is a state-of-the-art facility. The site lines are fantastic. It is open and airy, yet intimate. It always feels like you are almost on the court (especially if you are lucky enough to have gotten a seat on Press Row).