West Virginia's Joe Alexander (11) drives past Connecticut's Jerome Dyson during in the second round of the Big East tournament. West Virginia beat No. 15 Connecticut, 78-72, on Thursday behind Alexander's career-high 34 points.

New York ? One year has made a remarkable difference for Joe Alexander and West Virginia.

Last March, Alexander didn’t score a point as WVU beat Clemson in the NIT championship.

On Thursday, the 6-foot-8 junior forward scored a career-high 34 points on the same Madison Square Garden court as West Virginia beat No. 15 Connecticut, 78-72, in the quarterfinals of the Big East tournament.

Alexander is averaging 29.8 points in his last five games.

The fifth-seeded Mountaineers (25-7) will play top-seeded and ninth-ranked Georgetown in the semifinals tonight.

No. 2 Memphis 75, Tulane 56

Memphis, Tenn. – Chris Douglas-Roberts scored 17 points, and Memphis advanced to the semifinals of the Conference USA tournament.

Memphis (30-1) is the two-time defending tournament champion.

The Green Wave haven’t beaten the Tigers since 2000.

No. 3 UCLA 88, Cal 66

Los Angeles – UCLA buried Cal under a barrage of three-pointers to start the second half on its way to a victory in the Pac-10 tournament quarterfinals.

Darren Collison scored 19 points, Josh Shipp 18, and freshman Kevin Love had nine of his 11 in the second half after early foul trouble.

The top-seeded Bruins won their eighth in a row and advanced to today’s semifinals against Southern California. The rivals split in the regular season.

No. 9 Georgetown 82, Villanova 63

New York – Jessie Sapp scored 23 points, and Georgetown tied a Big East tournament record with 17 three-pointers.

No. 10 Xavier 74, Dayton 65

Atlantic City, N.J. – Josh Duncan scored 16 points, and Xavier limited Dayton to five baskets in the final 12 minutes in the quarterfinals of the Atlantic 10 Conference tournament.

C.J. Anderson added 15 points, Stanley Burrell had 13, Drew Lavender had 12 and Derrick Brown had 11 for the Musketeers.

Top-seeded Xavier (27-5) beat Dayton (21-10) for the third time this season.

No. 11 Stanford 75, Arizona 64

Los Angeles – Brook Lopez had 20 points and 15 rebounds, including 10 in a second-half spurt that helped Stanford pull away.

The second-seeded Cardinal advanced to today’s semifinals against No. 3 seed Washington State.

Pittsburgh 76, No. 13 Louisville 69, OT

New York – Sam Young had 21 points and 12 rebounds, and hit a pair of free throws with less than a minute left in overtime to help Pittsburgh beat No. 13 Louisville and advance to the semifinals of the Big East tournament.

No. 25 Marquette 89, No. 14 Notre Dame 79

New York – Jerel McNeal scored a career-high 28 points, and Marquette beat Notre Dame on Thursday night in the quarterfinals of the Big East tournament.

Marquette was 0-2 in its only two previous quarterfinal appearances in the tournament.

No. 18 Vanderbilt 93, Auburn 82

Atlanta – A.J. Ogilvy scored a career-best 27 points, and Shan Foster added 26 after being named the top player on the coaches’ All-SEC team earlier in the week.

No. 21 Washington St. 75, Oregon 70

Los Angeles – Derrick Low scored 18 points, and Washington State blew most of a 20-point lead before finally beating Oregon in the quarterfinals of the Pac-10 tournament.

No. 24 BYU 89, Colorado State 62

Las Vegas – Five BYU players scored in double figures in the Cougars’ rout of Colorado State in the semifinals of the Mountain West Conference tournament.