NEW YORK — There have been few blowouts in the Big East Tournament this week. The competition has been taut and the finishes tense, but Greg Monroe lit up Madison Square Garden on Friday night to ensure the Hoyas could breathe easy down the stretch of their 80-57 semifinal win over Marquette.

With Marquette playing no one taller than 6-foot-6, the 6-11 sophomore towered over his opposition, making brilliant feeds for scores and looking for his own shot as well. Monroe finished the game with 23 points, 13 rebounds, seven assists and two blocks, and Marquette found itself unable to combat the immense weapon.

“When he first got here, we were amazed at what he could do, especially the way he passes,” said Hoyas junior point guard Chris Wright. “We all know Greg is a phenomenal player. It’s not like he just started doing this in the Big East Tournament. So, we know he’s a great player.”

Georgetown held a working margin for most of the game, but the Golden Eagles occasionally made inroads, including a 10-0 run to draw within one with 13:34 left in the game. Marquette’s top scoring option, Lazar Hayward drove down the left side for the finish and picked up a block call on Hoyas forward Julian Vaughn to boot. Hayward converted the free throw to make the score 48-47, but that swish would be his 15th and final point.

Marquette went cold, scoring just eight points over its next 20 possessions. Georgetown’s bigs — Monroe and Vaughn — made drives to the lane treacherous. Each had two blocks and affected many more shots. The Golden Eagles’ 14-of-34 performance on 2-pointers was not atypical for a team that finished 13th in the Big East in 2-point percentage, but it made a mediocre outside shooting night from deep (6-for-20 on threes) too much to overcome.

“We were on fire the last 10 minutes of the game — we scored six points,” said a sarcastic Marquette head coach Buzz Williams. “We did not create enough paint touches. … Over the last 10 minutes tonight, we were awful, and they were super defensively.”

Without the shots falling, Marquette needed to get second and third chances to score, but Georgetown held the Golden Eagles to just five offensive rebounds. Monroe controlled the defensive glass with on that end.

“One thing that we really have come to notice is that he rebounds like anybody,” said Wright. “And he’s getting all the rebounds — there aren’t a lot of second shots or third shots for anybody.”

When the Golden Eagles couldn’t get a shot to fall down the stretch, the Hoyas made hay. They scored 30 points over the same 20 possessions when Marquette had eight to turn a one-point lead into the final margin of 23. Monroe’s partners in offensive execution started the run.

Wright used his strength and agility to first spin for a bucket against 5-foot-8 Maurice Acker and later draw a foul from the senior, making both free throws. Then, Austin Freeman scored with his left hand on a beautiful drive to the hoop to make it 54-47. After Marquette’s Jimmy Butler countered with an easy layup off a nice feed from Darius Johnson-Odom, Wright scored again to get the lead back to seven with 11:15 to play.

“I just think it was time for me to make a play,” said Wright of his run of scoring in the second half. “I just read the defense and made the correct plays. I wasn’t trying to be selfish or anything. It was just there were openings, and we were capitalizing on it.”

Monroe continued the onslaught with a nice feed to a cutting Wright. The junior was fouled by David Cubillan and made both shots. Hollis Thompson followed moments later with a gorgeous scoop to the hoop for a 60-51 lead with just less than 10 minutes left.

Monroe completed the run with a decisive move to the left baseline for a jam and then a deep three from the left sideline on a feed from Freeman. Finally, after a Vaughn block, Monroe ran the point on the fastbreak, dropping a dime to Freeman who finished and drew the contact from Hayward. The subsequent free throw made the score 70-53 with 4:02 to play, and the competitive portion of proceedings had concluded.

Marquette’s defense was unable to force misses from inside or outside. Georgetown jumped out to a 15-4 lead, scoring on its first seven possessions. Monroe scored six of those points and assisted on two more, establishing the theme of the evening.

“I thought he turned over his right shoulder every single time tonight,” said Williams of Monroe’s post tendency. “He used his left hand every single time tonight. We didn’t play to the scouting report, and we looked really, really bad. And he looked really, really good.”

“They have not had height all year,” said Georgetown head coach John Thompson III of the active but outsized Eagles. “They’ve done a very good job of not letting people expose that or take advantage of that. … We were able to do that today — there’s no doubt about that — and I think we just got on a roll.”

Georgetown made its first six shots and, for the game, hit 6-of-12 3-pointers and 24-of-44 2-pointers for an effective field-goal percentage of 58 percent.

Georgetown is the best shooting team in the Big East by at 56.2 percent eFG in Big East games, and MU’s primary defensive weakness is in field-goal defense where it finished 11th. To keep GU from flying high on offense, Marquette needed to use its strength — forcing turnovers — to exploit Georgetown’s willingness to give it away.

The Golden Eagles forced just nine turnovers, not nearly enough, especially when they made just six 3-pointers. Marquette forced 13 turnovers and made 12 3-pointers in its 60-58 win over Georgetown in Milwaukee on Jan. 6, but it couldn’t duplicate that formula. The 23-point defeat was Marquette’s first double-digit defeat of the season.

“We were as bad as we’ve been all year long defensively,” said Williams, whose team allowed 1.25 points per possession, its greatest total in the Big East game all season. “We’re proud of what we’ve accomplished up until this point — it’s way more than most people anticipated — but having said that, [I’m] disappointed in our execution tonight.”

Georgetown will appear in its record 13th Big East Tournament final on Saturday night. They entered the semis as the only remaining team to have won a Big East Tournament. The Hoyas hold the record with seven titles.

For Georgetown, the appearance in the final is their third in four years but the first for the sophomore Monroe, who came to D.C. with great expectations but saw his team fall flat in his freshman season. A 7-11 conference record, a Tuesday exit at the Big East Tournament and no appearance in the NCAAs were stunning disappointments.

This season has been better, but the Hoyas still finished tied for seventh in the league at 10-8, a large drop-off from the back-to-back regular-season titles the Hoyas captured in the two seasons before Monroe’s arrival. In three days in New York, Monroe has done his best to erase any lingering disappointment from his first season-plus, and he’s now set his team up for a shot at another conference tournament title and a very high seed in the NCAA Tournament.

“A good friend of mine after [Thursday]’s game said there’s nothing better than Friday night in New York City, other than Saturday night in New York City,” said Thompson. “So, we’re going to show up in New York City on Saturday night.”

The Hoyas’ opponent Saturday night will be either West Virginia or Notre Dame. Either way, the Hoyas will have a chance to complete a revenge tournament of sorts. The Hoyas have defeated USF, Syracuse and Marquette in their first three games here. Those teams handed GU four of its eight conference defeats. Georgetown also lost to the Mountaineers and Irish this season.

When asked if the chance to defeat teams that had defeated them was motivation for the Hoyas, Monroe, Wright and Freeman all responded in the affirmative.

Monroe added, “For the record, yes.”

It’s appropriate to give the game’s defining player the last word on this one.