It felt and sounded like the old Big East. The result was synonymous with the new one.

A sold-out Garden was rocking the way it used to every March — before realignment — as two old rivals met in an electric atmosphere that might have featured two second-weekend teams. In the end, second-seeded Villanova reminded everyone it still controls this league, outplaying third-seeded Connecticut for the majority of the second half for a hard-earned 63-60 semifinal victory.

The Wildcats will face Creighton in the Big East tournament championship game Saturday night.

It was classic Villanova, neutralizing an opponent’s strength — in this case, Connecticut’s decided advantage on the interior — and making them pay for mistakes. Jay Wright’s team has been the one constant in the new Big East, carrying the conference in the NCAA Tournament and reaching the final in six of the last seven tournaments. The return of Connecticut (23-9) to the conference may, in time, create a power struggle atop the league. But the Wildcats (25-7) showed Friday night they remain the standard.

“Villanova is the type of team that you’d be facing in a Sweet 16 game, potentially, to go to an Elite Eight. That’s their quality,” Connecticut coach Dan Hurley said. “They’re very, very hard to beat.”

The betting favorite when this tournament began, Villanova had to scrape by St. John’s on Thursday night, winning the quarterfinal game by a point. The Wildcats were far more impressive 24 hours later. They mostly went to a five-out attack, creating mismatches on the perimeter, and they defended well against Huskies star big man Adama Sanogo, limiting him to 15 points on 6-for-15 shooting.

Early in the second half, after Sanogo had missed a few bunnies, the momentum shifted. Wright’s team went on a 15-6 run, making six of eight field goal attempts to go up 52-44 on Eric Dixon’s 3-pointer with 10:21 left.

“I think Adama probably wishes he had a couple of those back,” Hurley said. “Particularly [at the] beginning of the second half, there’s a chance for him to really take over. And unfortunately, just a couple of those spun out.”

On the other end of the floor, Sanogo found himself frequently covering more mobile forward Jermaine Samuels, who torched him for 21 points and 12 rebounds. Samuels, a fifth-year senior, was dealing with back spasms and it was questionable if he would play in the quarterfinals, but he was able to gut out 56 productive minutes the last two nights, aided in part by a chiropractor the school brought up from Philadelphia.

“I’m amazed by him,” Villanova coach Jay Wright said.

This game was about the other guys for Villanova. Brandon Slater scored 15 points a night after sinking the game-winning free throws against St. John’s in the final seconds. Co-stars Collin Gillespie and Justin Moore scored just 11 points between them, although Gillespie did have 10 assists and one turnover in adeptly dealing with the Connecticut pressure.

“If they have egos and just want to get their points, [UConn’s] going to beat us,” Wright said. “But Collin gets 10 assists. They start doubling him. He just found people. What Collin did was just read what they were doing, find his teammates, make plays for everybody else. And that’s what makes us a good team. That’s what makes him a great player.”

In crunch time, Villanova made the big plays. There was Slater rejecting a dunk attempt by Tyrese Martin, who had team-high 19 points, to keep the lead at seven. Freshman Jordan Longino hit a fadeaway jumper and Gillespie found Dixon for a layup, both times as the shot clock expired, to keep the Huskies at a distance.

“They make so few mistakes,” Hurley said, “and we made a couple too many.”