Seton Hall University
[9] Marquette
Hall Falls to Marquette at BIG EAST Tourney
3/11/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Box Score| Box Score (PDF)| USATSI Gallery
NEW YORK - The eighth-seeded Seton Hall men's basketball team came up short against #9 Marquette in the first round of the 2015 BIG EAST Tournament on Wednesday, falling 78-56.
BIG EAST All-Rookie Team honoree Isaiah Whitehead (Brooklyn, N.Y.) finished with team-highs of 12 points and five assists for The Hall (16-15) while newly-named BIG EAST Rookie of the Year Angel Delgado (Bajos De Haina, Dominican Republic) posted nine points and seven rebounds.
The leading freshman rebounder in the nation and the second rookie ever to capture the BIG EAST rebounding title, Delgado extended his streak to 15 consecutive games with at least seven boards.
With the win, Marquette (13-18) has now advanced to the quarterfinal round in every year since joining the conference in 2005-06. Graduate student Matt Carlino led all scorers with 26 points, tying the BIG EAST Tournament single game record with eight 3-pointers on 12 attempts from behind the arc.
After taking a 13-point edge into halftime, Marquette opened the final period with five-straight points but senior Haralds Karlis (Riga, Latvia) connected on a triple and Whitehead skied for a tip-in to pull the Pirates back to within 13. The Golden Eagles scored 15 of the next 18 points over a six-minute span though, building a 25-point advantage.
Whitehead sank a corner trey and Desi Rodriguez (Bronx, N.Y.) followed with a strong put-back through contact; adding the free throw to make it 58-38 with 9:04 to play.
The Hall pulled no closer but despite the setback, the freshman quartet of Khadeen Carrington (Brooklyn, N.Y.), Delgado, Rodriguez and Whitehead - which shone all season - combined to score 28 of the team's 34 points in the final period.
Marquette opened with 10 of the game's first 12 points but the Pirates settled in and rattled off six unanswered on the other end, holding the Golden Eagles without another field goal for over five minutes to pull within two at 10-8. MU snapped the drought with an old-fashioned 3-point play by Derrick Wilson (14 assists) at the 10:03 mark and after two buckets from Luke Fischer, Matt Carlino banked in a trey from the wing to push the gap to double-digits at 20-10.
Carlino buried his third triple of the half with 6:34 to go before the break, giving the Golden Eagles a 25-12 edge. The Pirates' deficit reached 17 in the final five minutes but The Hall found the range from long distance to climb back to within striking distance.
After SHU misfired on its first six attempts from long distance, Sterling Gibbs (Scotch Plains, N.J.) buried a 3-pointer 49 seconds before halftime and Whitehead followed with another triple from the corner to cut the gap to 32-22.
Just before the buzzer however, Steve Taylor Jr. got the bounce off the glass on a fall-away 3-pointer that put Marquette ahead, 35-22, going into the locker room.
MU totaled six 3-pointers in the first half alone after shooting 10-of-39 (.256) from deep over two regular season meetings with The Hall. The Golden Eagles went on to shoot 7-of-10 from beyond the arc in the second half, totaling 13 treys for the contest.
Carrington and Rodriguez added nine points apiece in reserve roles for SHU while Gibbs recorded six points to go with five helpers; his 10th game with five or more assists in 2014-15.
After the two teams split the season series, the loss marked the first time that Seton Hall has dropped its opening game at the tournament since 2011 and just the second in the last seven years.
