Seton Hall University
20-12
Marquette
24-9
ON TO THE TITLE GAME! Pirates Topple Marquette, 81-79
3/16/2019 1:03:00 AM | Men's Basketball
NEW YORK - Junior Myles Powell (Trenton, N.J.) scored 22 points and issued seven assists, and junior Quincy McKnight (Bridgeport, Conn.) posted 18 points and four assists as the Seton Hall men's basketball team overcame significant foul trouble to knock off No. 23 Marquette, 81-79, in the BIG EAST Tournament semifinals Friday night at Madison Square Garden.
For the second time in four seasons, the Pirates advance to Saturday's conference tournament championship game and once again their opponent is top seed Villanova. The game will tip off at 6:30 p.m., live on the FOX Broadcast Network.
Pirate Blue is holding a pregame reception at Hudson Station Saturday from 3:30-5:30 p.m. Fans can register for the event now.
Powell scored 18 of his 22 points in the second half as he guided The Hall to a comeback victory. He finished 7-for-16 from the field and 5-for-10 from three.Â
Seton Hall won its 20th game of the season, marking the first time in program history that the Pirates have strung together four straight 20-win seasons.
Turning Point
The Pirates trailed the entire first half, but only trailed by three at the break, and then trailed by six, 44-38, when Powell started to heat up. He knocked down back-to-back threes to force a Marquette timeout and send the Pirates fans into a tizzy.
Marquette went back up five before Powell made a bucket to make it a three-point. Extracurricular activities on the court led to numerous fouls and ejections, and there was a long delay. Once the game resumed, Marquette took a 60-54 lead with 10:05 to go. The Golden Eagles proceeded to go 0-for-7 in field goal attempts until Sam Hauser connected with 2:40 to go. In that span, the Pirates went on a 20-7 run with Powell hitting a three with 6:37 to go to put the Pirates on top and McKnight punctuating the run with a floater in the lane with 2:49 to go, making it 74-67.
Marquette did not go away, again getting free throws to get back into it. It came down to the very end with the Pirates clinging to a two-point lead, 81-79, and Markus Howard missing the game-winning three-point attempt at the buzzer.
Inside the Numbers
- Seton Hall shot 41.4 percent for the game (24-for-58), 30.4 percent from three (7-for-23) and 59.1 percent at the free throw line (26-for-44). Marquette shot 35.6 percent overall (21-for-59), 30.8 percent from distance (8-for-26) and 70.7 percent at the line (29-for-41).
- The Pirates out-rebounded Marquette 47-39 and used 18 offensive rebounds to generate 18 second chance points.Â
- The Pirates only turned it over eight times on the night while Marquette had 11.
- Powell recorded yet another 20-point night, finishing with 22 on 7-of-16 shooting overall, 5-of-10 from three and 3-of-5 at the line. He added seven assists.
- McKnight scored 18 points on 6-of-10 shooting overall and 6-of-12 at the line. He added in four assists.
- McKnight's defense was the real story, holding Marquette's Howard to 1-for-15 shooting overall and 1-for-9 from three. Howard still finished with 21 points because he was 18-for-24 from the free throw line.
- Senior Michael Nzei (Makurdi, Nigeria) had 14 points and 15 rebounds for his fifth career double-double.
- Sophomore Sandro Mamukelashvili (Tbilisi, Georgia) added in 10 points, six rebounds and two blocks.
- The game featured nine technical/flagrant fouls, three ejections, four foul disqualifications, 57 fouls called and 85 free throws attempted.
- Seton Hall advances to its fourth-ever BIG EAST Tournament final. The Pirates won all three of their previous trips to the final in 1991, 1993 and 2016.
- The Pirates are now 2-2 against Marquette all-time in the BIG EAST Tournament, 4-7 all-time in semifinal games, 5-1 as the No. 3 seed, 4-4 against the No. 2 seed and 13-26 as the lower seed. Eight of Seton Hall's 11 semifinal appearances have been decided by five points or fewer.
- Seton Hall has secured its fourth-straight 20-win season, a program first.
- The Pirates are now 4-2 against Associated Press nationally ranked teams this season.
- The Hall is now 13-6 at Madison Square Garden since March 2014, including 7-1 against Associated Press nationally ranked teams.
- Nzei became the program's leader in career games played. Tonight was his 133rd game, surpassing his former teammates Khadeen Carrington and Angel Delgado.
- Powell surpassed Delgado for 16th all-time in Seton Hall scoring history. Powell now has 1,611 career points.
- Powell also now has 732 points this season alone, which is now the sixth-most in Seton Hall single-season history, third-most in the BIG EAST era.
- Seton Hall is now 6-4 this season in games decided by three points or fewer.
Seton Hall is back in the BIG EAST Tournament final, and the top seed Villanova Wildcats await the Pirates. The game for the trophy and the glory begins at 6:30 p.m., live on the FOX Broadcast Network with Gus Johnson and Jim Jackson on the call and Lisa Byington on the sidelines. The pregame show starts at 6 p.m. Gary Cohen and Dave Popkin will deliver radio coverage on AM970 The Answer, simulcast on the Pirate Sports Network.
Pirate Blue is holding a pregame reception at Hudson Station Saturday from 3:30-5:30 p.m. Fans can register for the event now.
