Marquette 67, Seton Hall 54

There will be no Big East tournament run for Seton Hall.

The No. 11 Pirates were eliminated by No. 6 Marquette, 67-54, in the last of Wednesday's first-round games at Madison Square Garden.

The Golden Eagles (23-8) will meet No. 3 Notre Dame in the last quarterfinal on Thursday. Those two teams have played 110 times, never in New York.

"We're excited about the matchup and yet we understand how good they are," Marquette coach Tom Crean said of the Irish, who feature Player of the Year Luke Harangody.

Jerel McNeal, who was unable to play in last year's Big East tournament because of injury, led all scorers with 21 points to go with nine rebounds and four assists for Marquette. Lazar Hayward added 15 points and 10 boards and Dominic James scored 11 points. Marquette outrebounded the Pirates, 56-37, including 25 offensive rebounds to 13 for The Hall.

"I thought (Seton Hall coach Bobby Gonzalez) did an outstanding job of getting his team ready to play after a difficult game against Rutgers on Sunday," Crean said.

Jamar Nutter and Eugene Harvey tallied 13 apiece for the Pirates (17-15) and Jeremy Hazell  added 10. Brian Laing had six points on 3-of-10 shooting.

Three of Seton Hall's four big men -- Augustin Okosun, John Garcia and Mike Davis -- fouled out and combined for 12 points, six rebounds and five blocks.

Seton Hall came within 54-53 on a drive by Harvey with 5:58 left, but failed to score another field goal the rest of hte way.

Maurice Acker hit a 3-pointer to extend the lead to 57-53.

A leaner by Acker pushed Marquette's lead to 62-54 with 2:37 remaining. A breakaway dunk by McNeal off a Seton Hall turnover and two ensuing foul shots by Hayward officially put the game out of reach at 67-54.

Marquette had beaten Seton Hall twice during the regular season by a combined 30 points.

Marquette dominated the Pirates on the boards and outrebounded Seton Hall 28-17 en route to a 34-29 halftime lead.

It remains to be seen whether Seton Hall gets an NIT bid.

"They've had a very good year," Crean said of Seton Hall. "I know they've lost some games recently, but they've had a very good year and I hope their season continues."

Comments

[1oldshu]

Harvey really stepped it up and looked like a top BE guard again last night. Maybe the Marquette focus on stopping Laing gave Eugene more room, but he sure looked great. Unfortunately, the defense on Laing was too effective and our big men were too outclassed to maybe compensate for Laing's low offense. Both teams looked pretty bad in shooting, what were the final FG% numbers Adam?