Seton Hall's Defense Shines as Pirates Rumble Past Marquette

Saturday, January 11

Newark, N.J.

4 p.m.

Seton Hall University

12-4,4-0Big East

Marquette

11-5,1-3Big East

Marquette

Seton Hall

Shavar Reynolds Jr. Defending Markus Howard

Seton Hall's Defense Shines as Pirates Rumble Past Marquette

1/11/2020 8:07:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score BOX SCORE (PDF)

NEWARK, N.J. - The Seton Hall men's basketball team made a huge second-half adjustment on defense, holding Marquette to 19.2 percent shooting and only five field goals made in the second half as the Pirates rumbled past the Golden Eagles, 69-55, Saturday afternoon at Prudential Center.

Senior All-America candidate Myles Powell (Trenton, N.J.) scored a team-high 23 points, and his classmate Romaro Gill (St. Thomas, Jamaica) chipped in 10 points. Meanwhile, the Pirates defense was led by junior Shavar Reynolds, Jr. (Manchester, N.J.), who came off the bench to frustrate All-American Markus Howard, who scored 27 points but was only 8-for-22 from the field. Reynolds, Jr., finished the game a team-high +21.

Seton Hall is now 12-4 overall and 4-0 in the BIG EAST, only the second in program history the team has started conference play 4-0 (1992-93).

Turning Point
Seton Hall struggled to defend Marquette's three-point shooting early on as the Golden Eagles made six of their first nine from downtown to build out an 11-point lead, 23-14, with 9:57 to go first half. But the Pirates then clamped down, holding Marquette to six points over the next five minutes while chipping away at the deficit. Senior Quincy McKnight (Bridgeport, Conn.) had a huge pick six, aided by a tip by Reynolds, for a dunk to get the Pirates within three, 30-27. Then Powell, who at that point was struggling with his shot, took over with a stepback three-pointer to tie the game at 32-32. It was part of a 13-5 run to end the half as The Hall went up 40-37.

Marquette battled to tie the game at 45-45, but the Pirates brought in some reserves to lock down on defense. Reynolds, sophomore Anthony Nelson (New York, N.Y.) and freshman Tyrese Samuel (Montreal, Quebec) came into the game, and the Pirates went on an 11-0 run as Nelson got it going with a drive to the basket and then assisted on a Reynolds three in front of the Seton Hall bench to energize the crowd. After Howard missed a three, Nelson threw up an alley oop to sophomore Ike Obiagu (Abuja, Nigeria) to send Prudential Center into a frenzy and force Marquette to call timeout. The Hall then went up 11, 56-45, when Samuel drove to the basket and slammed a dunk home.

Marquette got as close as five, but Powell stopped an offensive funk with a pick-and-roll pass to Gill for a dunk, and the Pirates held Marquette without a field goal in the final 6:13 (0-for-8 shooting).

Inside the Numbers

Seton Hall shot 44.6 percent for the game (25-for-56), 23.8 percent from three (5-for-21) and 53.8 percent at the free throw line (14-for-26). Marquette shot 32.7 percent overall (17-for-52), 33.3 percent from three (10-for-30) and 64.7 percent at the line (11-for-17).
The Pirates out-rebounded Marquette, 41-34, and limited Marquette to five second chance points while also outscoring the Golden Eagles in the paint, 32-10.
Seton Hall did a great job with ball protection, committing a season-low six turnovers. The Pirates forced 14 Marquette turnovers and turned them into 21 points.
The Pirates' bench outscored Marquette's, 25-7.
Powell finished with a team-high 23 points on 8-of-22 shooting. He also had seven rebounds, three steals and two assists. It was Powell's 40th career game of 20 points or more.
Gill had 10 points and six rebounds but since Marquette took 58 percent of its shots from the three-point line, he was held without a block.
Samuel finished with eight points and five rebounds in his 12 minutes of action.
Reynolds had five points and three rebounds and finished the game a team-high +21.

News & Notes

Seton Hall is now 8-8 against Marquette since the BIG EAST reconfigured in 2013-14, 10-19 against the Golden Eagles overall.
The Pirates are 4-0 in the BIG EAST for only the second time in program history, joining the 1992-93 squad.
The Hall has now won six in a row for the first time since a seven-win stretch from Dec. 4, 2018 to Jan. 2, 2019. It's the seventh six-game winning streak or better in head coach Kevin Willard's tenure.
Dating back to last season, Seton Hall has won six straight BIG EAST conference games, the second-longest streak under Willard. Across the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons, the Pirates won seven straight conference games.
The crowd of 12,707 ranks seventh-highest in Seton Hall's Prudential Center history.
Seton Hall is now 94-13 (.879) since the start of the 2015-16 season when leading by at least seven points at any juncture of the game.

Up Next
Seton Hall will clash with Butler in a battle of the only two remaining BIG EAST unbeatens. The matchup at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Ind., takes place Wednesday, Jan. 15 at 6:30 p.m. FS1 will carry the game with Tim Brando and Nick Bahe on the call. Gary Cohen and Dave Popkin will bring the radio headsets and call all the action on WMCA 570 AM, simulcast on the Pirate Sports Network.