With less than five minutes left in its game Wednesday night, Marquette appeared an excellent shape to preserve its share of first place in the Big East, while Seton Hall looked ready to fall deeper into a royal mess of barely above mediocre at-large candidates this year.
Marquette trailed 64-55 with 4 minutes 40 seconds left in the game after a Sacar Anim rebound and putback, continuing a string of 26 straight minutes in the game where the Golden Eagles held the lead. Incredibly. Marquette would not score again the rest of the game.
Seton Hall finished the game on an 18-0 run, turning a nine-point deficit into a nine-point lead and a 73-64 win. The victory unquestionably boosts the Pirates’ NCAA tourney hopes, even as it gets them to a still-tenuous position with a 17-12 record and an 8-9 mark in the Big East.
Myles Powell scored 10 straight points in the deciding run, part of a 34-point performance. In all, SHU outscored Marquette 27-5 to finish the game after trailing by 13 points.
As unsurprising as Powell putting up big numbers might be, it was a bit jarring to see Marquette star Markus Howard get shut down. Howard scored just six points and made 2 of 11 shots (2 of 10 from long range) while also committing five turnovers.
Seton Hall stopped a three-game losing streak, while Marquette-after being so consistent all season-suddenly has lost three straight.
The Pirates have another golden opportunity to make a statement and wreak some havoc on the Big East title race in their next game, too: they host the league’s sole leader now, Villanova.
Side Dishes:
- Conference tournament play continued Wednesday night in the Horizon League, Northeast Conference and Ohio Valley Conference. The final two semifinalists were decided in the Horizon with both 2 seed Northern Kentucky and No. 3 Oakland moving on, but both not without a fight. NKU rallied from a halftime deficit to outrun Detroit Mercy 99-88, with the Titans’ Antoine Davis in a losing effort scoring 30 points in the final game of his explosive freshman year. Oakland also edged No. 6 Youngstown State 88-84, with all five starters in double figures led by Jaevin Cumberland with 23. Solid improvement this year by the Penguins, but it’ll be the Norse and Golden Grizzlies meeting in the semifinals.
- The NEC tourney saw three of the top four seeds move on at home. The one surprise was No. 6 LIU winning at 3 seed Sacred Heart 71-62, while top seed St. Francis (Pa.) moved on with a 67-63 victory over Bryant. Fourth-seeded Robert Morris also topped No. 5 St. Francis (N.Y.) 69-65 in overtime, with the Terriers seemingly snakebitten in March again after building a 15-point halftime lead before falling.
- The OVC’s first round saw No. 5 Morehead State move on with a 72-68 win over Southern Illinois-Edwardsville. Also, No. 7 Tennessee-Martin defeated No. 6 Eastern Illinois 78-71.
- Florida was on the fringe of picking up a signature win but fell to LSU 79-78 in overtime after taking the lead in the final seconds of regulation, only to have Tremont Waters tie the game with a second left in regulation. The Tigers finished a 9-0 run on the road in the SEC, an incredible mark, and also are now 5-1 in overtime in conference.
- Helping themselves, at least a little: Washington outlasted Oregon State 81-76 in overtime to move to 24-6. Clemson slipped by Notre Dame 64-62-the Fighting Irish just can’t buy a win in a close game in the ACC. And Creighton continued its late mini-surge with a 76-70 overtime win over Providence to get to 17-13.
- From the “Huh?” department: Iowa State was dropped by West Virginia 90-75, and the Cyclones have now lost four of five. A team that much of the season looked like a possible March contender is now leaking oil. Also in the ‘down is up’ Big 12, Oklahoma State won at Baylor 67-64. Georgetown was pummeled by DePaul 101-69, not a good look for the Hoyas, and Ohio State lost at Northwestern convincingly, too, falling 68-50. None was more head-scratching, though, than North Carolina State at home falling to Georgia Tech 63-61, possibly a very damaging loss given the Wolfpack may not have much margin for error already with their low-rated schedule.
- There was a wild one in the Southland Conference last night between two second-division schools. Houston Baptist-which did win at Wake Forest earlier this season-outran Incarnate Word 118-111 in a game that included 12 players scoring in double figures-six from each team. HBU shot 62.9%-and that was the worse of the two teams, as UIW hit 67.8% of its shots but committed 12 turnovers, double the Huskies’ total.
- Hoopville czar Phil Kasiecki had an excellent feature on Eastern Kentucky senior star Nick Mayo, who this week wrapped up an outstanding four-year career by becoming just the second player in the 71-year history of the Ohio Valley Conference to receive first team all-conference honors four straight years.
- Also, a plug for our column yesterday about the need for NCAA Tournament selection process changes when we’re putting too many teams like 15-14 Indiana on the bubble.
Tonight’s Menu:
- We have daytime basketball with the Big South quarterfinals opening. Hasn’t been a lot of buzz about this one, but this should be another terrific tourney with plenty of teams capable of winning it. The first one has a very solid 7 seed Presbyterian against No. 2 Radford at high noon Eastern time. Top seed Campbell has no easy road either, facing No. 8 Hampton to start.
- The Atlantic Sun is first to have its semifinals. The top two seeds are hosting, with Lipscomb with a tough challenge hosting NJIT, which goes for what would be a school D-I record 22nd win. Also, Liberty welcomes perennial conference contender North Florida, which just knocked off the Flames less than two weeks ago.
- The Patriot League features its quarterfinals at home sites. Top seed Colgate has no easy one when it welcomes No. 8 Boston University. No. 2 Bucknell also has a test; the Bison lost to No. 10 Holy Cross in the regular season, while the 3/6 game has Lehigh hosting Army.
- The OVC second round includes No. 3 Jacksonville State against UT Martin and 4 seed Austin Peay facing Morehead State.
- The wider-than-wide open Missouri Valley Conference tourney opens in St. Louis with first round games. The 8/9 game has Valparaiso against Indiana State, with No. 7 Illinois State and 10 seed Evansville to follow. We’ll be covering Arch Madness for Hoopville for the first two days, getting a look at all 10 Valley teams.
- The Metro Atlantic and West Coast Conference both contest their opening rounds. An intriguing matchup in the Metro Atlantic is 8 seed Marist and coach John Dunne going up against his former school, No. 9 St. Peter’s. In the WCC, strong 7 seed San Diego opens against Portland.
- Outside of conference tourneys, there is a good one in the American with a pair ranked teams facing off as Cincinnati is at Central Florida (7 p.m., ESPN2). Their first matchup was hard fought, so this should be outstanding. Also in the AAC, SMU is at Houston (9 p.m., ESPN).
- Is Iowa beginning another late-season slide? The Hawkeyes have lost three of their last four, including ugly showings last week against Ohio State and Rutgers. Up next is a trip to Wisconsin (7 p.m., ESPN).
Many will have their eyes on Indiana when it goes to Illinois (8 p.m., FS1). Expect more hyperventilating about the Hoosiers’ NCAA tourney chances if they win.
Have a terrific Thursday.
Twitter: @HoopvilleAdam
