McNeal helps Marquette past Seton Hall, into quarterfinals

#6 Marquette 67 - #11 Seton Hall 54

Jerel McNeal scored 21 points and No.25 Marquette overcame a difficult shooting night to fend off pesky Seton Hall 67-54 in the opening round of the Big East tournament. Seton Hall made life difficult for Marquette, holding the Golden Eagles to 34 percent shooting from the field. Marquette wasn’t able to pull away from Seton Hall until the final five minutes. Every time it looked as though Marquette was going to go on a run and try to put some distance between themselves and Seton Hall, the Pirates would make a run of their own to remain within striking distance.

Seton Hall played their best game since knocking off Louisville back in January, the Pirates faltered in crunch time and their execution was inferior to that of Marquette. In a one possession game, trailing 57-54, Seton Hall failed to score on their last 10 possessions of the game. Marquette ended the ballgame on a 10-0 run. Lazar Hayward notched a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds, and Dominic James added 11 for Marquette. The Golden Eagles didn’t find success from 3-point range, shooting 3-of-17, but Marquette blasted Seton Hall on the glass, outrebounding the Pirates 56-37, 25 of which came on the offensive glass.

Eugene Harvey and Jamar Nutter each had 15 points for Seton Hall, who lost to Marquette for the third time this season. The Pirates’ leading scorer, Brian Laing, entered the game averaging 19 ppg, but finished with just six points on 3-of-10 shooting from the field. Laing was swarmed by white, navy and gold every time he got his hands on the ball. He wasn’t able to get many easy cracks at the rim, and Marquette did a great job collectively defending him, not allowing Laing to get into any rhythm offensively. Seton Hall closed out their 2007-08 campaign dropping their last four games. It was also the fourth consecutive time Seton Hall has lost in the first round of the Big East tournament.

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While Seton Hall goes home, Marquette moves on to the quarterfinal round on Thursday night at 9 PM against the 3 rd seeded and 14 th ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

by Frank Minniti
BigEast-fans.com Director of Content

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