Seton Hall propels itself into NCAA Tournament conversation with win over No. 7 Marquette
Seton Hall is red hot and knocking off Top 25 teams on the regular now.
Kadary Richmond and Al-Amir Dawes combined for 44 points and Dre Davis made a huge shot in the final seconds as The Hall upset No. 7 Marquette, 78-75, at Prudential Center for their second straight win over a Top 25 opponent and their fifth win in six games. Seton Hall is now 10-5, 3-1 in the Big East, with all three wins over ranked foes.
“We work so hard and we’ve got a lot of talented guys,” said Dawes, who went for 23 points including 4-of-5 from deep.
“We expect to win games like this. This is what we’re here for and this is what we got recruited for. And to see it working out is really nice.”
Richmond went for 21 points, 5 assists and 3 rebounds despite battling a foot injury. Jaden Bediako added 11 rebounds and Dylan Addae-Wusu tallied 9 points and 7 boards.
The Pirates led by 10, 76-66, with 2:26 to go but committed three costly turnovers that led to Marquette baskets, cutting the lead to 76-75.
Davis (11 points, 7 rebounds) then took a feed from Richmond on the perimeter and drove to the basket with the shot-clock winding down and spun one in off the window to make it 78-75.
The Golden Eagles (11-4, 2-2) had a possession to tie it but turned it over on the perimeter.
Addae-Wusu missed the front end of a one-and-one, but Tyler Kolek missed a desperation heave at the buzzaer.
“We definitely gotta clean some stuff up,” Dawes said of the late turnovers. “We gotta get back in the lab, controlling what we can control.”
Seton Hall now has three Quad-1 wins. The Hall had previously beaten defending NCAA champion and No. 5 UConn by 15 points last month and then knocked off No. 23 Providence on the road on Wednesday.
“I’ll be doing my bracket later tomorrow, but this likely puts Seton Hall in the NCAA field for the time being,” New Jersey-based bracketologist Brad Wachtel told NJ Advance Media.
“Just a huge couple of weeks for the Pirates to surprise many people and turn its season around by adding some upper echelon Q1 wins. That being said, they can’t get complacent and need to beat the teams they are supposed to beat. Avoiding a loss at Georgetown on Tuesday is important to keep the momentum going.”
Seton Hall used a 10-0 run -- including 6 points from Richmond and an assist from Richmond to Davis -- to charge ahead 76-66 lead with 2:25 to go.
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The Hall used a 12-2 run -- capped by a layup by Richmond -- to seize a 54-44 lead early in the second half.
After trailing by as many as 10 in the first half, The Hall rattled off a 25-7 first-half run en route to a 42-39 halftime lead.
Dawes made his first five shots, including 3-of-3 from deep, and had 15 at the break. Addae-Wusu and Richmond scored 7 apiece in the first half.
“Marquette is a very good team, very well-coached, great players,” Pirates coach Shaheen Holloway said. “We came in today and I think the crowd played a big part so I want to thank those guys.”
The Pirates play their next two on the road -- at Georgetown on Tuesday and at Butler next Saturday.
