MBB Big East Tournament: No. 3 Seton Hall Defeats No. 6 Creighton, Advances to Semifinal

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The Seton Hall University men’s basketball team defeated the Creighton Bluejays 81-73 on Thursday night to advance to the semifinal round.

The Pirates were led by sophomore guard Isaiah Whitehead who had an electrifying 24 point 12 rebound double-double. He also added six assists.

Sophomore guard Khadeen Carrington had a career-high 27 points on 10-of-17 shooting and grabbed three rebounds in the win.

Leading the way for the Bluejays was Cole Huff who had a remarkable 35 points to go along with nine boards.

With 2:00 remaining on the clock and the Pirates up by two, senior guard Derrick Gordon hit a corner three to give the Pirates a 71-66 lead. The Bluejays battled back to tie it at 73 before Carrington made a layup with 50 seconds to go to give the Pirates a 75-73 lead they would not relinquish.

“They were taking away Zeke (Whitehead) the whole game basically,” Carrington said. “I just tried to get in the lane, jump-stop get set and go to my left hand.”

In the win the Pirates shot 51 percent from the field and gathered 45 rebounds.

“Khadeen has done this all year,” Seton Hall Head Coach Kevin Willard said following Carrington’s career night. “Nothing he does surprises me. We have been working with him a little bit he gets a little loose sometimes but he was aggressive tonight.”

“I think I played a little bit of an overall game,” Whitehead said in the Seton Hall locker room. I made some mistakes down the stretch but I made up for them with the two rebounds at the end.  It was really just about making winning plays at the end and not focusing on what happened before.”

The win was the Pirates ninth in Big East Tournament quarterfinals history and first since 2014.

“I am home just playing in front of my friends and family,” Carrington said. As a team we did a great job tonight. They came back and made their runs. We made our runs. It just happened that we made the last run at the end.”

The Pirates will take on the Xavier Musketeers on Friday at 9:30 p.m. Seton Hall split the season series with the Musketeers as both teams won at home. This year is the first time since 2007 that the top four tournament seeds will play in the semifinals with No. 1 Villanova Taking on No. 4 Providence at 6:30 p.m.