Seton Hall Season Ends To Marquette In Big East Tournament 78-56

After a promising start, that included being ranked number 19 in the country, the Seton Hall Pirates struggled down the stretch of the season. Coming into the Big East Tournament, the Pirates were looking for some magic in order to make a run in the tournament and maybe to the NCAA Tournament.

For Seton Hall, that run wasn’t meant to be as they went down in the opening round to the Marquette Golden Eagles 78-56 at Madison Square Garden. Matt Carlino led Marquette with 26 points and six rebounds as the Golden Eagles never trailed in the game and dished out 23 team assists. Marquette now faces top tournament seed Villanova in the 12 p.m. game on Thursday.

Marquette (13-18) jumped out to an 8-0 to start the game led by two early three-point field goals by Matt Carlino and Duane Wilson respectively. The Hall began to make a run cutting the lead to 10-8 before the Golden Eagles took over with a barrage of long range shots and pressure zone defense. The first half saw Marquette shoot well over 50 percent from the field and 50 percent from three point range. Seton Hall (16-15) was down by 13 at the half and shot barely over 39 percent from the field while shooting 2-8 from three.

The second half was more of the same as Marquette came out firing. Carlino was on fire for the last 20 minutes of the game as he put on a shooting clinic against the Pirates. Carlino shot 5-of-7 from three in the second half and scored 17 of his points in the half as Marquette led by as much as 27. The game was well out of reach for Seton Hall early in the second half. They scored 34 points in the second half but many of those baskets were garbage points in the final minutes when the Golden Eagles began emptying their bench.

Isaiah Whitehead led the Pirates with 12 points while also adding five assists and four rebounds. Angel Delgado finished his breakout freshman year with nine points and seven rebounds while Sterling Gibbs scored six points, ten below his season average.

After beginning the season 12-2 and beating previously undefeated Villanova, all seemed well in Pirate Nation. After the Villanova win however, the Pirates finished the season 4-13 and in reported turmoil after the departure of guard Jaren Sina in February. While the season did not end the way many believed it should, there is light at the end of this season’s tunnel. With eight freshmen returning as eight sophomores and the leadership of Sterling Gibbs for his senior year, it seems that Seton Hall will not repeat the same mistakes in the 2015-2016 season.

Stay with Double G Sports this week for continued coverage of the 2015 Big East Tournament through Saturday’s final.