Mitch Ballock scored a season-high 29 points and hit a tiebreaking 3-pointer with 41 seconds left to help No. 17 Creighton rally from a 16-point, second-half deficit and stun Seton Hall 85-81 on Wednesday in Newark, N.J.
Ballock made seven of Creighton's 17 3-pointers, none bigger than his last that broke an 81-81 tie.
Marcus Zegarowski had 18 points for the Bluejays (12-4, 8-3 Big East), who missed 11 of their first 12 shots of the second half, including their first 10 3-point tries. Creighton trailed 68-52 with less than 11 minutes to play.
However, Ballock and Zegarowski keyed the comeback for Creighton, which closed the game on a 17-4 run. Zegarowski's 3 with 1:07 left in regulation gave the visitors an 81-79 lead, capping a 10-run spurt.
Bryce Aiken scored a season-high 21 points off the bench and Myles Cale posted 18 of his 20 in the first half for Seton Hall (9-7, 6-4).
The Pirates shot 65.5 percent to lead 54-44 at halftime, but they went 10-for-30 from the field in the second half. Seton Hall, playing its first game since Jan. 19, was much more competitive than it was in an 89-53 loss at Creighton on Jan. 6. However, this defeat will probably sting more.
Each team couldn't ask for a better shooting performance in the first half. Creighton hit eight of its first nine 3-point attempts and led by as many as eight near the midway mark of the half. The Bluejays went 10-for-15 from beyond the arc in the first half, but Seton Hall made 19 of its 29 overall field-goal attempts over the first 20 minutes, including 7 of 12 from 3-point range.
An Aiken 3-pointer capped an eight-point run that gave the Pirates a 31-28 lead. Three consecutive treys from Cale sent the hosts to their largest lead of the half 54-41 before Zegarowski knocked down a deep 3-pointer at the buzzer to make it a 10-point game at the break.
--Field Level Media
Creighton | Seton Hall | |
Mitch Ballock 29 | Scoring | Bryce Aiken 21 |
Mitch Ballock 4 | Assists | Shavar Reynolds Jr. 6 |
Denzel Mahoney 7 | Rebounds | Myles Cale 9 |
Christian Bishop 2 | Free Throws Made | Jared Rhoden 6 |
Denzel Mahoney 3 | Steals | Shavar Reynolds Jr. 2 |
Ryan Kalkbrenner 2 | Blocks | Ike Obiagu 4 |
Team | Points | FG% | 3PM-3PA | FTM-FTA | Assists | Rebounds | Blocks | Steals | Turnovers |
Creighton | 85 | 46.9 | 17-35 | 8-14 | 18 | 25 | 2 | 7 | 8 |
Seton Hall | 81 | 49.2 | 9-25 | 14-18 | 10 | 38 | 7 | 3 | 12 |