Guard Myles Powell scored nine points over the last two minutes as Seton Hall recovered after losing a 12-point second-half lead to post a 63-58 victory over Creighton in a key Big East battle Saturday night in Newark, N.J.
Powell ended the game with 22 points and sealed the win for the Pirates by rebounding guard Davion Mintz's missed free throw with 7.8 seconds remaining and hitting two free throws with 6.2 seconds remaining. Powell made all 10 of his free-throw attempts.
The Pirates (14-9, 5-6 Big East) outscored the Bluejays (13-11, 4-7) 11-2 down the stretch and moved into a tie for third place in the conference with the win. Creighton fell into a tie for eighth.
Forward Martin Krampelj scored a season-high 25 points for Creighton.
Up only two points at the intermission, the Pirates opened the second half on a 10-0 run for a 41-29 lead, as the Bluejays missed their first six shots before Krampelj ended Creighton's drought with a 3-pointer.
The Bluejays seemingly had recovered from the 12-point deficit and were leading 56-52 with 2:36 left before the Pirates regained their footing.
Seton Hall held a nine-point lead, 14-5, less than five minutes into the game, but the Bluejays kept pecking away and caught up at 15-15 just past the midpoint of the first half.
The two teams then both experienced 0-for-9 shooting slumps before Powell converted a four-point play to put the Pirates up 23-18 with 5:32 left in the first half.
The Pirates went into the intermission holding a 31-29 advantage despite shooting under 35 percent from the field (11 of 32) overall and just 4 of 14 on 3-pointers. That's because the Bluejays went only 10 of 35 overall (28.6 percent) and 3 of 13 on triples in the first 20 minutes.
The two teams meet again in Omaha on Feb. 17.
--Field Level Media
Creighton | Seton Hall | |
Martin Krampelj 25 | Scoring | Myles Powell 22 |
Davion Mintz 5 | Assists | Anthony Nelson 5 |
Martin Krampelj 11 | Rebounds | Sandro Mamukelashvili 10 |
Martin Krampelj 4 | Free Throws Made | Myles Powell 10 |
Martin Krampelj 3 | Steals | Myles Powell 4 |
Ty-Shon Alexander 1 | Blocks | Romaro Gill 1 |
Team | Points | FG% | 3PM-3PA | FTM-FTA | Assists | Rebounds | Blocks | Steals | Turnovers |
Creighton | 58 | 30.3 | 8-28 | 10-13 | 14 | 41 | 2 | 8 | 13 |
Seton Hall | 63 | 33.3 | 7-25 | 16-20 | 11 | 40 | 4 | 7 | 12 |