Jones, Powell power Seton Hall past Marquette
Seton Hall Quotes Marquette Quotes
By Jack McCarthy
Special to
BigEast.com
CHICAGO — Tiffany Jones collected a career-high 29 points and 18 rebounds while Aleesha Powell added 25 points as Seton Hall overpowered Marquette 93-86 on Sunday afternoon to advanced to the Big East tournament semifinals.
The No. 3 seed Pirates (23-7) broke open a tight game in the second half and turned back several surges by the fourth seed Warriors (14-16) to advance to Monday’s semifinals against Creighton.
Guard Shakena Richardson had 20 for Seton Hall while Tabatha Richardson-Smith added 11.
Marquette’s Allazia Blockton, the Big East’s freshman of the year, scored a game and career-high 31 points. Guards Natisha Hiedeman and Danielle King had 17 and 15, respectively, while forward Erika Davenport added 12 points and 10 rebounds.
Trailing by as many as 11 points in the fourth quarter, the Warriors refused to conceded and climbed to within three at 83-80 on Amani m layup with 2:43 to play.
The Pirates replied with a 7-2 run— including a Jones’ 3-pointer — that put the game out of reach at 90-82 with just 50 seconds to play.
Marquette led 21-18 after a briskly played opening quarter while Seton Hall pushed back in the second to claim a 43-41 lead in a first half that featured two ties and eight lead changes.
Seton Hall started to take command in the third quarter and briefly made it a 10-point game at 66-56 on Lubirdia Gordon’s bank shot with 13 seconds left. The Warriors replied with a buzzer-beating layup by Blockton that cut the Pirate lead to 66-58 entering the final quarter.
Both teams had first-round byes and had been idle since the Big East regular season wrapped up in late February.
Marquette and Seton Hall split their regular season series, with home court victories.