Creighton Men's Basketball Drops BIG EAST Tourney Quarterfinal to Seton Hall

NEW YORK, N.Y. -- Fourth-seeded Seton Hall eliminated fifth-seeded Creighton in Thursday's BIG EAST Tournament quarterfinals Presented by JEEP, winning a 72-61 defensive slugfest inside a sold out Madison Square Garden.

Seton Hall improves to 21-11 with the victory while Creighton dropped to 15-17.  With the win, Seton Hall will face top-seeded and 13th-ranked St. John's in Friday's 4:30 p.m. Central semifinal that will be televised on FOX. The Red Storm won 85-72 over Providence to start Thursday's action.

Seton Hall led 33-26 at the half, thanks in part to a 10-0 run that helped the Pirates to a 27-18 lead with 4:41 before the break. That was one of four lead changes in the opening 20 minutes. Nik Graves led Creighton 10 points in the first half while batting through foul trouble. Second Team All-BIG EAST guard Adam "Budd" Clark led the Pirates in the first half with 10 points.

Graves scored five points as part of Creighton's 10-2 flurry to open the second half that saw the Jays take a 36-35 lead. The Pirates battled back with a 9-0 burst to move in front 47-42 with 12 minutes remaining. Creighton missed five free throws in the first 12 minutes of the second half to thwart any extra momentum to cut into the lead.

The Jays missed a shot to take the lead with 4:40 to go, and Seton Hall capitalized with the next seven points, including a three-pointer from Omaha native Jacob Dar. After not playing in the first 25 minutes of the game, Dar had a season-high 16 points in the second half to lead Seton Hall.

Graves owned 15 points and a team-leading five assists before fouling out with 1:59 to play on an offensive foul. The Pirates were up 10 at that point, and CU quickly halved the deficit, but the Jays could not pull off a huge comeback in the quarterfinals for a second straight year as Seton Hall scored the final six points of the game at the foul line.

Dar and Clark had 16 points to lead Seton Hall. The Pirates won the rebound battle 42-39, outscored CU 15-5 off turnovers and 30-13 in bench points.

For. CU, Jasen Green had a career-high three blocks and tied his career-high with 11 rebounds. Dix matched his season-high with his second straight game with 22 points. Creighton shot 33.3 percent from the field, including 8-of-34 from three-point range (23.5 percent).

Creighton will learn if it will play in the postseason for the 10th straight non-COVID year on Sunday or Monday.