[Cracked Sidewalks] Marquette survives against Seton Hall

[CrackedSidewalksSays]

Marquette survives against Seton Hall

It was not the track meet many expected, but Marquette overcame a 13 point first half deficit to edge the Seton Hall Pirates 61-56 tonight at the Bradley Center. Dan Fitzgerald's fourth three-pointer of the night off a feed from Wesley Matthews with just seconds remaining sealed the win. Marquette moves to 12-2 on the season, and 2-1 in Big East play.

Jerel McNeal led MU with 14 points, followed by Dominic James with 13 and Fitzgerald with a cool dozen. Fitzgerald was 4-9 from the field, with all of his attempts coming from three-point territory. Maurice Acker played a season-high 28 minutes last night, and his energy was a big part of MU's second half comeback. The diminutive sophomore landed up with five points and six assists before fouling out.

For the third straight game, MU was flat coming out of the locker room. The Pirates used an 11-0 run to fight to a 22-9 lead through the first thirteen minutes of the game. How bad was MU's start? At the twelve minute mark, the Golden Eagles were 1-10 from beyond the arc and had more turnovers than made baskets. Seton Hall carried a 31-24 into the half.

The key sequence of the game happened with six minutes remaining and MU down by two, 47-49. SHU's Jamar Nutter intentionally fouled Dominic James on a breakaway layup, sending James to the locker room. James' layup was good and Acker, who started in the second half in place of Wesley Matthews, made both free throws to put MU ahead. MU never relinquished the lead from that point on, though the Hall kept it close until Fitzgerald's clutch bucket closed the scoring. James later returned to the floor, but went to the hospital for tests on his right wrist after the game.

This was some kind of ugly win. Whle MU's defense was solid, the offense was abominable throughout this game. As a team the Golden Eagles shot 32% from the field (realize that SHU was the league's worst defensive team coming into the game). Amazingly, against a team with average (at best) bigs, Barro and Burke combined for one field goal attempt in 39 minutes of action. The shot was missed.

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