Powell catches fire with 34, Pirates upset No. 16 Marquette 73-64

Date: March 6, 2019

By Dalton Allison

You could use the final stat line of Myles Powell from Wednesday night’s 73-64 victory over No. 16 Marquette to describe his performance: 35 points, five rebounds, and five assists. Despite those numbers, only one word could describe his performance for the night: fire.

Powell gave a new energy to the Seton Hall fan base on Wednesday evening, reigniting an excitement that had seemed to completely escape the fans that filed into the Prudential Center following a losing streak of three games. To get the reinvigoration back to the fans, the Pirates had to fight an uphill battle for most of the game.

Creating the friction against the Pirates was Sam Hauser. Hauser hit a multitude of shots that seemingly buried the Pirates, and his work began early against the Pirates with a pair of free throws with 14:20 remaining in the first half to give Marquette an early 9-7 lead.

Down 19-16 with 10:20 in the first half, Powell came through for the Pirates by slipping a layup in and making the foul shot he was awarded. Now that the game was 19-19, both teams began to trade jabs, and Marquette escaped the first half with a 37-31 lead over Seton Hall.

Dire times seemed to get worse for Seton Hall, as Marquette extended their first half lead to 45-33 with another Hauser three point shot. With the lead extended all the way to 12, Marquette should have had the lid sealed on the night. That is when Powell started to catch fire, and the Pirates never looked back.

“We knew what was on the line, and we were fighting for what we’ve been fighting for all year” Powell said following the game.

He displayed the fight that the Pirates had left in the form of 19 points on 6-13 shooting.

A large part of the effort tonight for the Pirates was shutting down the potential Big East Player of the Year, Markus Howard. Howard struggled to find any shooting success on the evening, finding himself with six points on 2-11 shooting. This shutdown can be credited to Quincy McKnight, who was tasked with guarding Howard on the evening.

“Quincy did his job and he came out and did what Defensive Players of the Year do” Powell said of McKnight’s performance after the game.

Despite the Pirates locking down Howard, they still found themselves trailing Marquette 64-55 with 4:40 remaining in the game following a Sacar Anim layup. That would be the last bucket the Golden Eagles would make for the rest of the game.

Ten straight points were then scored by Myles Powell, and when he made the three to put Seton Hall on top 67-64 with 2:28 remaining, the Prudential Center was about to collapse with excitement. Seton Hall closed the game out on an 18-0 run over Marquette, and in doing so, made their hopes for an appearance in the NCAA Tournament a lot brighter.

The Pirates will return home on Saturday to host the Villanova Wildcats at 12 pm. Coverage of the game will begin on 89.5 FM WSOU at 11:45 am before Matt Ambrose and Frank Frasco have the call from the Prudential Center.

Dalton Allison can be reached at dalton.allison@student.shu.edu.

Posted in: Men's Basketball, Sports, WSOU