Marquette completes season sweep of Seton Hall in Newark

For the first time since 2013-14, the Marquette Golden Eagles have swept the Seton Hall Pirates.

After a 84-64 bludgeoning in Milwaukee earlier this year, Marquette completed the sweep Wednesday evening in Newark with an 88-85 victory.

Markus Howard led all scorers with 32, marking his sixth 30+ point performance of the season. He was a crisp 9-13 from the field and hit all 10 of his free throw attempts, moving him to 83-88 on the season (third best in the nation). Howard had his share of help, though, as four other Golden Eagles scored in double figures. Sam Hauser had 16 to go along with a team-high 10 rebounds. Sacar Anim and Andrew Rowsey each had 15, and Matt Heldt had 10. Doing the quick math, you can see those were the only five Marquette players to score. Jamal Cain, Greg Elliott, and Harry Froling all failed to score, but impacted the game in other ways.

Meanwhile, the Pirates also had five double-digit scorers. Desi Rodriguez had a team-high 21, Myles Powell had 18, Khadeen Carrington had 15, and Michael Nzei and Angel Delgado had 11. Delgado failed to record a double-double, finishing with seven rebounds.

Rebounds were the big story of the game. While rebounding margin isn’t a thing, it’s hard to explain how a team like Seton Hall allows Marquette to grab ten more boards.

Marquette hit its final 14 free throws, which was important in a slim victory.

At 17-7 and 6-5 in Big East play, Seton Hall suddenly finds itself it a bit of a jam. It will probably end up being fine, as the schedule down the stretch isn’t bad, but the Pirates will likely find themselves in the middle of the Big East logjam.

Marquette, meanwhile, snapped a four-game losing streak to pull to 14-10 and 5-7 on the year. With road games against new powerhouse St. John’s and Creighton on the horizon, the Golden Eagles needed a victory in Newark.