While this pun has undoubtedly been made before, it will be made again now: In the Seton Hall Pirates' 80-70 victory over the Marquette Golden Eagles on Tuesday night, Pirate's guard Sterling Gibbs truly sparkled.
Gibb's second half scoring spurt all but ended the game at the 12:51 mark of the second half, and solid play all around from the Pirates catalyzed a crucial road victory in the Big East. In a game which had been a close, hard-fought battle for the opening 20 minutes, an eight minute period filled will truly sterling play gave Seton Hall a lead they would not lose.
It was a stunning period in the second half, and because of their play over the opening eight minutes Marquette coach Steve Wojciechowski felt Seton Hall were worthy winners.
"I think Seton Hall was really great. I thought they played a terrific game, I thought Sterling Gibbs had a terrific game."
The game began as many a Marquette game has this season: the Golden Eagles fell behind early before suddenly beginning to play better. That motif was repeated this evening as they fell behind to an early 8-2 scoring spurt, but rebounded to cut the deficit to 8-7 heading into the first media timeout.
The rest of the first half played out in a similar fashion: one team would go on a mini scoring run before the other would respond and cut the lead. However, the difference in the second half was Gibbs. Frankly, he was the difference in the second half because he played so poorly in the first.
Seton Hall's starring guard began the game shooting 0-4, and only scored five points in the first half. It was left to his supporting cast of Angel Delgado, Jaren Sina and especially Khadeen Carrington to pick up the slack. They certainly did.
In the first half, Delgado thoroughly dominated the glass and had six points and six rebounds heading into the break. Meanwhile, Sina and Carrington took turns carrying the offensive burden and finished with eight and nine points in the opening period respectively.
Meanwhile, the spark offensively in the first half for Marquette came off the bench. Duane Wilson, who had been stellar last Saturday against Georgetown, had only three points on 1-8 shooting in the opening period. Matt Carlino supplied his usual shooting excellence, and had nine in the first half but the true offensive spark came from Steve Taylor.
Taylor, who has struggled against taller interior defenders all season, truly was instant offense on Wednesday. He came into the game and immediately hit back-to-back layups on his way to scoring eight points in the first period.
However, the good defensive work from Marquette on Gibbs in the first half was undone in the opening eight minutes of the second period. He came out after the break firing shots from all over the place, and at one point made four shots and scored 11 points in a row.
The Pirates came out from the break and it was as if they could not miss. Additionally, Marquette could not score. On Seton Hall's opening eight possessions in the second half, they scored 17 points. Marquette scored only two.
"We’ve come out flat plenty of times [in the second half] this season but I didn’t expect it to happen there. As a captain, I take complete responsibility for that," said Marquette forward Juan Anderson.
At that point, with the score at 49-30 Seton Hall, the game seemed to be over. It would only get worse for the Golden Eagles. Over the next three minutes, the lead would grow to 60-36, and fans were heading for the exits with more than 12 minutes on the clock.
Like Anderson, Wojciechowski was completely taken aback by the performance, and gave a wry smile when asked what went wrong in the second half.
"That’s the million dollar question. We got knocked back by their shooting. On the year they’ve been a 27% shooting team from three [point range] in the Big East and they weren’t that tonight."
Throughout that Seton Hall run, Gibbs scored 16 points and at one point scored 11 straight. Although he struggled a bit in Seton Hall's last three game. Pirates' coach Kevin Willard was not surprised he came through when they needed him.
"You saw it in his step, once he saw that first one go in, you knew that he was gonna make a bunch. Sometimes, when you've been struggling with your shot, it's good to see the ball go through the net. Once he saw it go through the net, he got back to his oh, what the kids call, swag."
However, this Marquette team has embodied the spirit of their coach, and they did not give in. They reeled off a run of their own, keyed by hard defensive work from Derrick Wilson and clutch shooting from Sandy Cohen, who finished with 11 points off the bench. A Cohen three-pointer with seven minutes left cut the lead to 62-50, but a series of questionable refereeing decisions ended the run.
Yet, the Golden Eagles would not go away and again trimmed the lead to 12 points. A Derrick Wilson layup cut it to 71-59 with just under four minutes left, and Cohen had an open look to cut it to nine. However, his three-pointer rimmed out and the game was, for all intents and purposes, over.
In spite of the impressive fightback late in the second half, it appears these tough losses are taking a toll on Wojciechowski. When asked plainly if he can take any positives away from this game, he bluntly answered, "No."
The victory takes Seton Hall to 14-6 (4-4 Big East), and they will host Xavier on Saturday. Meanwhile, the loss drops Marquette to 10-10 (2-6 Big East), and they will play host to Butler on Saturday.