Adam “Budd” Clark tallied 16 points, seven rebounds and six assists and Jacob Dar had an enormous second half to lift fourth-seeded Seton Hall to a 72-61 victory over fifth-seeded Creighton in the Big East tournament quarterfinals on Thursday in New York.
Dar, a lightly used reserve averaging 2.4 points per game, did not play in the first half before exploding for a season-high 16 points and five rebounds in 15 second-half minutes. Dar shot 5 for 6 from the field with two of Seton Hall’s four 3-pointers.
The Pirates (21-11) kept their faint NCAA Tournament hopes alive but must face top-seeded St. John’s in Friday’s first semifinal game.
Creighton (15-17) finished below .500 for the first time since 2014-15 and will miss the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2019.
Josh Dix led all scorers with 22 points, Nik Graves had 15 points and five assists before fouling out and Austin Swartz added 10 points for the Bluejays, who were outshot 40.7% to 33.3%.
Seton Hall was down four with 14:02 left when Dar converted a three-point play. That started a 9-0 Pirates run, capped by Dar’s 3 from the left corner.
Dix stopped that run with a layup at 11:12, but the Pirates’ defense stymied the Bluejays, not allowing a field goal for the next 5:53. Dar willed his way to an offensive board and putback for a 54-47 lead inside seven minutes to go.
Creighton got to the line before Dix ended the field-goal drought with a triple, cutting it to 54-52. After Clark got himself a floater, Dar knocked down his second 3-pointer to restore the seven-point edge.
Seton Hall grew the lead to 66-56 when Dar threw down a baseline alley-oop dunk.
In a back-and-forth first half, Tajuan Simpkins and Mike Williams III hit 3-pointers to put Seton Hall up 15-10, only for Swartz and Graves to connect on treys for an 18-17 Creighton edge less than three minutes later.
Seton Hall responded with a 10-0 run, keeping the Bluejays off the scoreboard for the next 3:42 and holding them without a field goal for 5:21. Clark got two buckets for Seton Hall’s largest lead at 31-21 before it settled for a 33-26 halftime gap.
Creighton scored 10 of the first 12 points of the second half, moving back in front on Graves’ two free throws at the 17:37 mark. The lead grew to 42-38 some three minutes later on Fedor Zugic’s lay-in before Dar’s heroics.
