The familiarity was there. Marquette coach Shaka Smart’s “Havoc” defense, which will intimidate others, was calmly handled late. In fact, it was the Golden Eagles who often looked confused at Creighton’s defense.

In the third and biggest matchup of the season between the two, No. 4 Creighton seized control early in the second half Thursday and held on — even with some familiar dramatics — for a 74-63 win over No. 5 Marquette at Madison Square Garden in the quarterfinals of the Big East Tournament.

Creighton (21-10) will meet No. 1 Providence (25-4) in the semifinals Friday.

Creighton may have removed itself from the bubble with the victory and likely will not have to sweat out Selection Sunday any longer. Marquette (19-12) was playing for seeding and will be dancing next week.

“We’re excited for what this win does for our postseason résumé,” Creighton coach Greg McDermott said after his team shot far better from beyond the arc (41 percent) than Marquette (32 percent).

Creighton led by 12 with under six minutes left when Marquette guard Darryl Morsell scored seven straight. Greg Elliott finished a Marquette breakaway with a layup plus the foul to make it 63-61 with 3:06 remaining, but that was as close as the Golden Eagles would come.

With the Marquette fans suddenly awake and the team’s defense picking up full-court, Ryan Hawkins forced them back to sleep. Hawkins, a forward who is a senior transfer from Northwest Missouri State, was left alone at the top of the key and swished a 3 that jump-started an 11-2 closing run.

“He’s as good as there is at making you pay when you’re not where you need to be,” Smart said of Hawkins, who went 7 of 12 from the field and scored 14 of his team-high 18 points in the second half.

Smart has a good idea about Creighton’s offensive threats because he has seen enough of them.

Creighton beat Marquette twice in the regular season — once in double overtime and once by a single point. But both games were led by Ryan Nembhard, the Bluejays’ orchestrating point guard who was lost for the season on Feb. 23, when he hurt his wrist and needed surgery. Creighton had dropped two of its final three regular-season games without him to put its March Madness hopes in jeopardy.

Nembhard was on the bench in a sling but watched his replacement, Trey Alexander (11 points, eight assists), ably run the offense. Hawkins, center Ryan Kalkbrenner (14 points on 5 of 6 shooting) and freshman Arthur Kaluma (14 points, some spectacular) picked up the scoring slack.

“Our roster is different than it was in those two games without Nembhard,” McDermott said. “But these guys, they’ve been incredible.

“I just told them in the locker room: I take timeouts when my team looks unsure, scared or panicked. When I looked out there, even when they made the run, I didn’t see that.”

After a competitive first half in which Marquette was sloppy — forced into 10 turnovers — and Creighton inaccurate from deep, the Bluejays opened up a gap big enough in the second half to qualify as stunning when these two teams face each other.

The Blue Jays went on a 10-2 run for some breathing room, punctuated by a thunderous dunk from Kaluma — rising high above forward Justin Lewis, whose foul made it an and-one — that made it 39-31.

There would be some sweating from the Creighton fans that followed, but nothing like the showdowns in January and February. And there was plenty of sweating from the Creighton contributors, too, McDermott leaning on Hawkins for all 40 minutes. Only seven Bluejays played for more than a minute.

“We didn’t really have an option,” McDermott said. “I only have a few guards on my team.”

The Golden Eagles were paced by Morsell’s 18 points and 17 from Lewis. But they were outshot and outrebounded (39-27) to halt their Big East dreams.

“Marquette’s a heck of a basketball team. And we’ve played them in two previous games that frankly we were probably lucky to win both of them,” McDermott said. “But kind of found a way at the end.”