In a showdown between two of college basketball’s most dynamic scorers, Seton Hall star Myles Powell came out on top — with a little help from his teammates.
Thanks to the 25 points off the bench and an overall complete team effort, Seton Hall improved to 12-4 overall and 4-0 in the Big East with a 69-55 win over Marquette at the Prudential Center on Saturday. The win was the Pirates’ sixth in a row, lifting them to No. 1 in the conference.
“I feel like it didn’t matter who did it or how it got done,” Powell said. “Everybody just wants to win. When you got a group of guys that just want to win, you find yourself rolling and good things always wind up happening. I’m very happy with my team right now.”
Marquette’s standout guard, Markus Howard, kept his team competitive for a majority of the game. Though he put up a game-high 27 points, Howard, who leads Division I with an average of 26.8 points per game, couldn’t do it alone.
Neither could Powell, who credited his teammates after the win for sharing the responsibility on offense. But after taking some time to find his footing in the first half, Powell sank a heavily contested 3-pointer to tie the score at 32-32 with just over three minutes left before halftime — bringing Seton Hall fans to their feet.
Seton Hall guards Myles Powell (13) and Anthony Nelson (2) celebrate during the second half.Bill Kostroun/New York Post“My teammates are just always trying to pick me up,” Powell said. “And whenever my head is hanging or they know I need a bucket to get going, they just always seem to find me. My coaches was telling me to pick my head up.
“I have a good supporting cast and this what I came back to school for, I love these guys.”
The Pirates trailed for a majority of the opening 20 minutes as Powell was unable to make a shot until the 10:41 mark, but the bench kept it close. Tyrese Samuel led with eight points off the bench, while Ike Obiagu and Anthony Nelson chipped in six each. Guard Shavar Reynolds Jr. added five.
Powell finished with a team-high 23 points, shooting 8-for-22 from the field with three steals. He had a rough day from 3-point range, going just 2-for-11 from behind the arc. In the end, Seton Hall’s defense was the star, forcing the Golden Eagles into 14 turnovers, including six steals.
Marquette (11-5, 1-3) led by as many as 11 points in the first half, with Howard posting 18 points before the break. Their seven 3-pointers before halftime were the main source of the Golden Eagles’ offense, which ran into stretches in which they were unable to get a shot off.
Myles Powell hugs Markus Howard.Bill Kostroun“I think once we kind of just started simplifying what we were doing on the defensive end, we kind of locked in a little bit,” Seton Hall coach Kevin Willard said. “We were able to chase some guys off the line and make it hard as you could possibly make it for Markus.”
Willard said he was worried about overplaying Powell, Myles Cale and Quincy McKnight after their heavy workload from three games in the past week. But he said he felt confident in what he’d get from his group on the bench, who Willard said display tremendous chemistry in practice.
“These guys know who they are,” Willard said. “I think that’s the one thing that I’ve been harping on over the last month, is the fact that we still are a team that needs to defend at a high level every night to have a chance to win. We’re not built to outscore people. There’s times when MP gets going and he’s making three’s left and right that we can outscore people, but on a daily basis we are a tough, hard-nosed team that needs to defend to win games. I think these guys are embracing that.”



