For most of this year, Jamir Harris has been the forgotten man. A lightly used transfer from American who wasn’t able to carve out a role for himself.

But lately, he has become invaluable.

His 3-pointer with 40.3 seconds left early Thursday morning enabled Seton Hall to avoid disaster. It gave the Pirates the lead and they held on to avoid an early exit from the Big East Tournament in an ugly 57-53 victory over No. 11 Georgetown.

“To be able to knock down that shot for my teammates, my brothers, there’s no better feeling than that,” said Harris, a North Brunswick, N.J., native. “To hear the crowd go crazy for us, be so excited for me to hit that shot, it means the world to me.”

Sixth-seeded Seton Hall advances to the quarterfinals to face No. 3 UConn on Thursday night at 9:30 p.m. Georgetown, meanwhile, becomes the first Big East team to fail to beat a league foe since Miami in 1993-94.

With Kadary Richmond sitting almost the entire second half due to what coach Kevin Willard called a re-sprained thumb, Harris was pressed into duty at point guard, and had nine points and two assists. It was reminiscent of the natural shooting guard’s breakout performance in the regular-season finale victory at Creighton last Saturday when Richmond originally hurt his thumb.

“I want to be prepared for whatever role Coach needs me to play for us to win,” Harris said.

The narrow victory was typical of Seton Hall in this run of six straight wins and nine victories in 11 games. Seven of the wins have come by seven points or less. Late deficits don’t faze the Pirates. This group believes it will find ways to win.

“I think it’s a testament to what we’re about,” senior star Jared Rhoden said. “Coach Willard always has utmost confidence in us. There’s no time in the game where I look over to the sidelines and I see fear at all, and that’s big-time for us, having a coach who has ultimate confidence in us to make plays.”

Collin Holloway’s right-handed runner off the glass over Alexis Yetna and Ike Obiagu with 1:06 left gave Georgetown the lead, before Harris stroked a 3-pointer from the top of the key. On the other end. Holloway missed an open 3-pointer, Obiagu blocked Donald Carey inside and Georgetown turned it over after Yetna missed the front end of a one-and-one at the free-throw line. Rhoden iced it with two free throws with 2.9 seconds to go.

Seton Hall (21-9) came out flat and found itself down 10 late in the first half. Georgetown (6-25) was the hungrier, more physical, more desperate team.

The Pirates did close the half with seven straight points to climb within three, and held a three-point lead after a Tray Jackson 3-pointer with 11:46 remaining. But a 4:57 scoring drought followed, allowing the Hoyas to reclaim the lead. They were up four, with just 5:06 left, after a Kaiden Rice 3-pointer. Seton Hall reeled off six straight points, capped by a Yetna slam to go back ahead momentarily, and held Georgetown to three points the rest of the way.

“They’re older, so they kind of know when they’re not playing well offensively,” Willard said. “All the talk in the huddle was … let’s just keep getting a stop. That was their focus. Sometimes when you don’t have it offensively, it’s great you can depend on defense.”