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Seton Hall basketball falls at Marquette after controversial foul call

jerry carino, asbury park press
·4 min read
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It was a whistle that will go down in Seton Hall basketball infamy.

In the final seconds of a tie game at Marquette on Saturday, Pirates guard Bryce Aiken got hit in the face with an elbow while appearing to cleanly defend a 3-pointer.

Yet Aiken got called for a foul.

So what easily could have been a charge against Marquette’s Greg Elliott instead put him on the free-throw line, where he made one shot with two seconds left to lift the Golden Eagles to a 73-72 victory.

Marquette Golden Eagles forward Olivier-Maxence Prosper (12) battles Seton Hall Pirates forward Alexis Yetna (10) and guard Bryce Aiken (1) for control of the ball during the first half at Fiserv Forum.
Marquette Golden Eagles forward Olivier-Maxence Prosper (12) battles Seton Hall Pirates forward Alexis Yetna (10) and guard Bryce Aiken (1) for control of the ball during the first half at Fiserv Forum.

Aiken finished with 28 points as the 20th-ranked Pirates fell to 11-5 overall and 2-4 in the Big East after dropping both ends of a midwestern swing.

Marquette (12-6, 4-4) has won four straight — and broke a six-game slide in the series with the Hall.

Forward Alexis Yetna added 15 points and 16 boards for the Pirates, who have a bye week coming before visiting St. John's at Madison Square Garden Jan. 22. Their next scheduled contest, Tuesday's visit from Providence, was canceled due to a COVID outbreak within the Friars' program. It's uncertain whether the game will be rescheduled; there is no clear that that works for both teams, and the Friars have two other postponements as well.

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Seton Hall's Bryce Aiken reacts after making a shot during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against Marquette, Saturday, Jan. 15, 2022, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)
Seton Hall's Bryce Aiken reacts after making a shot during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against Marquette, Saturday, Jan. 15, 2022, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)

THREE THOUGHTS

1. Will there be consequences?

Crews involving James Breeding have caused hot messes before, most notably the widely panned disaster against Marquette in the 2019 Big East Tournament semifinals. It wasn't Breeding who blew the call against Aiken — that was Matt Potter's mistake.

Still, there's a clear pattern here. Will the Big East pull these officials Hall games for a while? Will there be any accountability for Po? Don’t count on it. He'll probably wind up working the Final Four.

2. Fell behind again

Seton Hall’s slow starts predate this particular team. This has been going on since the Angel Delgado-Khadeen Carrington era. It happened at DePaul Thursday, when they trailed by 18 on the way to a four-point defeat. And it happened again here as Marquette connected on 9-of-14 first-half 3-pointers, a few of them off turnovers. Rallying from down 11 on the road in an environment like Marquette’s is a big ask. Is this fixable?

3. Ball-handling a problem

DePaul caused chaos for the Pirates, so you knew it was going to be an issue against Marquette, which is DePaul on steroids. The Pirates finished with 20 turnovers, leading to 20 Marquette points. They also handed out just six assists compared to 19 for Marquette. Seton Hall should be a better ball-handling team with two lead guards in Kadary Richmond and Aiken, but this is a situation where having a true “point” guard makes a big difference.

THREE QUOTES

From Kevin Willard’s postgame radio interview with Dave Popkin and Matt Loughlin:

About what he was saying to the officials at the end: “Next question please.”

On the slow start: “They (Marquette) came out hot from three. They banked one in. We had two turnovers against their pressure that led to them getting threes, and that kind of got us in a hole. Then we started taking care of the ball."

On the rally: “I didn’t think we got some fouls calls going to the basket late in the second half, but I was really impressed with our aggressiveness not settling for shots."

On where the team is at going into a bye: “We’re in a little bit of a hole, but when you play your first two (league) games with seven guys, unfortunately that was predictable. We’ve played a lot of games and we need a little bit of a break, getting them mentally and physically back into a good spot. We’re going to tweak some things defensively. We finally started to look like the defensive unit we can be in the second half. If we clean up our defense, I like where we’re at.”

Jerry Carino has covered the New Jersey sports scene since 1996 and the college basketball beat since 2003. He is an Associated Press Top 25 voter. Contact him at jcarino@gannettnj.com.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Seton Hall basketball falls at Marquette after controversial foul call