NCAAB: Seton Hall faces Marquette in Big East semifinal action

The Big East semifinals are Friday night at The Garden with Villanova taking on Xavier in the first game and Seton Hall and Marquette doing battle in the nightcap. Here’s our selection.

Seton Hall (+4) vs. Marquette, 9 p.m.
The Pick: Seton Hall (+4)

This was the halftime score of Thursday night’s quarterfinal: Seton Hall 53, Myles Powell 29, Georgetown 28.

I don’t think Powell will outscore the Eagles (24-8) in the first half as he did the Hoyas, but we’re going to ride the best player in the Big East (despite what the voters decided) and his Pirates (19-12) until they fall.

Powell also has a little added incentive since the named Big East Player of the Year Markus Howard plays for Marquette. Yes I’m biased toward Powell, but in the two head-to-head encounters Powell outscored Howard, 55-32, including 34-6 in Seton Hall’s 73-64 win at the end of the season.

Seton Hall ended the regular season with consecutive wins over Marquette and Villanova. Let’s see if they can’t do it again.

An interesting little trend here is that the underdog is 13-3 in the last 16 games between these two teams.