March 6th, 2016: Marquette at Seton Hall (Big East tournament)

Just the Facts, Ma'am: Marquette started strong and always threatened, but Seton Hall had the final push to win 93-86. Tiffany Jones put up 29 points and 18 rebounds to power the Pirates, with Aleesha Powell adding 25 and Shakena Richardson 20. Allazia Blockton of Marquette led all scorers, putting up 31 before fouling out.

For freshmen, seniors, cheering one's self hoarse, missed lay-ups, big buckets, huge fan support, trophies, and pictures, join your intrepid and out of order blogger after the jump.

On to the second game, and much closer seats. Since our all-session passes are behind the opposing bench, we reached out to Tony Bozzella for Seton Hall and Veronica Mullen for St. John's to get behind the appropriate bench for our games today. Honestly, I'd prefer to be a little higher up, but beggars can't be choosers.

The Seton Hall band didn't make the trip, so we're borrowing someone else's band. I don't know whose.

There's a family of Marquette fans standing in front of our section, and it's kind of annoying.

There's also an Oregon fan here. I'm not quite sure where he came from. (Ah. He's an Owens.)

Marquette appears to have brought full band. It's pretty impressive. They win the shirt match-up pretty much by default, since the loaner band for SHU is wearing fairly generic shirts.

Shoutout to the Xavier people who stayed.

Scoreboard reads "SHU" and "MU". So much for that theory.

Marquette's band does know they're playing "Tequila", right? You're not technically supposed to know about that, college kiddies.

Is Creighton just following us? They're over in our section now.

The Golden Eagle has an interesting feather-do. Looks like he's doing the blonde faux-hawk thing Clarendon did and Natisha Hiedeman does.

The offset on the shot clock by the road bench is really weird. It's way off to the side. I think it's throwing off Tabatha Richardson-Smith's shot.

At halftime, we've definitely got more offense than we did last game. Seton Hall is up 43-41 on Marquette.

It's annoying, but Marquette's band has prepared an entire list of pirate-themed horrible puns to distract the free throw shooter, and some of them are so bad they're hilarious. ("And what is a pirate's favorite robot? Arrrrrrrrr2-D2!")

Marquette fans showed up! I mean, Milwaukee's close, but that doesn't mean fans will travel. I love the support the Golden Eagles are getting.

Our loaner band went to the trouble of getting pirate hats. I approve.

We can't afford to come out flat in the second half. Marquette's too good for that.

What a game! What a finish! What a performance by Tiffany Jones! What a performance by Allazia Blockton too! Players stepping up for both sides- that's what a tournament is all about!

Amani Wilborn had a good, solid, all-around game. I think she can be taken out of her game a little, get a little distracted, but she's a solid sixth woman who can fill in at multiple positions. Shantelle Valentine's impact was very limited- she's a big girl, but she seems a little tentative inside. She did have one big screen that picked off Martha Kuderer and gave Natisha Hiedeman space for a three. It wasn't quite a Screen of Death, but it will do.

McKayla Yentz spent a lot of time lying on her back on the ground, either getting a call or complaining about not getting a call. I like the hustle, but defense is played with the feet, not the butt. Erika Davenport kept getting lay-ups right at the basket with the extra pass from her guards. She didn't always hit them, but she had plenty of good looks. She did a nice job of following her own shot on a couple of occasions, including on a Gordon block.

Natisha Hiedeman's shot is so quick- as soon as she has space, that shot is going up. Her hands are really quick too- she was disruptive on defense. She's going to be fun to watch as she develops. Danielle King has a soft touch from beyond the arc- she needs to watch her footwork, but once she's in position to shoot, that is one pretty shot. And what can I say about Allazia Blockton that hasn't already been said? She's brilliant. Her offensive game is already so complete, inside and out, and she's only a freshman. She has the potential to develop amazingly. I want her to be awesome. Marquette deserves it. She almost single-handedly willed Marquette back into the game.

Claire Lundberg gave good minutes in relief of the forwards. Martha Kuderer isn't ready for the big time. Jordan Mosley had a huge block on Blockton early on. Say that three times fast. Jordan Molyneaux was Cottonelle soft on the inside, all but running way from rebounds and ducking the ball. And she almost managed to get a foul called on her on the bench, because the announcer couldn't count fingers. LaTecia Smith had a couple of really nice defensive plays, but she wasn't ready for the pressure on offense- Marquette pressed hard and she stumbled.

If we'd lost this one, it would have been dumped on Lubirdia Gordon's head. She missed way too many easy shots at the rim. She had a couple of big blocks protecting the rim on the other side, though. Tiffany Jones had herself the game of her life. She was hitting lay-ups, working the boards like a boss, hitting threes- she took command of the game. She wanted it and she took it, like a true Pirate does. Tabatha Richardson-Smith didn't have as luminescent an offensive game as she's capable of, but she contributed in other ways- on the boards, on defense, distributing the ball for the extra hot pass down low.

Shakena Richardson was out of rhythm early, trying too hard to be an outside threat, but as the game went on, she found seams in the lane and drove, either getting the lay-up, taking the midrange shot, or distributing to the open shooter. Aleesha Powell used her speed to her advantage, cutting to the basket and elevating for the lay-up, or hitting that soft three she loves. She had a great block on a low Davenport shot.

The only thing that really disturbed me for Seton Hall was the loss of simpatico between Bozzella and his point guards. Usually they're on the same page, but today, not so much. Hoping that gets fixed before tomorrow.

Officiating was wildly inconsistent, going from loose in the first quarter to tighter than a girdle in the second quarter to seeming one-sided in the second half. It seemed like calls weren't going both ways. I know I'm biased, but it was pretty awkward. There were a couple of bad calls against Marquette in that quarter too, as if to keep Coach Bozzella from going off on the refs.

That game was a shining example of what the Big East can be, and what it is. Seton Hall, with their seniors and graduate students, is the present. Marquette, laden with freshmen, is the future. We're in good hands.