COLLEGE BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT : Big East : Seton Hall Advances on 61-58 Victory

On Wednesday, P.J. Carlesimo secured a new five-year contract. A day later he was named Big East Coach of the Year.

Friday he justified both as his Seton Hall team downed Georgetown, 61-58, to reach the semifinals of the Big East tournament for the first time in school history.

“It was a great game and I think we were very fortunate to win,” Carlesimo said. “We’re glad to be in the semifinals.”

John Morton scored 20 points and hit the go-ahead free throw with 38 seconds left to lift Seton Hall and send Georgetown to its first quarterfinal loss in the league tourney since 1983.

“A lot of teams come in here and laughed at us but we’re going to give them a fight,” Seton Hall guard Gerald Greene said.

Morton hit the first of two foul shots to put the Pirates ahead, 59-58. After Georgetown’s Dwayne Bryant missed the front end of a one-and-one opportunity 17 seconds later, Mark Bryant of Seton Hall hit a pair of free throws with 10 seconds to go.

Jaren Jackson missed a desperation 3-point shot at the buzzer.

The Pirates, 21-11, face No. 13 Syracuse in a semifinal game today. The Orangemen beat Boston College, 67-53, earlier in the day.

Sixth-seeded Seton Hall, which watched a 14-point lead evaporate against the Hoya press, received 16 points from Bryant.

Charles Smith paced the third-seeded Hoyas, 19-9, with 24 points. Mark Tillmon contributed 11 points, including a pair of 3-pointers in the final minutes.

Seton Hall built its largest lead when Ramon Ramos converted a 3-point play 79 seconds into the second half to put the Pirates ahead 43-29.

Smith followed with a pair of 3-pointers to start a 13-0 Hoya run that narrowed the gap to a point. He had nine points in the surge as Seton Hall repeatedly turned the ball over against the Georgetown press, failing to score for 7:29.

“In the second half they came out with more intensity on defense,” Morton said. “They have a very aggressive press. It was hard to locate the open man.”

Said Mark Bryant: “Georgetown will always make a run at you. You can never count them out but we never got rattled.”

Pookey Wigington checked in for Seton Hall and the 5-3 guard was able to solve the Hoya press, helping the Pirates build the lead back to 49-44.

A Dwayne Bryant free throw with 7:42 left tied the score 50-50, the first tie since the opening minute. Neither team led by more than six points the rest of the way.

The Pirates committed just five first-half turnovers and made 65% of their shots to grab a 36-25 halftime lead. Morton had 16 points in the first half.

Georgetown shot just 33% from the field in the opening 20 minutes.

“Everybody is going to miss shots,” Smith said. “Their defense was pretty good but their defense didn’t do anything to make us miss those shots.”