Sports

Seton Hall stuns No. 3 Villanova at the buzzer

Sterling Gibbs stood atop the scorer’s table at Madison Square Garden, soaking up an unreal scene and the cheers of a delirious crowd.

Seton Hall shook up the Big East Tournament.

The efforts of the eighth-seeded Pirates appeared valiant, but futile, after blowing a 13-point second-half lead to top-seeded Villanova, but Gibbs’ stepback jumper as time expired gave Seton Hall a stunning 64-63 win in Thursday afternoon’s quarterfinals.

“It’s big time. You come into the tournament knowing that you have to win four games in four days, so to just get one step closer to that is a great feeling,” said Gibbs, who finished with 10 points and six assists. “We’re really confident, honestly, especially after you beat the No. 3 team in the country. They’re the best team in the Big East and we know if we can beat them, we can beat anyone.”

Seton Hall (17-16), which had lost its previous two meetings with Villanova by a combined 33 points, will advance to the semifinals for the first time since 2001, against No. 4 Providence. Villanova (28-4) — now unlikely to earn a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament — suffered its first loss against a Big East team other than Creighton.

It was the second one-point win in as many days for the Pirates and the first win against a top-3 team in program history.

“I really thought if we could get past Butler we could beat anybody,” said coach Kevin Willard, referring to the first-round win. “I thought if we could get past them, we could get some momentum and just keep going.”

Seton Hall took a one-point lead on Jaren Sina’s corner 3-pointer with 17.2 seconds remaining, but Villanova’s Darrun Hilliard hit a floater in the lane with 7.8 seconds left that looked like the game-winner.

When Willard saw Fuquan Edwin (3-of-15 shooting, seven points) with the ball near halfcourt and the clock running down, he uncharacteristically called a timeout with 3.7 seconds left.

“We usually don’t like to call timeouts,” Willard said. “We usually just like to go, but I wanted the ball at the time in Sterling’s hands.”

Sina inbounded to Gibbs, who drove left, stopped and stepped back at the top of the key, nailing a near-perfect reenactment of Kemba Walker’s quarterfinal buzzer-beater against Pittsburgh in 2011.

“It ended up being a little bit of a scramble,” said Gibbs, a sophomore in his first season at Seton Hall. “In the end it was supposed to get into my hands and I was just supposed to create a shot for one of my teammates or create a shot for myself, and I just stepped back and hit the jumper.”

Seton Hall led by as many as 15 in the first half and remained in control, up 44-31, with less than 14 minutes left in the game. However, after forcing only two turnovers in the first half, the Wildcats turned up their defensive pressure, resulting in nine Seton Hall second-half turnovers, fast break after fast break, and a 16-0 run. Villanova took its first lead of the game on a Hilliard 3-pointer with just over eight minutes remaining.

The ending appeared obvious to everyone but Seton Hall.

“These guys have showed great character all year,” Willard said. “They’ve battled through a lot of injuries, they battled through tough losses. … These guys have a lot of heart, they have a lot of character and they deserve to win.”

Returning to play just 15 hours after leaving the Garden floor, the Pirates looked faster and fresher than at any point the previous night, with Eugene Teague (19 points, 12 rebounds) and Patrik Auda (13 points, 6-of-8 shooting) leading the offensive attack.

By halftime, Seton Hall was up 34-26. By the end, the new Big East Tournament got its first memorable moment.

“I definitely thought we were going to do it,” Teague said. “Sterling made a great shot, but I thought we could definitely beat Villanova tonight. I wasn’t doubting us.”

Few will now.