NEW YORK, N.Y. -- Fourth-seeded Seton Hall eliminated fifth-seeded Creighton in Thursday's BIG EAST Tournament quarterfinals Presented by JEEP, winning a 72-61 defensive slugfest inside a sold out Madison Square Garden.

Seton Hall improves to 21-11 with the victory while Creighton dropped to 15-17. With the win, Seton Hall will face top-seeded and 13th-ranked St. John's in Friday's 4:30 p.m. Central semifinal that will be televised on FOX. The Red Storm won 85-72 over Providence to start Thursday's action.

Seton Hall led 33-26 at the half, thanks in part to a 10-0 run that helped the Pirates to a 27-18 lead with 4:41 before the break. That was one of four lead changes in the opening 20 minutes. Nik Graves led Creighton 10 points in the first half while batting through foul trouble. Second Team All-BIG EAST guard Adam "Budd" Clark led the Pirates in the first half with 10 points.

Graves scored five points as part of Creighton's 10-2 flurry to open the second half that saw the Jays take a 36-35 lead. The Pirates battled back with a 9-0 burst to move in front 47-42 with 12 minutes remaining. Creighton missed five free throws in the first 12 minutes of the second half to thwart any extra momentum to cut into the lead.

The Jays missed a shot to take the lead with 4:40 to go, and Seton Hall capitalized with the next seven points, including a three-pointer from Omaha native Jacob Dar. After not playing in the first 25 minutes of the game, Dar had a season-high 16 points in the second half to lead Seton Hall.

Graves owned 15 points and a team-leading five assists before fouling out with 1:59 to play on an offensive foul. The Pirates were up 10 at that point, and CU quickly halved the deficit, but the Jays could not pull off a huge comeback in the quarterfinals for a second straight year as Seton Hall scored the final six points of the game at the foul line.

Dar and Clark had 16 points to lead Seton Hall. The Pirates won the rebound battle 42-39, outscored CU 15-5 off turnovers and 30-13 in bench points.

For. CU, Jasen Green had a career-high three blocks and tied his career-high with 11 rebounds. Dix matched his season-high with his second straight game with 22 points. Creighton shot 33.3 percent from the field, including 8-of-34 from three-point range (23.5 percent).

Creighton will learn if it will play in the postseason for the 10th straight non-COVID year on Sunday or Monday.

NOTES: Today marked the 21st straight sold out session of the BIG EAST Tournament dating to the 2022 quarterfinal afternoon session ... Creighton made five or more three-pointers for the 103rd straight game and at least one trey for the 1,088th game in a row ... Seton Hall now owns the series lead over Creighton, 18-17, including a 2-0 mark in the BIG EAST Tournament (2016 quarterfinals)... Creighton now 12-12 all-time at the BIG EAST Tournament and 6-6 in the quarterfinal round ... Seton Hall's Jacob Dar became the first player in BIG EAST Tournament history to score at least 15 points in 15 minutes or fewer on six or fewer shot attempts ... Josh Dix surpassed 250 assists with four helpers on the day ... Dix has also made a three-pointer in 41 of his last 44 games after making 4-of-10 shots from distance today.

Thursday, March 12, 2026

New York, New York, USA

Madison Square Garden

Creighton Bluejays

Greg McDermott

Josh Dix

Postgame Media Conference

Seton Hall - 72, Creighton - 61

THE MODERATOR: Whenever you're ready.

GREG McDERMOTT: Yeah, you know, obviously they're physical, they're hard-nosed defensively. Shaheen does a terrific job with his team. He always has. Some of the numbers on the stat sheet, you know, if you would have told me Budd was going to be 6-15 and A.J. was going to be 2-9, Simpkins 2-8, I would have guessed we would have had a great chance to win the game. But Jacob Dar was certainly the difference in that second half. Then we just had some really out-of-body shooting nights, Fedor 1-9, Austin 2-11. Those guys have been making shots for us all year long.

So credit to Seton Hall. I love the way we started the second half. I thought we grabbed the momentum in the game. We didn't have much of that the first half. Unfortunately, we just couldn't finish the job.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. You talked about locking down some of Seton Hall's more premier players and then getting surprised with some of the contributions they did get. How hard is that to make in-game adjustments when the guys you don't expect to beat you are beating you?

GREG McDERMOTT: Yeah, you know, we had a plan for Fisher and Rivera, and we stuck with the same plan with Dar. His number, I think he was 2-15 from the three-point line coming in. So it wasn't like he's had an impact very much, at least in that part of the game. But to his credit, he threw in a couple of 'em and made a couple hustle plays on the glass as well. So I thought for the most part we followed our plan. We made it tough on Hines when he caught it in there. He and Payne had hurt us more than they did this afternoon in the other two games. But this time of year oftentimes somebody steps up you don't expect, and you hope that guy's on your team, but today he was on the other team.

Q. Obviously you lost Jackson McAndrew kind of early on, and then Josh stepped into a huge role. Can you talk a little bit about what he's meant for you guys this year.

GREG McDERMOTT: Oh, where do I start? He's an incredible young man. And I've coached a long time, 37 years, and you have, you coach a lot of different players, and they impact their teammates in different ways. I'm not sure I've had a player that's impacted their teammates as much as Josh did this year. Just with his ability to keep showing up, and he kept a positive attitude, kept trying to work to get better. And he was always about everybody else, when it really should have been all about him and what was going on with his family. So I've got so much respect for him. It's a blessing that I had the opportunity to coach him. I feel bad we didn't get him to the NCAA tournament, because that's what our plan was when we put this team together. But he's played his best basketball the last three weeks to a month, and I think he's shown the player that he really is. Obviously he went through a lot prior to that.

Q. After so many strong seasons, to suffer a season where things don't exactly go to plan, have you already thought of ways where next year can mark an improvement?

GREG McDERMOTT: I mean, it's too early to start thinking about next year. But I still think we have an opportunity to play some more basketball in one of the tournaments. But, you know, we had some adversity this year with some injuries, with Owen's injury, with Jackson's injury. We continued to fight, and they really stuck together the entire year. Sometimes when you bring in five transfers and three or four freshmen and you try to put 'em together with the guys you have returning, and things don't go well, oftentimes those teams fracture from within. To these guys' credit, that has not happened in our locker room. It's exactly the opposite. I think, with every bit of adversity, they got a little bit closer, and they supported each other at an incredible level. So I think we'll get to play a little bit more. But, yeah, I think back to the Elite 8 team, and I'm not sure any of our starters missed a game that year. So it's just, when things go well, you have a way that the ball kind of bounces your way and you stay pretty healthy and you avoid an illness on game day. And then you have years like this year where, you know, what's going to happen next.

Q. What does it say for a player like Clark to come from a Mid Major program and run an offense like does he in the Big East?

GREG McDERMOTT: Yeah, I mean, he's so shifty. He just, he makes enough shots -- at least he does against us, it seems like. But his pace in transition, his pace in the quarter court, his mid-range. He's got really good at the mid-range. Then defensively he's a pest. So, you know, he's made the transition exceptionally well from the league that he's playing in and now a top-4 finish in the Big East.

Q. So you said you still might continue playing. So if you are in the Crown or in the NIT, how do you keep your guys motivated to keep playing?

GREG McDERMOTT: Yeah, like I said, I think our locker room's tight knit. I think they enjoy spending time with each other. And the reality is, you get to play college basketball once. Somebody tells you you get to play a few more games, then you play a few more games. So I will, we'll deal with that when the time comes, and the invitation, whether it comes or not, not sure. But if they're going to give us a chance to play, we'll keep playing.

Big East Conference Men's Basketball Tournament

Thursday, March 12, 2026

New York, New York, USA

Madison Square Garden

Seton Hall Pirates

Shaheen Holloway

Adam Clark

Jacob Dar

Postgame Media Conference

Seton Hall - 72, Creighton - 61

THE MODERATOR: Coach, did you want to make an opening statement?

SHAHEEN HOLLOWAY: No, it's okay.

Q. What did you think of the team's defense, especially defending the perimeter? What was the key there?

SHAHEEN HOLLOWAY: I thought we came out. I thought we had good energy, I thought we came out. We did a really good job the first half. In the first four minutes of the second half, we kind of lost our mind a little bit, and then once we settled down, kind of got back to it.

Creighton's a very, very good team. Obviously well coached. And they want to play in transition and get a bunch of threes and it's tough. The first four minutes of the second half, we kind of played into that, but once we settled down, I thought we were fine.

Q. Can you describe what today was like to have the kind of game you had on this stage, first time in the Big East tournament and to play like that.

JACOB DAR: It was great. My coaches trust me, my teammates trust me, so it was just about going out there, playing hard, putting in the work. It's always going to pay off. So it felt great seeing that.

Q. Looking ahead, the Big East semifinals, how big of an opportunity is this for you guys and what are the keys to maybe coming out with a win against St. John's?

SHAHEEN HOLLOWAY: It's funny, I was telling him this. You know, I try to explain to these guys about the Big East tournament and the atmosphere, but playing tomorrow night, Friday night, in the semifinals against St. John's in the Garden at home, that's what you play basketball for. So a great opportunity for us. We just got to get back right now and get hydrated and make sure these guys get some rest and then kind of go from there.

Q. Could you answer that guys? You played St. John's close two times, you were up 15 points here. How do you feel, like, getting another chance at them on this stage?

ADAM CLARK: Yeah, we're in the semifinals. That's what we came here to the Big East for. That's what we came to Seton Hall for, to play in the big games on a big stage in the Garden. You can't ask for nothing better.

JACOB DAR: Today was step one and tomorrow's step two, so we're just going to lock in, watch film, and just prepare like we always do.

Q. You have an NIT championship under your belt here, but this is your first Big East tournament win. Does it feel nice to get over that hump?

SHAHEEN HOLLOWAY: Yeah, you know, what? I didn't even think about that. Yeah, I guess. Yeah, right? It's not really my win because when you get a bye, I consider that a win. So I don't have to play on Wednesday, so that's a win for me.

But, no, it actually felt good to get the first one.

Q. Your bench contributed 30 points today. How important was that depth in a big game like this?

SHAHEEN HOLLOWAY: Super important. That's why I want to play ten or eleven guys, right? I think if you only have six, seven guys and things don't go well, you can't go to your bench. Jacob came in and gave us great minutes. So did Trey Parker. And so did Tajuan Simpkins. So when you got guys like that, when the starters are really not playing well, to come in with a bench and we've been doing that the whole year. I think that's been the key to some of our success.

Q. When you watched Budd last year, do you remember what impressed you the most?

SHAHEEN HOLLOWAY: I didn't watch Budd at Merrimack. You got to be careful with that. You can't watch kids when they're on other teams (laughing). You know what attracted me to Budd -- that sounds crazy -- but what I liked about Budd was I like that he played with a chip on his shoulder. Like, he played with, like, the passion and the heart and the determination that I kind of played with. And I love the fact that -- you know, people counted him out because of his size. I know if he get with me and learn and -- because he got some things that you just can't teach, and for him the good thing is that he's still learning. I think once he continues to keep growing and learning, I think his game can go even higher.

Q. More on Jacob's game, not just the scoring, but that he was ripping rebounds out of Creighton guys' arms, what did you think of his effort and how it sparked the team?

SHAHEEN HOLLOWAY: That's kind of what -- that's why he's here. He's different than Elijah, he's different than Josh. He's more athletic. Sometimes throughout the season, you kind of go through up and downs, but to give him credit, he always stayed ready no matter what. I always told him, Just stay ready. He practiced hard, just like he plays, and that kind of stuff is contagious.

Q. Quick question for you here. Do you think that this win gets you any closer to a bid in the NCAA tournament considering some of the other teams that still need to play their way in around the country?

SHAHEEN HOLLOWAY: You know what? You know, that's above my pay grade. I don't kind of get into that. Personally I think we did enough. I know everybody thinks that the league is down. The league is not down. The problem, which you understand, is this league is good from top to bottom. I'm not disrespecting other leagues. Other leagues are top-heavy. Winning this game really helps, but all we can be concerned about is playing tomorrow night. We can't worry about the future right now.

Q. What adjustments are you going to make tomorrow going into St. John's? Because obviously you came out a little bit different look in the second half here. I think a little bit stronger offensively. What adjustments are you going to make?

SHAHEEN HOLLOWAY: I got get back -- obviously, we just played 'em not too long ago. You got to get back, watch a little bit of film, and come up with a game plan. They're a very good team, obviously very well coached, great players.

But our guys played well throughout both games. We're going to do what Seton Hall do. We're going to defend, play hard, and what happens from there, happens from there.

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