Sitting squarely on the NCAA Tournament bubble, Seton Hall upset the No. 8 Georgetown Hoyas 73-55 at home. The win improves the Pirates record to 19-9 overall and 8-8 in the Big East.
"It defiantly helps us," head coach Kevin Willard said. "If you look at our overall body of work, where our RPI was and strength of schedule after the non-conference and in the league this was a huge win for us."
Senior Jordan Theodore led all scorers with a career high 29 points on 8-11 shooting, including 5-5 from beyond the arc. Theodore also outscored all of the Hoyas starters 29-24.
"The hoop was so wide tonight," Theodore said. "It was like I was throwing the ball into the crowd. I hadn't had a game like this in my career and in a game like this was great."
Senior Herb Pope also scored in double figures with 12 points while pulling down a team high six rebounds.
Georgetown was led by a team effort with freshman Greg Whittington the high scorer with nine points and three other players with eight.
"I thought we did a good job if being patient on them and making them work a little bit," Willard said. "That's one thing when you defend them, you're going to work. I thought we did a really good job of making them work and taking 25 seconds on the shot clock."
As a team the Hall shot 61 percent from the field and 62 percent from three point land, while holding the Hoyas to 40 percent shooting. The Pirates also forced 11 turnovers by Georgetown.
"(Georgetown) contests every shot and for us to just be able to knock those shots down was big," Theodore said. "We just needed this win so bad."
With the game tie, 22-22 in the first half, sophomore Fuquan Ediwn hit a 3-pointer that gave the Hall the lead.
The three from Edwin started a 8-2 run by the Pirates, with Mobley making two jumpers and sophomore Patrik Auda hitting one free throw.
Holding a 33-26 lead after a Theodore 3-pointer, the Hoyas got a layup from freshman Otto Porter with seven seconds left cut the lead to 33-28.
With the clock running Theodore took the ball the full length of the court and drew a foul on the layup attempt to give him two shots with one second left, making both.
"With seven seconds left, we had a timeout, but John (Thompson III) does a good job of changing defenses when you call a timeout," Willard said. "You work on that in practice, get the ball in the hands and let him attack and if something open he kicks it, if not he tries to get it."
Starting the second half with a 35-28 lead, but Georgetown senior Harry Sims got a putback dunk on the opening possession, making it a five point game.
Auda responded with a layup after Edwin drove the lane and dropped it off to him. The basket started 8-0 run, which included a pair of 3-pointers from Senior Jordan Theodore and freshman Aaron Cosby on back to back possessions.
With the score 49-38, Theodore would hit another 3-pointer to start another run by the Hall. This run with a pair of inside baskets from Pope and a pair of free throws gave the Pirates a 18 point lead at 58-40 with 7:53 left in the game.
A tip in from freshman Mikael Hopkins cut the Hoyas deficit to 16 points with 3:56 left but that would be as close as Georgetown would come to the Pirates.
Two free throws from Theodore and a steal leading to a layup by Edwin put the Pirates up 20 with 3:19 remaining to clinch the game for the Hall.
"The team is feeling good, motivated after a win like this," Mobley said. "It's our last home game and we just want to leave the fans with a good feeling."
The Pirates next play Rutgers at home Saturday against Rutgers on senior night.
Stephen Valenti can be reached at stephen.valenti@student.shu.edu
