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NEW YORK, N.Y. – Sophomore Jeremy Hazell (Harlem, N.Y.) scored a game-high 23 points as Seton Hall won their first BIG EAST Championship game since 2003, a 68-54 victory over USF on Tuesday at Madison Square Garden.

With the victory, Seton Hall (17-14) advances to the second round and will face sixth-seeded Syracuse tomorrow at 9:00 p.m. The win is also Seton Hall’s first in the BIG EAST Championship since a 67-52 victory over Miami in 2003.

Junior Eugene Harvey (Brooklyn, N.Y.) scored 16 points and dished out six assists. Senior John Garcia (Brentwood, N.Y.) played a strong second half, and finished with six points and nine boards. Senior Paul Gause (Pittsgrove, N.J.) played just 17 minutes due to early foul trouble, but notched four steals to pull within six of the school career record.

The Pirates received balanced scoring early on.  Hazell and USF’s Dominique Jones traded three-pointers to start the game.  Moments later, a three-pointer by junior Robert Mitchell (Brooklyn, N.Y.) gave the Pirates an early 8-6 lead with 16:20 left in the first half.  A three-point play by junior Eugene Harvey (Brooklyn, N.Y.) and another three-pointer by Hazell on back-to-back possessions pushed the Seton Hall lead to double-digits, at 16-6, and capped an 11-0 run.

After USF (9-22) cut the lead to 16-10, Harvey scored five straight points for Seton Hall to push the Pirates lead back to 21-12.

The Bulls would not fade however, and a 9-1 capped by an Alex Rivas put-back gave USF the lead at 29-28 with 2:00 minutes remaining before halftime.  On the next possession, Chris Howard hit a three-pointer to give USF their largest lead of the half, at 32-28. But John Garcia’s (Brentwood, N.Y.) rebound and put-back at the buzzer cut the Bulls lead to two, 32-30, as the teams went into halftime.

Jeremy Hazell and Chris Howard scored 11 points apiece to lead their respective teams at the half.  Seton Hall shot 44.4% in the first half, but USF hit on a blistering 52.4% of their shots. 

In the first 4:25 of the second half the lead changed five times with the teams seemingly scoring at will.

Seton Hall finally got some breathing room with a 12-2 run, to give the Pirates a 51-41 lead with 12:04 remaining in regulation.  The last nine points of the run were all courtesy of Hazell, the BIG EAST’s second-leading scorer. 

The remaining 12 minutes of the game featured plenty of scoring for both teams, but the Bulls could not make a final push.

Both teams shot well from the floor, with Seton Hall shooting 50.0 percent, and USF hitting on 44.2 percent

Earlier today in other BIG EAST Championship first round games, #16 DePaul upset #9 Cincinnati, #13 St. John’s defeated #12 Georgetown and #10 Notre Dame got past #15 Rutgers.

On Wednesday the BIG EAST Championship continues with second round games.  Starting at noon, #16 DePaul will face #8 Providence, #13 St. John’s will play #5 Marquette at 2:00 p.m., #10 Notre Dame takes on #7 West Virginia at 7:00 p.m. and #11 Seton Hall will face #6 Syracuse at 9:00 p.m.