New York, NY (SportsNetwork.com) - Sterling Gibbs hit a step-back jumper at the buzzer as Seton Hall stunned third-ranked Villanova, 64-63, in the quarterfinals of the Big East Tournament.
Seton Hall called a timeout with 3.7 seconds remaining after Darrun Hilliard spun in the lane and hit a floater to give Villanova, which won its first regular-season conference title in eight years, a 63-62 lead.
Gibbs handled the inbounds pass and shook a defender before nailing the game- winning shot from near the top of the key.
"It was supposed to get in my hands, and I was supposed to create a shot for my teammates or create a shot for myself, and I just stepped back and hit the jumper," Gibbs said about the final shot.
Big man Eugene Teague netted a season-high 19 points to go with a game-best 12 rebounds as the eighth-seeded Pirates (17-16) withstood a huge second-half run by Villanova.
Patrik Auda scored 13 points and Gibbs finished with 10 points and six assists for Seton Hall, which will play fourth-seeded Providence in a Friday semifinal. The Pirates were coming off a one-point victory over ninth-seeded Butler Wednesday night.
Josh Hart paced the top-seeded Wildcats (28-4) with 18 points. The loss snapped Villanova's six-game winning streak and very likely spoiled its hopes of securing a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
The Wildcats swept the season's two meetings with Seton Hall by a combined 33 points, but found themselves trailing by 15 in the first half on Thursday.
"We had a tough game with them at their place. They're a very, very good offensive team," Villanova head coach Jay Wright said. "I thought they played smart defense tonight, gave some of our guys shots that they wanted to give shots to, and we let those guys take them. We just didn't make them. I thought they were a very smart defensively tonight. And it paid off for them."
Villanova trimmed its deficit to 34-26 at halftime and used a 16-0 run to move ahead. Hilliard buried a straightaway 3-pointer to cap the surge and give the Wildcats their first lead at 47-44 with 8:03 remaining.
Seton Hall responded with an 11-3 run and led 55-50 after Brandon Mobley knocked down a trey with 4:51 to play.
The teams went back and forth down the stretch, with two Teague free throws putting the Pirates up 59-58 with 1:17 left.
After JayVaughn Pinkston made 1-of-2 at the foul line to tie the game, Ryan Arcidiacono poked the ball away from Auda and Hart's fastbreak layup gave Villanova the lead.
Jaren Sina hit a left-corner three to make it 62-61 in favor of Seton Hall with 17.2 seconds remaining.
Game Notes
The Pirates won for only the second time in the last 14 meetings ... The Wildcats' 26 points marked the fewest in any half this season ... Villanova shot 46.9 percent in the second half after making only 26.9 percent of its first-half attempts ... The Wildcats were only 4-of-19 from 3-point range ... Hilliard and Pinkston each had 11 points.
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