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Seton Hall all but punched their ticket to the tournament

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Mike Miller

It was just one of those nights for Jordan Theodore.

The Seton Hall senior point guard couldn’t make a mistake if he tried, as he went for 29 points (on 8-11 shooting from the floor, including 5-5 from three) while adding five assists and four boards. He scored 17 of those points in the second half as the Pirates pushed a seven-point halftime lead out to as much as 22 in the second half.

“To tell you the truth he didn’t make any mistakes, and I’m not just talking about the shots he made,” said Georgetown coach John Thompson III. “He totally controlled everything, and tonight we just didn’t have any answers for him.”

Seton Hall, as a team, played nearly flawless basketball in their 73-55 win over the Hoyas. They shot 25-41 (61.0%) from the field and 8-13 from three. They knocked down 15-19 from the free throw line and only turned the ball over eight times. Those numbers become all the more impressive when you consider that the Hoyas are the 16th best defense in the country, according to Kenpom.

Seton Hall also held Georgetown to 40.4% shooting from the floor. The Hoya starters were just 10-28 from the field. Their leading scorer on the night? Greg Whittington, who had nine points. Hollis Thompson, Jason Clark and Henry Sims finished with 22 points combined.

More importantly, this win all but puts Seton Hall in the NCAA Tournament. With two games left in the regular season, all the Pirates need to do is avoid a misstep against Rutgers at home and DePaul on the road, which isn’t exactly asking much of a tournament team. That would put them at 10-8 in the Big East and 21-9 overall. With the work they did in non-conference play, that will be enough to send Seton Hall dancing.

And to think, it wasn’t a month ago that the Pirates were in the midst of a six-game losing streak and sitting at 4-7 in league play.

“I just wanna dance so bad,” Theodore said after the game. “I still can’t taste it yet, but I know we’re so close.”

You’re probably closer than you think, Jordan.

Rob Dauster is the editor of the college basketball website Ballin’ is a Habit. You can find him on twitter @ballinisahabit.