There have been times this season when men's basketball coach Buzz Williams wouldn't even talk to his senior-laden squad during games.

Even when the Golden Eagles are struggling (for example, digging a 37-34 halftime hole against Seton Hall Tuesday) senior Wesley Matthews said Williams can be surprisingly soft-spoken.

"There are a lot of games where Buzz doesn't even say anything," Matthews said. "Timeout, halftime, it's just silence because, we know."

If Williams said something at halftime against the Pirates, it worked. The Golden Eagles opened the second half with a quick 6-0 spurt that Seton Hall coach Bobby Gonzalez called "a debacle" and never trailed again, winning 79-67.

Gonzalez said he knew a run was coming from Marquette and warned his team against it during the intermission.

"They're the type of team that if they see the crack in the door, they kick that door open," Gonzalez said. "We knew they were going to make a run. I warned them at halftime, but I think it came a little quicker than our guys expected."

That 6-0 run turned into a 21-5 run. That 21-5 run turned into a 39-13 run. And that 39-13 run led to the Golden Eagles tying a program-high with 11 Big East victories.

The 12-point win marked the 10th time this season that Marquette (22-4, 11-2 Big East) has led by six points or less (or trailed) at halftime and won. On five of those occasions, the Golden Eagles have pulled away during the final 20 minutes for double-digit victories.

"We knew (Seton Hall) wasn't going to back down," senior guard Wesley Matthews said. "They were going to throw their punch, we were going to throw our punch and we had to keep throwing ours (in the second half). That's what we did."

Matthews led all scorers with 24 points in the contest, adding four rebounds and four assists in 34 minutes. He scored 16 of his points after the intermission and got help from forward Lazar Hayward (14 points) and guards Jerel McNeal and Dominic James, each with 13 points.

The Golden Eagles were able to force Seton Hall (14-11, 5-8) into 14 second-half turnovers and also held a 25-13 advantage in points off turnovers. Marquette held a 25-14 rebounding advantage in the second half and out-shot the Pirates (41.2 percent against 34.6 percent).

In Big East play, Marquette has allowed 68 points per game and allowed opponents to shoot at a 43.7 percent clip from the field (ranking near the bottom of the conference in both categories). But the Golden Eagles held the Pirates scoreless for two stretches of nearly four minutes during the second half Tuesday, during which they built a 23-point lead.

"In the second half, we were maybe as good as we possibly have been all year long defensively," Williams said. "They scored four baskets the first 16 minutes and 12 seconds, and I think the field goal percentage defense was 23 percent at that time."

That sort of intensity was missing during a first half in which the Golden Eagles allowed Seton Hall to shoot 48.3 percent from the field (14-of-29), score 37 points and force nine Marquette turnovers.

"We know when we're not playing the way we're supposed to be playing," Matthews said. "We know when we're not doing what we're supposed to be doing."

And Williams didn't have to do much at halftime for Matthews and the rest of the Golden Eagles to make the adjustment.

"There is great trust from me to them," Williams said. "I didn't really say anything at halftime that you would anticipate I would have said. I was really calm."