NEW YORK – They are dancing in the streets of Napoleonville, La.

With Georgetown looking absolutely dead in the water late in the second half Wednesday night, senior swingman Darrel Owens, a native of the small Louisiana town, came up huge to rally the Hoyas from an 11-point second-half deficit to a 56-51 victory over Seton Hall in the first round of the Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden.

Georgetown (17-12, 9-8) snaps a five-game losing skid and plays a quarterfinal contest against No. 12 Connecticut Thursday night. The Huskies beat the Hoyas in both meetings this year and have not dropped a game against Georgetown since 1997. Seton Hall (12-16, 4-13) ends a disappointing season with a bitter defeat.

“We could’ve caved in tonight,” Georgetown Head Coach John Thompson III said. “We had some games early on where we were in this position and fought back to win. I’m glad they remembered what it felt like to be in that position.”

Georgetown hit six threes in the first half – three of them by junior forward Brandon Bowman – and jumped out to a 23-16 advantage with 5:38 to play. The Hoyas once again succumbed to a cold spell, hitting just one field goal the rest of the half to trail 28-27 at halftime.

The intermission did Georgetown little good, as the team managed only six points in the first 12 minutes and Seton Hall took advantage to build a 44-33 lead. After leading all scorers with 12 points in the first half, Bowman was held scoreless during the second-half stretch. The Hoyas’ second leading scorer, freshman forward Jeff Green, was well-defended all game by Pirate senior forward Andre Sweet and had just three points in the second half and seven in the game.

With any remote possibility of an NCAA bid slipping away, Owens came to the rescue. He hit back-to-back threes, cutting the Pirates’ lead to five. Seton Hall pushed the lead back to nine on a three from senior guard John Allen, but the Pirates began to fall apart and a four-minute scoring drought gave the Hoyas the opening they needed. Green hit two free throws to cut it to six and another three from Owens brought the Hoyas within 49-46 with 2:35 to play.

“We got to the ball faster, quicker,” Bowman said. “Darrel hit some shots in the second half that really sparked us.”

After Bowman narrowed the margin to one point on two free throws, Owens hit his fourth and biggest three to put Georgetown up 51-49, the Hoyas’ first lead of the second half.

The Pirates had a chance to tie at 53-51 but Green broke up a bad pass and the Hoyas regained possession with 12.6 seconds to go. After junior guard Ashanti Cook hit one of two free throws, the Pirates missed a desperation three and fittingly it was Owens who drilled the final two free throws to seal the Hoyas’ first Big East Tournament victory in two years.

“Coach Thompson has been saying all year round that if we make shots, we have a pretty good chance to win,” Owens said. “And obviously it paid off tonight.”

The Hoyas now need to pull another rabbit out of their hat tomorrow night against the red-hot Huskies.

“Obviously, we’re playing against a good team, a team that is playing very well right now,” Thompson said. “What do we have to do? We have to execute. We cannot have any lapses.”