PirateCrew: Seton Hall Pirates Football & Basketball Recruiting
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By Colin Rajala
Seton Hall soured Donald Copeland’s return to the Prudential Center in his first year as Wagner College’s head coach on Sunday afternoon, dispatching the Seahawks 82-44.
The Pirates started off slowly, missing four of their first five shots, but still managed to take control of the game early on, securing a 11-3 lead four minutes into the game on a Kadary Richmond three pointer that was assisted by Tyrese Samuel and a Femi Odukale dunk off of a steal.
First year head coach Shaheen Holloway inserted Al-Amir Dawes into the starting lineup for the first time on the season and it paid dividends immediately as Dawes recorded seven points, three steals in the early part of the first half. The start was likely a way to get the Clemson-transfer into the flow of the game after having his worst game as a Pirate in their previous tilt in the Gavitt Tipoff Games, a loss to the Iowa Hawkeyes.
Dawes captained the Pirates’ early charge notching seven of the team’s first 17 points to take a commanding 17-5 lead and ended the game with a team-leading 19 points, shooting 7-10 from the field and 5-7 from distance, to go along with four rebounds, two steals and two assists.
The Hall held Wagner scoreless for more than seven minutes, 15:28 to 8:24, in the first half, and extended their lead to 23-7 on a layup from transfer Femi Odukale with 7 minutes remaining, but Wagner would not go away quietly as they generated a mini- 5-0 run against Seton Hall’s second unit to prompt a Holloway timeout and mass substitution with four starters returning to the court.
The Seahawks brought the game to within eight points, 23-15, with 4:50 left to play on a DeLonnie Hunt and-one free throw, but Tyrese Samuel responded with a score off of an offensive rebound to extend the lead back to double digits before KC Ndefo would slam home an and-one dunk off a feed inside from Samuel to give the Pirates back the momentum.
Unfortunately for Copeland, former Seton Hall guard (2002-2006) and assistant coach (2021), his team would trail by more than double digits the final 24:22 of the game after the Samuel offensive rebound and score.
Wagner would score five points in the final four seconds of the first half on a Rob Taylor II layup and Rahmir Moore three pointer to go into the half down down 35-22.
Seton Hall had four other players score in double figures alongside Dawes, including, Tray Jackson (16), Ndefo, (12), Odukale (11) and Samuel (10).
The Pirates had their most efficient offensive game on the early season, shooting 51.9% from the field (28-54), 47.8% from three (11-23) and 71.4% from the foul line (15-21), while notching 13 assists.
Jackson was 6-9 from the field, including 3-3 from long distance, Odukale, was 3-4 from the field, 1-2 from three and 4-5 from the free throw line, while Ndefo and Samuel were 4-6 and 4-8 from the field, respectively.
Seton Hall’s stifling defense was on display once again as they held Wagner to 30.5% shooting from the field (18-59), 25% from three (5-20) and 37.5% from the charity stripe (3-8), while forcing nine steals and recoring four blocks on their way to forcing 15 turnovers.
The Pirates also had their best performance on the glass, outrebounding the Seahawks 44-30, with Samuel leading the team with eight rebounds in just 19 minutes of play, while five of his teammates recorded five rebounds apiece.
Seton Hall opened the second half on a 25-10, pushing the score up to 60-32 on a Jamir Harris three pointer assisted by Dawes to put the game far out of reach. The team’s largest lead of the game was 43 after Harris made a layup to go up 80-37 with 4:06 left in the game.
Holloway would put in his three walk-ons, Elijah Muhammad, Jorge Mercardo and David Gabriel, with 3:42 left in the game to close it out alongside freshman Tae Davis and Jaquan Sanders.
Mercado and Muhammad each registered blocks and Muhammad capped the game off with a thunderous alley-oop slam off a baseline inbounds with 40 seconds remaining to the delight of the Pirate faithful still in attendance.
