Aiken Posts Monster Game in No. 20 Seton Hall's Setback at Marquette

[Halldan1]

Aiken Posts Monster Game in No. 20 Seton Hall's Setback at Marquette - Seton Hall University Athletics

Seton Hall's point guard scored a game-high 28 points on 5-of-8 shooting from three-point range to lead the Pirates.

shupirates.com

72 Seton Hall 11-5,2-4 Big East 73 Marquette 12-6,4-3 Big East Score By Periods Team 1 2 F Seton Hall 41 31 72 Marquette 44 29 73

Milwaukee, Wis. - Graduate Student Bryce Aiken (Randolph, N.J.) scored a game-high 28 points on 5-of-8 shooting from three-point range and graduate student Alexis Yetna (Paris, France) pulled down 16 rebounds, two shy of his career-high, to go with 15 points, but Marquette pulled away late as the Golden Eagles defeated the No. 20 ranked Pirates, 73-72, Saturday at Fiserv Forum.

Graduate student Ike Obiagu (Abuja, Nigeria) had another monster game on the glass as he finished with 13 rebounds and a season-best seven blocks. Now with 157 blocks in his Seton Hall career, Obiagu is rapidly approaching the program's all-time record of 167, held by Samuel Dalembert.

How It Happened

Marquette had an 11 point lead, 44-33, with 1:49 to play in the first half but the Pirates (11-5, 2-4 BIG EAST) used a late surge to cut into the lead.

Aiken converted a traditional three-point play and drilled his fourth three of the half on his fourth attempt that made it 44-39 with 1:07 to go and graduate student Myles Cale (Middletown, Del.) later drew a foul and made both free throws, cutting the Seton Hall deficit to three, 44-41, going into the locker room.

The two sides went back and forth for most of the second half with the Pirates taking leads by as much as five on three different occasions.

With Seton Hall trailing 67-65 with 3:14 to play, Aiken made a runner in the lane that tied the game and Cale made a steal on the next defensive possession. Aiken was fouled and made one of two free throws that gave the Pirates a 68-67 lead with 2:12 to go in the game. Yetna scored off of his sixth offensive rebound that made it 70-67 Pirates but Marquette finished the game on a 6-2 run that led it to a 73-72 victory.

Inside The Box Score

• The Pirates finished +21 on the glass (47-26) and had 19 offensive rebounds.
• Marquette forced 20 Seton Hall turnovers and it scored 20 points off of those turnovers.
• The Golden Eagles found 22 points off their bench while the Pirates had 19.
• Seton Hall allowed Marquette to shoot 50 percent from three (11-of-22).
• The Pirates finished with more free throw attempts (23 attempts to 16) and finished shooting 67 percent from the charity stripe.

News & Notes

• The Pirates fall to 105-18 since 2016-17 when they attempt more free throws than their opponent.
• All five of Seton Hall's losses this season have by six points or less and its average margin of defeat is 3.8.
• Obiagu moved past Herb Pope and Howard McNeil on Seton Hall's all-time blocks list and now has 157 for his career, 10 shy of Samuel Dalembert's all-time record.
• Obiagu has posted back-to-back 10-plus rebound performances and has blocked five or more shots for the third straight contest.
• Saturday marked the first game this season that Seton Hall's bench failed to match or out-score its opponents reserves.
• Aiken has scored 20 points or more in his last three games. His 28 points today were the most he's had in a Seton Hall uniform.

Up Next
Seton Hall will return to the court on Saturday, Jan. 22 when it heads to Madison Square Garden for a noon contest with St. John's. It's the opener of an unusual home-and-home with the Red Storm, as the two teams meet again on Monday, Jan. 24 at historic Walsh Gymnasium. Both games will be nationally televised on FS1.

 

[Halldan1]

 

[Halldan1]

BTW, for those not aware, Jerry was at the RU/Maryland game and that's where Xfinity Center is located.

To add a tidbit. In the pre game media area at the Rock before every game the first question asked by those in the room when it opens is, is Breeding doing the game? He's that BAD.

 

[MichiganStoleTitle]

First question on radio post-game: what were you so upset about at end of game?
Willard: “Next question.”

(He did, however, take a few swipes at refs later in interview.)

 

[Halldan1]

If you're not Jay Wright you have to be very careful outright criticizing the refs. The league doesn't look kindly at that and probably even more importantly refs have long memories.

The best way to handle that is to say I was upset and clearly disagreed with the call so I let the refs know. Maybe then answer the obvious follow-up question by saying I thought the player jumped into Aiken and then leave it at that.

Explain your feelings and then take the high road. Anything else will bite you in the ass and accomplish nothing down the road.

 

[ceballoj]

If you're not Jay Wright you have to be very careful outright criticizing the refs. The league doesn't look kindly at that and probably even more importantly refs have long memories.

The best way to handle that is to say I was upset and clearly disagreed with the call so I let the refs know. Maybe then answer the obvious follow-up question by saying I thought the player jumped into Aiken and then leave it at that.

Explain your feelings and then take the high road. Anything else will bite you in the ass and accomplish nothing down the road.

While Jay definitely rides the refs duting games, I dont recall him ever calling them out in a oress conference. Not his style

 

[Halldan1]

Agreed, but maybe that's simply because he doesn't have to.

Nova, because they are elite with IMO the best coach in college BB gets more than their share of whistles. Wright knows that and games the system as well as anyone. Especially in conference where he sees the same refs every year.

 

[Piratz]

Leagues want refs protected. They're all petrified of the perception of chaos or incompetence. That's why they get such safeguards and never have to atone publicly for nonsense, even when they clearly make the incorrect call at a crucial moment that directly impacts the outcome of a game.

Referees are just as important to the outcomes of games as players. They impact flow, personnel, score, everything. Now they're not the sole reason a team wins or losses obviously. But I don't see what the problem is in saying it was an atrocious and wrong call that dramatically impacted the game. Everyone knows it was including Szelc himself. What a joke.

I don't know the ins and outs of the replay review process with the NCAA, but I was wondering if they would've given Elliott the 2 shots and then given SHU 2 shots for the elbow to the face. That was more purposeful than the flagrant they called on Marquette earlier.

 

[SHU_Pirate1]

BTW, for those not aware, Jerry was at the RU/Maryland game and that's where Xfinity Center is located.

To add a tidbit. In the pre game media area at the Rock before every game the first question asked by those in the room when it opens is, is Breeding doing the game? He's that BAD.

Dan, asking the question that most of us are wondering. Where’s the accountability?!? Not an isolated incident, the coaches all know about it, the fans know about it, the press knows about it. Where is Val and the Big East powers that be to step in and do something? Not a good look for the league. Not acceptable to sit on your hands and let this continue. Even with the NFL playoffs kicking off it was the lead story in the sports segment on Channel 4 yesterday stating that “…officials should not decide game, but that’s just what happened to Seton Hall.”

 

[TheHall87]

First question on radio post-game: what were you so upset about at end of game?
Willard: “Next question.”

(He did, however, take a few swipes at refs later in interview.)

That might have been the shortest post-game spot Willard has ever done and I thought Popkin did well in calming Kevin down a bit because he was clearly still livid when they started.

I think Kevin could have said something along the lines of "I thought it was a bad call and I disagreed with it" and not have faced any repercussions. Anything beyond that would have gotten him in hot water with the league.

 

[Halldan1]

Where’s the accountability?!?

Nothing else in your post needs to be said.

Wish I had an answer.

 

[Piratz]

That might have been the shortest post-game spot Willard has ever done and I thought Popkin did well in calming Kevin down a bit because he was clearly still livid when they started.

I think Kevin could have said something along the lines of "I thought it was a bad call and I disagreed with it" and not have faced any repercussions. Anything beyond that would have gotten him in hot water with the league.

I thought Popkin let him off the hook. Not even a follow-up. There's a relationship there you don't want to burn it over something that was totally obvious, I get that part of it too.

 

[shu09]

BTW, for those not aware, Jerry was at the RU/Maryland game and that's where Xfinity Center is located.

To add a tidbit. In the pre game media area at the Rock before every game the first question asked by those in the room when it opens is, is Breeding doing the game? He's that BAD.

I get the heat directed at Breeding, he's definitely one of the worst refs in the league. But he did not call that last foul. He was on the baseline and didn't call anything. Matt Potter called it, and he's another poor official contracted by the Big East.

Breeding actually made the right call on Cale traveling on the baseline after the timeout. Problem is, Potter told him he could run it.

Breeding is a bad ref, but this debacle was 100% on Matt Potter.

 

[TheHall87]

I thought Popkin let him off the hook. Not even a follow-up. There's a relationship there you don't want to burn it over something that was totally obvious, I get that part of it too.

Somebody showed Kevin the replay during the long review delay. He didn't really go ballistic until after that happened.

I'm not sure if he was able to get a good look in live action but I think he went from "how do you make that call in this spot" to "that was a terrible call and you just screwed my team" along with several unprintable words.

As a broadcaster, that's a tough spot to be in. You can probe a little bit but you don't want to be the reason Willard goes off. Maybe Cohen would have pushed a little harder.

As you say no reason to blow up their relationship.

 

[Halldan1]

Willard has a longer leash with Cohen than he does with Popkin. Dave is aware of that and proceeds carefully when Cohen is not present.

We saw that in the past when Willard went off on Popkin for a question that Cohen would have asked with no repercussion.