BY Colin Rajala
Newark’s Prudential Center has become a veritable house of horrors for UConn as the Seton Hall Pirates defeated the visiting Huskies for a third consecutive year, this time a 75-60 drubbing of the defending
national champions in front of more than 9,400 fans to open Big East play.
The victory brings new life to Seton Hall’s season after a tough non-conference schedule saw the Pirates (8-4) dispatch all of its mid-major opponents, but fail to secure wins against its four high major
opponents with the exception of Missouri.
“It’s Big East basketball. I watched games last night, we see what Providence did to Marquette. It’s Big East basketball. I told my guys, this is a different season. This is part two. The things that we did the first
half of the season, that’s non-conference, let’s learn from them,” Head Coach Shaheen Holloway said, in the post-game press conference.
With the win in the Big East home opener, Seton Hall has evened up the series 4-4 since UConn was thrown a lifeline by the conference and gives Holloway the leg up on fellow Hall alum Danny Hurley with
a 2-1 head-to-head record since taking over as the Hall’s head man.
UConn entered the contest as the fifth ranked team in the country and looked the part early on, jumping out to an 8-2 lead in the first three minutes of action, later extending the lead to 20-10 with just under nine minutes remaining in the first half.
Seton Hall ate those early punches before firing back some of their own as they ratcheted up the intensity and effort on the defensive end.
“I thought we kind of mixed it up a little bit, kind of went zone, got them standing around a little bit. I wanted to use my zone more, even in the non-conference, but the guys just weren’t picking it up. Now we saw them pick it up a little bit and like I said, we just made a conscious effort not to let these guys off and make them drivers,” Holloway said.
Offensively, Seton Hall took it to the heart of the Husky defense, forcing the issue in the paint and challenging seven-footer Donovan Clingan.
“I wanted to attack the big guy early, and once Kooks started playing like that, the other guys on the team started playing like that,” Holloway noted.
The Pirates reeled off a 13-2 run to take their first lead of the game with just under five minutes remaining in the half, 23-22, when senior guard Kadary Richmond backed down Tristan Newton and converted with ease, giving Hurley flashbacks of Kook’s 2021-2022 outburst over UConn – a career high 27 points, including 17 straight in an overtime win.
Richmond was, once again, the game’s premier player, leading all scorers in the contest with 23 points to go along with a career-high eight steals, six rebounds, five assists and a block.
Both teams would trade buckets over the ensuing possessions before a long jumper from just inside the arc by graduate guard Al-Amir Dawes gave Seton Hall a lead they would not relinquish the rest of the way, 29-27.
The Hall saw three other starters score in double figures – senior wing Dre Davis racked up 17 points on 8-13 shooting from the field, Dawes tallied 11 points, including 1-1 from long range, and graduate center
Jaden Bediako recorded 10 points alongside nine rebounds and three blocks – while senior guard Dylan Addae-Wusu notched nine points.
Seton Hall, which kept the Huskies at arm’s length throughout the second half, were aided when Clingan left the court for the locker room with 16 minutes remaining with a sprained ankle, which he would not
come back from despite returning to the bench.
Seton Hall shot 29-56 (51.8%) from the field and held UConn to 22-58 (37.9%), while outscoring them in the paint 46-36.
The Hall led by as much as 19 in the contest thanks to turning over UConn 17 times on 11 steals and six blocks and scoring 17 points off of said turnovers, while also getting out on the break and converting, outscoring the Huskies 18-0 in fast break points.
